Space, and the Ten Acceptances Complete
The tenth acceptance leaves behind every image the previous nine relied on — no mirage, no dream, no reflection, only space itself, which has no beginning, no middle, no end, and no mark to grasp. The closing verses then step back from all ten together, naming what a bodhisattva who has attained them is able to do, and what no being can ever measure in them.
The Acceptance Like Space
The tenth and final acceptance runs its whole course here. Every earlier acceptance borrowed some appearance from the world — an echo, a shadow, a magician's trick. This one borrows nothing: it takes space itself, which has no appearance at all, as its measure.
第十忍明觀，眾生及諸法，體性皆寂滅，如空無處所。
獲此如空智，永離諸取著，如空無種種，於世無所礙。
成就空忍力，如空無有盡，境界如虛空，不作空分別。
虛空無體性，亦復非斷滅，亦無種種別，智力亦如是。
虛空無初際，亦復無中後，其量不可得，菩薩智亦然。
The tenth acceptance clearly contemplates that sentient beings and all dharmas have an own-nature that is entirely tranquil and still, like space, without any place at all.
Having attained this wisdom like space, they are forever free of every kind of grasping and attachment; like space, without any manifold variety, they are unobstructed anywhere in the world.
Accomplishing the power of the acceptance of emptiness, which like space has no end at all, their sphere of experience is like empty space, and they make no discrimination even of emptiness.
Empty space has no own-nature, and yet it is not annihilation either; nor does it have any manifold distinction — the power of wisdom is likewise.
Empty space has no beginning point, and likewise no middle or end; its measure cannot be found — the bodhisattva's wisdom is just the same.
如是觀法性，一切如虛空，無生亦無滅，菩薩之所得。
自住如空法，復為眾生說，降伏一切魔，皆斯忍方便。
世間相差別，皆空無有相，入於無相處，諸相悉平等。
唯以一方便，普入眾世間，謂知三世法，悉等虛空性。
智慧與音聲，及以菩薩身，其性如虛空，一切皆寂滅。
Contemplating the nature of dharmas in this way, all of them are like empty space, without arising and without ceasing — this is what the bodhisattva attains.
Abiding themselves in the dharma that is like space, they also teach it to sentient beings; subduing every kind of demon — all of this is the skillful means of this acceptance.
The distinguishing marks of the world are all empty and without any mark at all; entering the place that is free of marks, every mark is entirely equal.
With only a single skillful means, they universally enter every world there is — namely, knowing that the dharmas of the three times are all equal to the nature of empty space.
Wisdom, and sound, and likewise the bodhisattva's own body — their nature is like empty space, and all of it is entirely tranquil and still.
虛空無初際，亦復無中後，其量不可得 — empty space has no beginning point, and likewise no middle or end; its measure cannot be found. Nine acceptances gave the mind something to picture — heat-shimmer, a face in water, a magician's illusion — so that impermanence and emptiness could be seen through a concrete likeness. The tenth withdraws even that: space has no picture to offer, which is exactly why it is the last and most complete of the ten comparisons.
The Ten Acceptances, Concluded
The chapter's closing verses step back from all ten acceptances at once, naming the power a bodhisattva who has attained them commands, and the measurelessness of merit that no being can ever calculate.
如是十種忍，佛子所修行，其心善安住，廣為眾生說。
於此善修學，成就廣大力，法力及智力，為菩提方便。
通達此忍門，成就無礙智，超過一切眾，轉於無上輪。
所修廣大行，其量不可得，調御師智海，乃能分別知。
捨我而修行，入於深法性，心常住淨法，以是施群生。
眾生及剎塵，尚可知其數，菩薩諸功德，無能度其限。
菩薩能成就，如是十種忍，智慧及所行，眾生莫能測。
These ten kinds of acceptance are what the children of the buddha cultivate and practice; their minds well settled, they broadly teach them to sentient beings.
Skillfully training in these, they accomplish vast and great power — the power of dharma and the power of wisdom — as skillful means toward bodhi.
Thoroughly penetrating this gateway of acceptance, they accomplish unobstructed wisdom, surpass every assembly, and turn the unsurpassed wheel.
The vast and great practice they cultivate has a measure that cannot be found; only the ocean of wisdom of the Tamer is able to distinguish and know it.
Abandoning self, they cultivate practice, entering into the profound nature of dharmas; their mind constantly abiding in pure dharma, and with this they give to every being.
Sentient beings, and the dust motes of every land, might still have their number known; but the bodhisattva's every merit and virtue — none can measure its limit.
The bodhisattva is able to accomplish these ten kinds of acceptance; their wisdom and their practice, no sentient being is able to fathom.
眾生及剎塵，尚可知其數，菩薩諸功德，無能度其限 — sentient beings, and the dust motes of every land, might still have their number known; but the bodhisattva's every merit and virtue, none can measure its limit. This closes chapter twenty-nine, 十忍品, The Ten Kinds of Acceptance, opened in Part 555 with Samantabhadra addressing the assembly on ten kinds of patience a bodhisattva must attain. Ten acceptances — sound, compliance, non-arising, illusion, mirage, dream, echo, reflection, magical creation, and space — have each been given first in prose and then in verse, ending on the same claim with which the chapter began: that what is being described here exceeds what any counting can reach.
Part 566 Complete — Fascicle Forty-Four Complete
This completes chapter twenty-nine, 十忍品, The Ten Kinds of Acceptance, and with it, fascicle forty-four of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra in full. Part 567 opens fascicle forty-five with chapter thirty, 阿僧祇品, on the immeasurable numbers a bodhisattva must be able to name.