Water Seen from Far Off
The fourth concentration begins with the most elaborate offerings in the chapter and ends by finding nothing at all where a buddha's arising and passing away were supposed to be — explained by the oldest and least mystical of illusions, heat-shimmer on a road at noon.
Offerings Without End
Nine kinds of offering are listed, each introduced the same way, and one of them consists of gathering up by spiritual power whatever offerings exist anywhere.
「佛子！云何為菩薩摩訶薩清淨深心行三昧？佛子！此菩薩摩訶薩知諸佛身數等眾生，見無量佛過阿僧祇世界微塵數。於彼一一諸如來所，以一切種種妙香而作供養，以一切種種妙華而作供養，以一切種種蓋大如阿僧祇佛剎而作供養，以超過一切世界一切上妙莊嚴具而作供養，散一切種種寶而作供養，以一切種種莊嚴具莊嚴經行處而作供養，以一切無數上妙摩尼寶藏而作供養，以佛神力所流出過諸天上味飲食而作供養，一切佛剎種種上妙諸供養具，能以神力普皆攝取而作供養。
"Child of the Buddha! What is the bodhisattva mahāsattva's samādhi of the conduct of the pure and profound mind? Child of the Buddha! This bodhisattva mahāsattva knows that the bodies of the buddhas are as many in number as beings, and sees measureless buddhas exceeding the dust-motes of asaṃkhyeyas of worlds. In the presence of each single Tathāgata they make offerings with every kind of fine incense; they make offerings with every kind of fine flower; they make offerings with every kind of canopy, each as vast as asaṃkhyeyas of buddha-lands; they make offerings with every finest ornament that surpasses all the world's; they scatter every kind of jewel as an offering; they make offerings by adorning the walking-place with every kind of adornment; they make offerings with numberless treasuries of the finest maṇi jewels; they make offerings with food and drink of a savour beyond the heavens', flowing forth by the Buddha's spiritual power; and all the finest offering-things of every kind in every buddha-land, they are able by spiritual power to gather up universally and offer.
以一切種種莊嚴具莊嚴經行處而作供養 — making offerings by adorning the walking-place with every kind of adornment. Among canopies as large as buddha-lands and treasuries of maṇi, this offering is a practical courtesy: the strip of level ground where a monk walks up and down. It is the item that keeps the list connected to a monastery.
Nothing Obtained Where a Buddha Was
Having made every offering, the bodhisattva looks for the buddhas' appearing and passing away and does not find it. Two comparisons follow — the wandering mind that cannot say what its own object was, and the shimmer of heat.
於彼一一諸如來所，恭敬尊重，頭頂禮敬，舉身布地，請問佛法，讚佛平等，稱揚諸佛廣大功德，入於諸佛所入大悲，得佛平等無礙之力；於一念頃，一切佛所勤求妙法，然於諸佛出興於世、入般涅槃，如是之相皆無所得。如散動心，了別所緣，心起不知何所緣起，心滅不知何所緣滅；此菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，終不分別如來出世及涅槃相。
In the presence of each single Tathāgata they are reverent and respectful, bowing their heads to the ground and stretching their whole body upon it; they ask about the Buddha's Dharma, praise the buddhas' sameness, extol the buddhas' vast merits, enter into the great compassion the buddhas have entered, and obtain the buddhas' power of sameness and non-obstruction. In the space of a single thought they diligently seek the wondrous Dharma in the presence of all the buddhas — and yet, as for the buddhas' appearing in the world and entering parinirvāṇa, no such characteristic can be found at all. It is as with a scattered and wandering mind, which cognizes its object and yet, when the mind arises, does not know what object it arose from, and when the mind ceases, does not know what object it ceased from; this bodhisattva mahāsattva is likewise, and in the end makes no discrimination of the Tathāgata's appearing in the world or of the characteristic of nirvāṇa.
佛子！如日中陽焰，不從雲生，不從池生，不處於陸，不住於水，非有非無，非善非惡，非清非濁，不堪飲漱，不可穢污，非有體非無體，非有味非無味，以因緣故而現水相，為識所了，遠望似水而興水想，近之則無，水想自滅；此菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，不得如來出興於世及涅槃相。諸佛有相及以無相，皆是想心之所分別。佛子！此三昧名為：清淨深心行。
Child of the Buddha! Consider the shimmer of heat at midday. It is not born from cloud and not born from a pool; it does not rest on dry land and does not abide in water; it is neither existent nor non-existent, neither good nor bad, neither clear nor turbid; it cannot be drunk or rinsed with, and it cannot be defiled; it has neither substance nor lack of substance, neither taste nor lack of taste. Because of causes and conditions it displays the appearance of water and is cognized by consciousness, so that seen from far off it seems like water and the notion of water arises; and coming close there is nothing there, and the notion of water goes out of itself. This bodhisattva mahāsattva is likewise: they do not find the Tathāgata's appearing in the world or the characteristic of nirvāṇa. That the buddhas have a characteristic, and that they have none, are alike discriminations of a mind that forms notions. Child of the Buddha! This samādhi is named the conduct of the pure and profound mind.
近之則無，水想自滅 — coming close there is nothing there, and the notion of water goes out of itself. Nobody dispels the mirage; the walking does it. And what ends is not the shimmer, which is still there, but 水想, the notion of water. The sūtra is precise about which of the two was the error.
諸佛有相及以無相，皆是想心之所分別 — that the buddhas have a characteristic, and that they have none, are alike discriminations of a mind that forms notions. Having spent a whole page on offerings made to actual buddhas, the passage declines both the claim that they appeared and the claim that they did not. This is the fourth samādhi's whole content, and it is why it is called the conduct of a mind made pure.
Part 503 Complete
This continues chapter twenty-seven, 十定品, The Ten Concentrations, in fascicle forty-one. Part 504 continues the fourth samādhi — the sleeper who wakes and remembers the dream although the dream's world is gone, matched to the bodhisattva who enters concentration, sees buddhas and hears the Dharma, rises, and keeps it all to teach with.