Skillful Means Concludes, Fascicle Forty-Six Complete
The chapter's longest list ends on its most demanding items: measureless kinds of eloquence expounding countless sūtras, a dharma that fundamentally has no name of any kind — not even the name "nameless" — and the five aggregates dissolved one at a time without a single dharma being destroyed in the process.
A Dharma With No Name at All
The eighth skillful means catalogs a buddha's eloquence in nine distinct kinds; the ninth goes further, denying every dharma a name of any category at all — not past, present, future, being, non-being, oneness, or manifoldness — while still allowing ordinary speech to continue.
一切諸佛恒住法界，成就諸佛無量無畏及不可數辯、不可量辯、無盡辯、無斷辯、無邊辯、不共辯、無窮辯、真實辯、方便開示一切句辯、一切法辯，隨其根性及以欲解，以種種法門說不可說不可說百千億那由他修多羅，初、中、後善，皆悉究竟，是為第八善巧方便。一切諸佛住淨法界，知一切法本無名字，無過去名，無現在名，無未來名；無眾生名，無非眾生名；無國土名，無非國土名；無法名，無非法名；無功德名，無非功德名；無菩薩名，無佛名；無數名，無非數名；無生名，無滅名；無有名，無無名；無一名，無種種名。何以故？諸法體性不可說故。一切諸法無方無處，不可集說，不可散說，不可一說，不可多說，音聲莫逮，言語悉斷，雖隨世俗種種言說，無所攀緣，無所造作，遠離一切虛妄想著，如是究竟到於彼岸。是為第九善巧方便。
Every buddha constantly abides in the dharma-realm, accomplishing the buddhas' measureless fearlessness, together with countless kinds of eloquence — eloquence beyond counting, eloquence beyond measure, inexhaustible eloquence, uninterrupted eloquence, boundless eloquence, unshared eloquence, unending eloquence, true eloquence, and skillful eloquence disclosing every phrase and every dharma; according to each being's own faculties and desired understanding, through every manner of dharma-gateway, expounding unspeakable, unspeakable hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of sūtras, excellent in the beginning, middle, and end, all of them brought entirely to completion — this is the eighth skillful means. Every buddha abides in the pure dharma-realm, knowing that all dharmas fundamentally have no name at all: no name of the past, no name of the present, no name of the future; no name of sentient being, no name of non-sentient-being; no name of a land, no name of a non-land; no name of dharma, no name of non-dharma; no name of merit, no name of non-merit; no name of bodhisattva, no name of buddha; no name of number, no name of non-number; no name of arising, no name of ceasing; no name of existence, no name of non-existence; no name of oneness, no name of manifold-ness. Why is this? Because the own-nature of all dharmas is unspeakable. Every dharma has no direction and no location; it cannot be spoken of as gathered together, cannot be spoken of as scattered apart, cannot be spoken of as one, cannot be spoken of as many; sound cannot reach it, and language is entirely cut off; though following worldly convention, using every manner of speech, there is nothing clung to and nothing fabricated, departing far from every false imagining and attachment, and in this way ultimately reaching the far shore. This is the ninth skillful means.
無有名，無無名 — no name of existence, no name of non-existence. This ninth skillful means does not stop at denying dharmas ordinary names; it denies them the names "named" and "unnamed" as well, closing off the obvious escape of simply calling everything nameless. And yet the same passage ends by allowing worldly speech to continue exactly as before — the denial of names is not a demand for silence.
The Five Aggregates, Undone Without Being Destroyed
The tenth and final skillful means works through the five aggregates one at a time — form, feeling, perception, formation, consciousness — showing why each one fails to apply, while insisting that nothing has actually been destroyed in the process.
一切諸佛知一切法本性寂靜，無生故非色，無戲論故非受，無名數故非想，無造作故非行，無執取故非識，無入處故非處，無所得故非界，然亦不壞一切諸法，本性無起如虛空故。一切諸法皆悉空寂，無業果，無修習，無成就，無出生，非數、非不數，非有、非無，非生、非滅，非垢、非淨，非入、非出，非住、非不住，非調伏、非不調伏，非眾生、非無眾生，非壽命、非無壽命，非因緣、非無因緣，而能了知正定、邪定及不定聚一切眾生，為說妙法令到彼岸，成就十力、四無所畏，能師子吼，具一切智，住佛境界，是為第十善巧方便。佛子！是為諸佛成就十種善巧方便。
Every buddha knows that the fundamental nature of all dharmas is tranquil and still: because there is no arising, it is not form; because there is no idle discourse, it is not feeling; because there is no name or number, it is not perception; because there is no doing, it is not formation; because there is no grasping, it is not consciousness; because there is no place of entry, it is not a sense-base; because there is nothing attained, it is not a sense-realm; and yet this does not destroy any dharma either, since its fundamental nature never arises, just like empty space. Every dharma is entirely empty and still: without karmic fruit, without cultivation, without accomplishment, without arising; neither countable nor uncountable, neither existent nor non-existent, neither arising nor ceasing, neither defiled nor pure, neither entering nor leaving, neither abiding nor not abiding, neither tamed nor untamed, neither a sentient being nor without sentient being, neither a lifespan nor without lifespan, neither a cause and condition nor without cause and condition; and yet is able to fully know beings of right concentration, wrong concentration, and indeterminate grouping among all sentient beings, teaching them the wondrous dharma to bring them to the far shore, accomplishing the ten powers and the four fearlessnesses, able to roar the lion's roar, endowed with all-knowing wisdom, abiding in the buddha's own sphere of experience — this is the tenth skillful means. Sons of the Buddha! These are the ten kinds of skillful means the buddhas accomplish.
然亦不壞一切諸法，本性無起如虛空故 — and yet this does not destroy any dharma either, since its fundamental nature never arises, just like empty space. The whole chapter, from the doubling ladders of chapter thirty to the smile that bestows a prediction in Part 588, has piled up description after description of what a buddha is and does. This final skillful means dismantles the very aggregates a body and mind are said to be built from — and then insists, in the same breath, that nothing describable has actually been taken apart.
Part 592 Complete — Fascicle Forty-Six Complete
This completes fascicle forty-six of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra. Chapter thirty-three, 佛不思議法品, is not yet finished — it continues into fascicle forty-seven, 卷第四十七之二, where Part 593 will take up its second half.