Though He Knows, Yet He Teaches
Forty-one lines, each built on the same hinge — 雖知...而..., "though he knows... yet he..." — pairing what the bodhisattva has already seen to be empty with what he goes on teaching regardless: the five aggregates, past and future, one teacher and no teacher, boundless buddhas and a single buddha.
The Five Aggregates, Spoken From Emptiness
The list opens where the Heart Sūtra opens, with the five aggregates — form, feeling, perception, formations, consciousness — each one known as empty of itself and taught about anyway.
雖一切時演說開示，而恒遠離妄想分別；雖知諸法皆無所作，而能示現一切作業；雖知諸佛無有二相，而能顯示一切諸佛；雖知無色，而演說諸色；雖知無受，而演說諸受；雖知無想，而演說諸想；雖知無行，而演說諸行；雖知無識，而演說諸識，恒以法輪開示一切；
Though at all times he expounds and teaches, he forever remains free of deluded discrimination; though he knows all dharmas do nothing, he is able to display every kind of action; though he knows the buddhas have no dual mark, he is able to manifest all buddhas; though he knows there is no form, he expounds on forms; though he knows there is no feeling, he expounds on feelings; though he knows there is no perception, he expounds on perceptions; though he knows there are no formations, he expounds on formations; though he knows there is no consciousness, he expounds on consciousness, forever opening and revealing all things through the Dharma-wheel.
雖知法無生，而常轉法輪；雖知法無差別，而說諸差別門；雖知諸法無有生滅，而說一切生滅之相；雖知諸法無麁無細，而說諸法麁細之相；雖知諸法無上、中、下，而能宣說最上之法；雖知諸法不可言說，而能演說清淨言辭；雖知諸法無內無外，而說一切內外諸法；
Though he knows the dharma is unborn, he forever turns the Dharma-wheel; though he knows the dharma has no distinctions, he speaks of gateways of every distinction; though he knows all dharmas have no arising or ceasing, he speaks of the marks of all arising and ceasing; though he knows all dharmas are neither coarse nor subtle, he speaks of the coarse and subtle marks of all dharmas; though he knows all dharmas have no higher, middle, or lower, he is able to proclaim the most supreme dharma; though he knows all dharmas cannot be spoken of, he is able to expound pure words; though he knows all dharmas are neither inner nor outer, he speaks of all inner and outer dharmas.
雖知無色，而演說諸色…雖知無識，而演說諸識 — though he knows there is no form, he expounds on forms… though he knows there is no consciousness, he expounds on consciousness. 色受想行識, the five aggregates, run through in their fixed order, each one getting the identical treatment: known empty, taught anyway. The list does to the skandhas one at a time what the Heart Sūtra does to them all at once.
A Teacher Dharma Does Not Need
The paradox turns from what is taught to who is honoured — and the line that closes this stretch reaches back to the opening claim of Part 532.
雖知諸法不可了知，而說種種智慧觀察；雖知諸法無有真實，而說出離真實之道；雖知諸法畢竟無盡，而能演說盡諸有漏；雖知諸法無違無諍，然亦不無自他差別；雖知諸法畢竟無師，而常尊敬一切師長；雖知諸法不由他悟，而常尊敬諸善知識；
Though he knows all dharmas cannot be fully known, he speaks of manifold observations of wisdom; though he knows all dharmas have no reality, he speaks of the path that leads out to what is real; though he knows all dharmas are ultimately inexhaustible, he is able to expound the exhausting of every outflow; though he knows all dharmas neither contradict nor contend, still there is no absence of distinction between self and other; though he knows all dharmas are ultimately without a teacher, he ever reveres every teacher and elder; though he knows all dharmas are not awakened to through another, he ever reveres every good spiritual friend.
雖知諸法不由他悟，而常尊敬諸善知識 — though he knows all dharmas are not awakened to through another, he ever reveres every good spiritual friend. Part 532 said this same 不由他悟 of the bodhisattva's own realization, as a fact about how his knowing works. Here it becomes the first half of a paradox: knowing it changes nothing about how he treats the teachers he actually had.
One Buddha, Boundless Buddhas
The list turns to time, to cause, and finally to number itself — closing on the single strangest line in the set, and then on light.
雖知法無轉，而轉法輪；雖知法無起，而示諸因緣；雖知諸法無有前際，而廣說過去；雖知諸法無有後際，而廣說未來；雖知諸法無有中際，而廣說現在；雖知諸法無有作者，而說諸作業；雖知諸法無有因緣，而說諸集因；雖知諸法無有等比，而說平等、不平等道；雖知諸法無有言說，而決定說三世之法；雖知諸法無有所依，而說依善法而得出離；
Though he knows the dharma does not turn, he turns the Dharma-wheel; though he knows the dharma does not arise, he shows every causal condition; though he knows all dharmas have no prior limit, he speaks at length of the past; though he knows all dharmas have no later limit, he speaks at length of the future; though he knows all dharmas have no middle limit, he speaks at length of the present; though he knows all dharmas have no doer, he speaks of every deed; though he knows all dharmas have no cause or condition, he speaks of every cause that gathers a result; though he knows all dharmas have no equal or comparison, he speaks of the path of equality and inequality; though he knows all dharmas are without words, he definitively speaks the dharma of the three times; though he knows all dharmas have no support, he speaks of relying on wholesome dharmas to attain release.
雖知法無身，而廣說法身；雖知三世諸佛無邊，而能演說唯有一佛；雖知法無色，而現種種色；雖知法無見，而廣說諸見；雖知法無相，而說種種相；雖知諸法無有境界，而廣宣說智慧境界；雖知諸法無有差別，而說行果種種差別；雖知諸法無有出離，而說清淨諸出離行；雖知諸法本來常住，而說一切諸流轉法；雖知諸法無有照明，而恒廣說照明之法。
Though he knows the dharma has no body, he speaks at length of the dharma-body; though he knows the buddhas of the three times are boundless, he is able to expound that there is only a single buddha; though he knows the dharma has no form, he manifests every kind of form; though he knows the dharma has no view, he speaks at length of every view; though he knows the dharma has no mark, he speaks of every kind of mark; though he knows all dharmas have no realm, he broadly proclaims the realm of wisdom; though he knows all dharmas have no distinction, he speaks of the manifold distinctions among practices and their fruits; though he knows all dharmas have no release, he speaks of the pure practices of release; though he knows all dharmas are originally ever-abiding, he speaks of all the dharmas of flowing transmigration; though he knows all dharmas have no illumination, he forever broadly expounds the dharma of illumination.
雖知三世諸佛無邊，而能演說唯有一佛 — though he knows the buddhas of the three times are boundless, he is able to expound that there is only a single buddha. The most exposed line in the set: not a paradox about form or speech but about number itself. Boundless buddhas and one buddha are both taught, and the list gives no rule for choosing between them — only that a bodhisattva who has seen both can say either.
雖知諸法無有照明，而恒廣說照明之法 — though he knows all dharmas have no illumination, he forever broadly expounds the dharma of illumination. The list closes on light, which is where Part 531 began this run of samādhis — light from a single pore, cascading outward.
Part 534 Complete
This continues chapter twenty-seven, 十定品, The Ten Concentrations, in fascicle forty-three. Part 535 turns from what the bodhisattva teaches to what he attains on entering this great samādhi — 則能證得一切佛法，則能趣入一切佛法 — and opens onto a further list of gateways this samādhi enters: the inexpressible gate of wisdom, ornaments free of discrimination, pāramitās without limit.