The Nāga Who Is Never Burned
Every feature of the lake is read in turn — the flowers between the rivers, the trees around it, its breadth, its scent, the gold under its water. And then its king, who alone among nāgas is free of the burning that torments them, and who is therefore what a bodhisattva is like among the born.
The Lake, Feature by Feature
Flowers between the rivers, trees around the water, fifty yojanas of clarity, sandalwood on the surface, gold and maṇi below — each is matched to something in a bodhisattva.
如四大河圍遶大池，於其中間，優鉢羅華、波頭摩華、拘物頭華、芬陀利華皆悉遍滿；菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，於菩提心中間，不捨眾生，說法調伏，悉令圓滿無量三昧，見佛國土莊嚴清淨。如無熱大池，寶樹圍遶；菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，現佛國土莊嚴圍遶，令諸眾生趣向菩提。如無熱大池，其中縱廣五十由旬，清淨無濁；菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，菩提之心其量無邊，善根充滿，清淨無濁。
As the four great rivers circle the great lake and in the spaces between them utpala, padma, kumuda and puṇḍarīka lotuses fill everything, so it is with a bodhisattva mahāsattva: in the spaces of the mind of awakening they do not forsake beings, but expound the Dharma and tame them, causing measureless samādhis to be fulfilled in them and the buddha-lands to be seen adorned and pure. As the great Heatless Lake is surrounded by jewel trees, so it is with a bodhisattva mahāsattva: they manifest the adornments of the buddha-lands surrounding them, and cause beings to turn toward awakening. As the great Heatless Lake is fifty yojanas across and pure and unclouded, so it is with a bodhisattva mahāsattva: the measure of their mind of awakening is boundless, filled with wholesome roots, pure and unclouded.
如無熱大池，以無量寶莊嚴其岸，散栴檀香遍滿其中；菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，以百千億十種智寶嚴菩提心大願之岸，普散一切眾善妙香。如無熱大池，底布金沙，種種摩尼間錯莊嚴；菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，微妙智慧周遍觀察，不可思議菩薩解脫種種法寶間錯莊嚴，得一切法無礙光明，住於一切諸佛所住，入於一切甚深方便。如阿那婆達多龍王，永離龍中所有熱惱；菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，永離一切世間憂惱，雖現受生而無染著。
As measureless jewels adorn the banks of the great Heatless Lake, and the fragrance of sandalwood is scattered throughout it, so it is with a bodhisattva mahāsattva: with a hundred thousand koṭis of the ten kinds of wisdom-jewel they adorn the banks of the great vows of the mind of awakening, and scatter everywhere the fine fragrance of every good. As the bed of the great Heatless Lake is spread with golden sand, ornamented with maṇi of every kind inlaid among it, so it is with a bodhisattva mahāsattva: with subtle wisdom they contemplate throughout, ornamented with the inconceivable liberations of a bodhisattva and every kind of Dharma-jewel inlaid among them; they obtain the unobstructed radiance of all dharmas, abide where all the buddhas abide, and enter into every profound skillful means. As the nāga king Anavatapta is forever free of all the burning torment that afflicts nāgas, so it is with a bodhisattva mahāsattva: they are forever free of all the world's grief and torment, and though they manifest the taking of birth, they are stained by nothing.
永離龍中所有熱惱 — forever free of all the burning torment that afflicts nāgas. Nāgas in Indian cosmology suffer from burning sand and from the garuḍa that preys on them; Anavatapta's name means precisely that he is exempt. The comparison is not to a being without troubles but to one of a tormented kind who is not tormented.
於菩提心中間，不捨眾生 — in the spaces of the mind of awakening they do not forsake beings. The lotuses grow in the gaps between the rivers. What fills the intervals of a bodhisattva's resolve, on this reading, is not more resolve but the people they have not abandoned.
Four Rivers of Wisdom
The four rivers are read once more, now as vows, pāramitās, samādhis and compassion — and what they irrigate is named: gods, humans, ascetics and brahmins.
如四大河，潤澤一切閻浮提地，既潤澤已入於大海；菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，以四智河潤澤天、人、沙門、婆羅門，令其普入阿耨多羅三藐三菩提智慧大海，以十種力而為莊嚴。何者為四？一者願智河，救護調伏一切眾生常不休息；二者波羅蜜智河，修菩提行饒益眾生，去、來、今世相續無盡，究竟入於諸佛智海；三者菩薩三昧智河，無數三昧以為莊嚴，見一切佛，入諸佛海；四者大悲智河，大慈自在普救眾生，方便攝取無有休息，修行祕密功德之門，究竟入於十力大海。
As the four great rivers moisten the whole land of Jambūdvīpa and, having moistened it, enter the great ocean, so it is with a bodhisattva mahāsattva: with four rivers of wisdom they moisten gods and humans, śramaṇas and brāhmaṇas, causing them all to enter the great ocean of the wisdom of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening, adorned with the ten powers. What are the four? First, the wisdom-river of vows, which rescues, protects and tames all beings and never rests. Second, the wisdom-river of the pāramitās, which cultivates the practice of awakening and benefits beings, continuing inexhaustibly through past, future and present, and at last enters the ocean of the buddhas' wisdom. Third, the wisdom-river of the bodhisattva's samādhis, adorned with numberless samādhis, which sees all the buddhas and enters the ocean of the buddhas. Fourth, the wisdom-river of great compassion, whose great loving-kindness is sovereignly free and rescues beings everywhere, gathering them in by skillful means and never resting, cultivating the gateway of secret merit, and at last entering the great ocean of the ten powers.
潤澤天、人、沙門、婆羅門 — moisten gods and humans, śramaṇas and brāhmaṇas. The four categories are the standard list of those who might be taught, and two of them are professional religious. Rivers do not choose their fields; the point of the irrigation image is that nothing in the path of the water is passed over.
Part 526 Complete
This continues chapter twenty-seven, 十定品, The Ten Concentrations, in fascicle forty-two. Part 527 finishes the lake — rivers that reach the sea and cannot be stopped, that run for kalpas without wearying — and returns to the sunlight in the sand, matched to a bodhisattva who sees in each pore of their own body ineffably many buddhas and hears the Dharma there for kalpas without noticing the length of time.