Every Grain of Sand Holding the Sun
The sun comes up over the lake, and because everything there is jewel, the sun's disc appears in every single thing — and then in every reflection of it. Then the four rivers are read: they are the four kinds of eloquence, and each runs to a different ocean.
Reflections Within Reflections
The list of pairs — far and near, high and low, broad and narrow, coarse and fine — ends at a single grain of sand, and every one of them holds the whole sun.
日光出時，普皆照明池河內外一切眾物，接影連輝成光明網。如是眾物，若遠、若近，若高、若下，若廣、若狹，若麁、若細，乃至極小一沙一塵，悉是妙寶，光明鑒徹，靡不於中日輪影現，亦復展轉更相現影；如是眾影不增不減、非合非散，皆如本質而得明見。
When the sunlight comes forth, it illumines everywhere all the many things within and around the lake and the rivers, and their reflections meet and their brightnesses join into a net of radiance. Of all those many things — far or near, high or low, broad or narrow, coarse or fine, down to the very smallest single grain of sand and single mote of dust — every one is a fine jewel, and their brightness is clear all through, so that there is not one in which the sun's disc does not appear in reflection; and further, turn by turn, they show one another's reflections as well. And those many reflections neither increase nor decrease, neither combine nor scatter: each is seen clearly, just as its own substance is.
不增不減、非合非散，皆如本質而得明見 — neither increase nor decrease, neither combine nor scatter; each is seen clearly, just as its own substance is. The four denials are the guard-rail. A universe of mutual reflection could be imagined as a blur in which nothing keeps its own outline; the sūtra says the opposite — everything is seen 如本質, as what it actually is.
The Four Rivers Read
Each river is one of the four unhindered eloquences of the ninth ground, and each empties into a different sea — unobstructed wisdom, dependent arising, the buddhas' Dharma.
佛子！如無熱大池，於四口中流出四河入於大海；菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，從四辯才，流出諸行，究竟入於一切智海。如恒伽大河，從銀色象口流出銀沙；菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，以義辯才，說一切如來所說一切義門，出生一切清淨白法，究竟入於無礙智海。如私陀大河，從金剛色師子口流出金剛沙；菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，以法辯才，為一切眾生說佛金剛句，引出金剛智，究竟入於無礙智海。
Child of the Buddha! As from the four mouths of the great Heatless Lake four rivers pour out and enter the great ocean, so it is with a bodhisattva mahāsattva: from the four eloquences their practices pour out, and at last enter the ocean of all-knowing wisdom. As the great river Gaṅgā flows silver sand from the silver-coloured elephant's mouth, so it is with a bodhisattva mahāsattva: with the eloquence of meaning they expound every gateway of meaning that all the Tathāgatas have expounded, producing all the pure and bright dharmas, and at last enter the ocean of unobstructed wisdom. As the great river Sītā flows diamond sand from the diamond-coloured lion's mouth, so it is with a bodhisattva mahāsattva: with the eloquence of dharma they expound for all beings the buddhas' vajra phrases, drawing forth vajra wisdom, and at last enter the ocean of unobstructed wisdom.
如信度大河，從金色牛口流出金沙；菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，以訓辭辯，說隨順世間緣起方便，開悟眾生，令皆歡喜，調伏成熟，究竟入於緣起方便海。如縛芻大河，於瑠璃色馬口流出瑠璃沙；菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，以無盡辯，雨百千億那由他不可說法，令其聞者皆得潤洽，究竟入於諸佛法海。如四大河，隨順圍遶無熱池已四方入海，菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，成就隨順身業、隨順語業、隨順意業，成就智為前導身業、智為前導語業、智為前導意業，四方流注，究竟入於一切智海。佛子！何者名為菩薩四方？佛子！所謂：見一切佛而得開悟，聞一切法受持不忘，圓滿一切波羅蜜行，大悲說法滿足眾生。
As the great river Sindhu flows golden sand from the golden ox's mouth, so it is with a bodhisattva mahāsattva: with the eloquence of instruction in words they expound the skillful means of dependent arising in accordance with the world, awakening beings and gladdening them all, taming and ripening them, and at last enter the ocean of the skillful means of dependent arising. As the great river Vakṣu flows beryl sand from the beryl-coloured horse's mouth, so it is with a bodhisattva mahāsattva: with inexhaustible eloquence they rain down a hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of ineffably many dharmas, so that those who hear them are all made moist, and at last enter the ocean of the buddhas' Dharma. As the four great rivers, having circled the Heatless Lake in due order, enter the sea in their four directions, so it is with a bodhisattva mahāsattva: they accomplish works of body, speech and mind that accord, and works of body, speech and mind that have wisdom going before them, and flowing out in four directions they at last enter the ocean of all-knowing wisdom. Child of the Buddha! And what are called a bodhisattva's four directions? Child of the Buddha! They are: seeing all the buddhas and being awakened; hearing all dharmas and retaining them without forgetting; fulfilling every practice of the pāramitās; and expounding the Dharma with great compassion so that beings are satisfied.
令其聞者皆得潤洽 — so that those who hear them are all made moist. 潤洽 is what irrigation does to dry ground. Of the four eloquences, the inexhaustible one is described by its effect on the hearer rather than by its content, and the effect is the ordinary agricultural good of not being parched.
智為前導身業 — works of body that have wisdom going before them. The phrase is one of the oldest descriptions of an awakened person's conduct in this literature: 前導, going in front, like a guide walking ahead. Body, speech and mind each get one, and all three then flow toward the same sea.
Part 525 Complete
This continues chapter twenty-seven, 十定品, The Ten Concentrations, in fascicle forty-two. Part 526 finishes the reading of the lake — the lotuses between the rivers, the jewel trees, the fifty yojanas of clear water, the sandalwood scattered on it, the golden sand of its bed — and the nāga king Anavatapta himself, forever free of the burning that afflicts his kind.