The Acceptance Like a Reflection
The eighth acceptance denies a bodhisattva's relationship to the world in every direction at once — not in it, not outside it, not moving through it, not still — before the sūtra's own image for what that actually looks like: a reflection that never drifts downstream and never sinks in a well.
Neither in the World Nor Out of It
Nine pairs of negation try to locate a bodhisattva relative to the world, and every pair comes up empty in both directions.
「佛子！云何為菩薩摩訶薩如影忍？佛子！此菩薩摩訶薩，非於世間生，非於世間沒；非在世間內，非在世間外；非行於世間，非不行世間；非同於世間，非異於世間；非往於世間，非不往世間；非住於世間，非不住世間；非是世間，非出世間；非修菩薩行，非捨於大願；非實，非不實。雖常行一切佛法，而能辦一切世間事，不隨世間流，亦不住法流。
Sons of the Buddha! What is the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's acceptance like a reflection? Sons of the Buddha! This bodhisattva-mahāsattva neither is born into the world nor passes away from the world; neither within the world nor outside the world; neither moving through the world nor not moving through it; neither the same as the world nor different from it; neither going to the world nor not going to it; neither abiding in the world nor not abiding in it; neither being the world nor transcending the world; neither cultivating the bodhisattva practice nor abandoning the great vow; neither real nor unreal. Though he constantly practices every buddha-dharma, he is able to accomplish every worldly task, not following the stream of the world, yet not abiding in the stream of dharma either.
不隨世間流，亦不住法流 — not following the stream of the world, yet not abiding in the stream of dharma either. Nine pairs of negation, and the passage still refuses the obvious resolution of simply choosing the dharma's side over the world's. Both streams get the same treatment: he is carried by neither.
A Reflection That Does Not Sink
The sūtra's own image for this double negation is ordinary and exact — something anyone has seen, examined closely enough to notice what it does not do.
譬如日月、男子、女人、舍宅、山林、河泉等物，於油、於水、於身、於寶、於明鏡等清淨物中而現其影。影與油等，非一、非異，非離、非合，於川流中亦不漂度，於池井內亦不沈沒，雖現其中，無所染著。然諸眾生，知於此處有是影現，亦知彼處無如是影；遠物、近物雖皆影現，影不隨物而有近遠。
It is like the sun and moon, men, women, houses, mountains and forests, rivers and springs, and other such things, which appear as reflections in oil, in water, on a body, in a jewel, in a bright mirror, and other such pure things. The reflection and the oil, and so on, are neither identical nor different, neither separate nor joined; in a flowing river it does not drift along, in a pool or a well it does not sink; though it appears within them, it is stained by nothing. Yet beings know that in this place there is such a reflection appearing, and also know that in that place there is no such reflection; though both distant and near things all appear as reflections, the reflection does not itself possess distance or nearness following from the thing.
菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，能知自身及以他身，一切皆是智之境界，不作二解，謂自、他別，而於自國土、於他國土，各各差別，一時普現。如種子中，無有根芽、莖節、枝葉，而能生起如是等事。菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，於無二法中分別二相，善巧方便，通達無礙。是名：菩薩摩訶薩第八如影忍。
The bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise: able to know that his own body and the bodies of others are all entirely the realm of wisdom, not making the dualistic interpretation that self and other are distinct, yet in his own land and in others' lands, each distinct, he manifests everywhere at once. It is like how within a seed there is no root, sprout, stem, joint, branch, or leaf, and yet it is able to give rise to all such things; the bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise: within the non-dual dharma, he distinguishes dual characteristics, with skillful means, comprehending without obstruction. This is called the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's eighth acceptance, the acceptance like a reflection.
影不隨物而有近遠 — the reflection does not itself possess distance or nearness following from the thing. A precise observation about how reflections actually behave: a mirror shows a distant mountain and a near hand at the same flat depth. The simile is doing real optical work, not just gesturing at unreality in general.
如種子中，無有根芽、莖節、枝葉，而能生起如是等事 — it is like how within a seed there is no root, sprout, stem, joint, branch, or leaf, and yet it is able to give rise to all such things. A second simile arrives immediately after the first, matched to a different half of the paradox — reflection for appearing everywhere without moving, seed for producing distinctions it does not itself contain.
Part 558 Complete
This continues chapter twenty-nine, 十忍品, The Ten Kinds of Acceptance, in fascicle forty-four. Part 559 turns to the ninth acceptance, 如化忍, the acceptance like a magical creation — a bodhisattva who observes the whole world, the buddhas' own teachings, and even the very bodhisattva path itself as a conjured transformation.