The Mirage, Continued
Three acceptances pass through this one part: the mirage closes on the concrete image of heat-shimmer mistaken for water, the dream runs its entire course from a single opening line to its own closing formula, and the echo begins with a voice that comes from nowhere at all.
Water That Isn't There
The mirage acceptance closes on the sensory image its whole name has been pointing toward — heat over sand, mistaken for water by everyone except the wise.
世間如陽焰，以想有差別，知世住於想，遠離三顛倒。
譬如熱時焰，世見謂為水，水實無所有，智者不應求。
眾生亦復然，世趣皆無有，如焰住於想，無礙心境界。
若離於諸想，亦離諸戲論，愚癡著想者，悉令得解脫。
遠離憍慢心，除滅世間想，住盡無盡處，是菩薩方便。
The world is like a mirage; because of perception there are distinctions; knowing the world abides in perception, one departs far from the three inversions.
It is like the shimmer in the heat of the day, which the world sees and calls water; yet water is truly nothing at all, and the wise should not seek it there.
Beings are likewise: every worldly destiny has no existence at all; like the mirage, it abides only in perception — the unobstructed realm of mind.
If one departs from every perception, and also departs from every idle discourse, then those foolish ones attached to perception are all caused to attain liberation.
Departing far from a mind of arrogance and pride, extinguishing worldly perception, abiding at the place where the exhaustible and inexhaustible end — this is the bodhisattva's skillful means.
譬如熱時焰，世見謂為水，水實無所有，智者不應求 — it is like the shimmer in the heat of the day, which the world sees and calls water; yet water is truly nothing at all, and the wise should not seek it there. Part 557's prose named this acceptance without ever describing the phenomenon itself. The verse finally shows it — travelers mistaking heat-shimmer for water on the horizon, a mirage that fools everyone but reveals nothing when approached.
This Is Called the Acceptance Like a Dream
The sixth acceptance runs its full arc within this part, from its opening claim to its own closing name.
菩薩了世法，一切皆如夢，非處非無處，體性恒寂滅。
諸法無分別，如夢不異心，三世諸世間，一切悉如是。
夢體無生滅，亦無有方所，三界悉如是，見者心解脫。
夢不在世間，不在非世間，此二不分別，得入於忍地。
譬如夢中見，種種諸異相，世間亦如是，與夢無差別。
The bodhisattva comprehends worldly dharmas: all of them are like a dream, neither a place nor no place, their own-nature forever tranquil.
All dharmas are without discrimination, like a dream no different from the mind; every world of the three times is entirely just so.
The essence of a dream has no arising or ceasing, nor does it have any location; the three realms are entirely so, and one who sees this has their mind liberated.
A dream is not within the world, nor is it outside the world; not discriminating between these two, one attains entry into the ground of acceptance.
It is like what is seen within a dream, every manner of differing form; the world is likewise, no different at all from a dream.
住於夢定者，了世皆如夢，非同非是異，非一非種種。
眾生諸剎業，雜染及清淨，如是悉了知，與夢皆平等。
菩薩所行行，及以諸大願，明了皆如夢，與世亦無別。
了世皆空寂，不壞於世法，譬如夢所見，長短等諸色。
是名如夢忍，因此了世法，疾成無礙智，廣度諸群生。
One who abides in the concentration of the dream comprehends that the world is entirely like a dream — neither the same nor different, neither singular nor manifold.
Beings, lands, and karma, whether mixed with defilement or pure — all of this is fully known, and all of it is equal to a dream.
The practices the bodhisattva carries out, and every great vow, are clearly understood to be entirely like a dream, no different from the world either.
Comprehending that the world is entirely empty and still, without destroying any worldly dharma — it is like what is seen in a dream: long, short, and every other form.
This is called the acceptance like a dream; through this, comprehending worldly dharmas, one swiftly accomplishes unobstructed wisdom and broadly delivers every being.
夢不在世間，不在非世間 — a dream is not within the world, nor is it outside the world. The same shape Part 558 built for the acceptance like a reflection — neither in the world nor apart from it — reappears here for the dream, and will reappear again in this same part for the echo. Ten different images, and the underlying structure keeps returning: not one side of a boundary or the other, but the boundary itself dissolved.
An Echo With No Place It Comes From
The seventh acceptance opens, and its central image — a voice with no point of origin, teaching anyway — begins to unfold.
修行如是行，出生廣大解，巧知諸法性，於法心無著。
一切諸世間，種種諸音聲，非內亦非外，了之悉如響。
如聞種種響，心不生分別；菩薩聞音聲，其心亦如是。
瞻仰諸如來，及聽說法音，演契經無量，雖聞無所著。
如響無來處，所聞聲亦然，而能分別法，與法無乖謬。
Cultivating practice in this way, giving rise to vast understanding, skillfully knowing the nature of all dharmas, their heart clings to no dharma.
Every world, and every manner of sound within it, is neither inner nor outer; comprehending this, all of it is entirely like an echo.
It is like hearing every kind of echo, and the mind gives rise to no discrimination; the bodhisattva, hearing sound, their heart is likewise.
Gazing up in reverence at every tathāgata, and listening to the sound of the dharma spoken, expounding measureless sūtras — though hearing, they are attached to nothing.
As an echo has no place it comes from, so too is every sound heard; yet one is able to distinguish the dharma, without any contradiction to the dharma.
善了諸音聲，於聲不分別，知聲悉空寂，普出清淨音。
了法不在言，善入無言際，而能示言說，如響遍世間。
了知言語道，具足音聲分，知聲性空寂，以世言音說。
如世所有音，示同分別法，其音悉周遍，開悟諸群生。
菩薩獲此忍，淨音化世間，善巧說三世，於世無所著。
Skillfully comprehending every sound, they do not discriminate among sounds; knowing that sound is entirely empty and still, they universally emit a pure voice.
Comprehending that dharma does not reside in words, they skillfully enter the limit that is free of words; yet they are able to display speech, like an echo pervading the world.
Fully knowing the path of language, complete with every element of sound, knowing that the nature of sound is empty and still, they speak using the very words of the world.
Like every sound that exists in the world, they display dharmas discriminated in just the same way; their voice pervades entirely, awakening every being.
The bodhisattva, having attained this acceptance, transforms the world with a pure voice, skillfully teaching the three times, attached to nothing in the world.
了法不在言，善入無言際，而能示言說 — comprehending that dharma does not reside in words, they skillfully enter the limit that is free of words, yet they are able to display speech. Part 557's prose made this exact claim about the tathāgata's own voice, which comes neither from within nor from without. The verse extends the same claim to the bodhisattva who has learned to speak the same way — teaching built directly out of what teaching, examined closely, turns out not to be.
Part 564 Complete
This continues chapter twenty-nine, 十忍品, The Ten Kinds of Acceptance, in fascicle forty-four. Part 565 turns to the verse summary of the eighth acceptance, the acceptance like a reflection — a bodhisattva appearing everywhere without traveling, the same paradox from Part 558 returning once more in a new image.