The Acceptance Like a Magical Creation
Ten things are named as magical creations — ordinary delusion and affliction, but also purification, a bodhisattva's vows, and a tathāgata's own great compassion — before nearly twenty pairs of negation try, and fail, to pin down what a magical creation actually is.
Ten Kinds of Magical Creation
The list does not stop at what confuses beings — it runs all the way up to the buddhas' own compassion and the turning of the Dharma-wheel, calling all of it, without distinction, a magical creation.
「佛子！云何為菩薩摩訶薩如化忍？佛子！此菩薩摩訶薩知一切世間皆悉如化。所謂：一切眾生意業化，覺想所起故；一切世間諸行化，分別所起故；一切苦樂顛倒化，妄取所起故；一切世間不實法化，言說所現故；一切煩惱分別化，想念所起故；復有清淨調伏化，無分別所現故；於三世不轉化，無生平等故；菩薩願力化，廣大修行故；如來大悲化，方便示現故；轉法輪方便化，智慧無畏辯才所說故。菩薩如是了知世間、出世間化，現證知，廣大知，無邊知，如事知，自在知，真實知，非虛妄見所能傾動，隨世所行亦不失壞。
Sons of the Buddha! What is the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's acceptance like a magical creation? Sons of the Buddha! This bodhisattva-mahāsattva knows that every world is entirely like a magical creation — namely: the deeds of mind of all beings are magical creations, because they arise from perception and thought; every worldly activity is a magical creation, because it arises from discrimination; every inverted perception of suffering and happiness is a magical creation, because it arises from false grasping; every unreal dharma of the world is a magical creation, because it is displayed through speech; every discrimination born of affliction is a magical creation, because it arises from thought and recollection; and further, there is the magical creation of purification and taming, because it is displayed without discrimination; the magical creation that does not shift across the three times, because it is equal in non-arising; the magical creation of the bodhisattva's vow-power, because of vast cultivation; the magical creation of the tathāgata's great compassion, because it is displayed through skillful means; and the magical creation of the skillful means of turning the Dharma-wheel, because it is spoken through wisdom, fearlessness, and eloquence. The bodhisattva, thus fully knowing the magical creations of the world and of what transcends the world, knows through direct realization, knows vastly, knows boundlessly, knows things as they are, knows with sovereign freedom, and knows truly — not to be shaken by any false view, and following the world's own workings, he is never impaired.
如來大悲化，方便示現故 — the magical creation of the tathāgata's great compassion, because it is displayed through skillful means. The list opens on beings' own confusion — deluded thought, false grasping, affliction — but does not stop there. Purification, a bodhisattva's vows, a buddha's compassion, and the turning of the Dharma-wheel all receive the identical label. Being a magical creation is not a defect particular to saṃsāra; it describes liberation just as fully.
Neither Existent Nor Nonexistent
Nearly twenty pairs of negation follow, the longest such chain in the chapter so far, before the passage turns back to how a bodhisattva actually moves through the world it describes.
譬如化，不從心起、不從心法起，不從業起、不受果報，非世間生、非世間滅，不可隨逐、不可攬觸，非久住、非須臾住，非行世間、非離世間，不專繫一方，不普屬諸方，非有量、非無量，不厭不息、非不厭息，非凡、非聖，非染、非淨，非生、非死，非智、非愚，非見、非不見，非依世間、非入法界，非黠慧、非遲鈍，非取、非不取，非生死、非涅槃，非有、非無有。
It is like a magical creation, which does not arise from the mind, nor from mental dharmas; does not arise from karma, does not receive karmic result; neither arises in the world nor ceases in the world; cannot be pursued, cannot be grasped or touched; neither abides long nor abides for a mere moment; neither moves through the world nor stands apart from it; is not confined to a single direction, nor belongs universally to every direction; is neither measured nor measureless; neither wearies and ceases, nor fails to weary and cease; is neither ordinary nor noble; neither defiled nor pure; neither born nor dying; neither wise nor foolish; neither seen nor unseen; neither relying on the world nor entering the dharma-realm; neither clever nor dull; neither grasped nor ungrasped; neither birth-and-death nor nirvāṇa; neither existent nor nonexistent.
菩薩如是善巧方便，行於世間修菩薩道，了知世法，分身化往；不著世間，不取自身，於世、於身無所分別；不住世間，不離世間；不住於法，不離於法；以本願故，不棄捨一眾生界，不調伏少眾生界。不分別法；非不分別，知諸法性無來無去，雖無所有而滿足佛法，了法如化非有非無。佛子！菩薩摩訶薩如是安住如化忍時，悉能滿足一切諸佛菩提之道，利益眾生。是名：菩薩摩訶薩第九如化忍。
The bodhisattva, with such skillful means, moves through the world cultivating the bodhisattva path; fully knowing worldly dharmas, he divides his body and goes by transformation. Not attached to the world, not grasping at his own self, with regard to the world and to the self he makes no discrimination; neither abiding in the world nor leaving the world, neither abiding in the dharma nor leaving the dharma. Because of his original vow, he does not abandon even a single realm of beings, nor does he leave any small realm of beings untamed. He does not discriminate dharmas — yet it is not that he fails to discriminate — knowing that the nature of all dharmas has no coming and no going; though there is nothing at all, he fulfills the buddha-dharma completely, fully comprehending that dharma, like a magical creation, is neither existent nor nonexistent. Sons of the Buddha! When the bodhisattva-mahāsattva abides securely in this acceptance like a magical creation, he is entirely able to fulfill the path of every buddha's bodhi, and benefit beings. This is called the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's ninth acceptance, the acceptance like a magical creation.
非生死、非涅槃 — neither birth-and-death nor nirvāṇa. Deep inside a chain of nineteen pairs, this is the boldest one: saṃsāra and nirvāṇa, the two poles the entire path is usually described as moving between, are refused the same way "wise" and "foolish" were a moment earlier. Nothing in the list is granted an exemption for being important.
不棄捨一眾生界，不調伏少眾生界 — he does not abandon even a single realm of beings, nor does he leave any small realm of beings untamed. Amid nineteen negations of nearly everything expressible, the vow itself is stated without hedging — not partially, not for most beings, but completely.
Part 559 Complete
This continues chapter twenty-nine, 十忍品, The Ten Kinds of Acceptance, in fascicle forty-four. Part 560 turns to the tenth and final acceptance, 如空忍, the acceptance like space — closing the list that opened with the sound of the dharma itself.