The Ocean of Marks Begins
A new chapter opens with a new speaker: Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, rather than Blue Lotus Treasury or Lotus Treasury, now describes the tathāgata's body mark by mark. The crown of the head alone holds thirty-two named marks, each a cloud of light with its own name and its own vision folded inside it — the first eight appear here.
Eight Clouds Crowning the Head
Chapter thirty-four, 如來十身相海品, opens with Samantabhadra rather than the pair of bodhisattvas who carried chapter thirty-three. Each mark on the crown of the tathāgata's head is named, adorned with specific jewels, and opens onto its own vision — buddhas seated in meditation, oceans of merit, wheels of light reaching every world.
爾時，普賢菩薩摩訶薩告諸菩薩言：「佛子！今當為汝演說如來所有相海。「佛子！如來頂上有三十二寶莊嚴大人相。其中有大人相，名：光照一切方普放無量大光明網，一切妙寶以為莊嚴，寶髮周遍，柔軟密緻，一一咸放摩尼寶光，充滿一切無邊世界，悉現佛身色相圓滿，是為一。次有大人相，名：佛眼光明雲，以摩尼王種種莊嚴出金色光，如眉間毫相所放光明，其光普照一切世界，是為二。次有大人相，名：充滿法界雲，上妙寶輪以為莊嚴，放於如來福智燈明，普照十方一切法界諸世界海，於中普現一切諸佛及諸菩薩，是為三。次有大人相，名：示現普照雲，真金摩尼種種莊嚴，其諸妙寶咸放光明，照不思議諸佛國土，一切諸佛於中出現，是為四。
"At that time, Samantabhadra Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva addressed the assembled bodhisattvas, saying: 'Sons of the Buddha! I shall now expound for you the ocean of marks possessed by the tathāgata. Sons of the Buddha! Upon the crown of the tathāgata's head there are thirty-two jewel-adorned marks of a great being. Among these there is a mark of a great being named Illuminating Every Direction, Universally Emitting a Measureless Great Net of Light, adorned with every kind of wondrous jewel; jeweled hair covers it entirely, soft and densely fine, and each and every strand emits maṇi-jewel light, filling every boundless world, entirely manifesting the buddha-body's form and color in complete perfection. This is the first. Next there is a mark of a great being named Cloud of the Buddha-Eye's Light, adorned with every kind of maṇi-king jewel, emitting golden light like the light emitted by the tuft of hair between the eyebrows; that light universally illuminates every world. This is the second. Next there is a mark of a great being named Cloud Filling the Dharma-Realm, adorned with the finest, most supreme jeweled wheel, emitting the lamplight of the tathāgata's merit and wisdom, universally illuminating every ocean of worlds throughout the dharma-realm of the ten directions, universally manifesting within it every buddha and every bodhisattva. This is the third. Next there is a mark of a great being named Cloud Manifesting Universal Illumination, adorned with every kind of true gold and maṇi jewel; every one of those wondrous jewels emits light, illuminating inconceivable buddha-lands, within which every buddha appears. This is the fourth.
次有大人相，名：放寶光明雲，摩尼寶王清淨莊嚴，毘瑠璃寶以為華蘂，光照十方一切法界，於中普現種種神變，讚歎如來往昔所行智慧功德，是為五。次有大人相，名：示現如來遍法界大自在雲，菩薩神變寶焰摩尼以為其冠，具如來力覺悟一切寶焰光輪以為其鬘，其光普照十方世界，於中示現一切如來坐於道場，一切智雲充滿虛空無量法界，是為六。次有大人相，名：如來普燈雲，以能震動法界國土大自在寶海而為莊嚴，放淨光明充滿法界，於中普現十方諸菩薩功德海、過現未來佛智慧幢海，是為七。次有大人相，名：普照諸佛廣大雲，因陀羅寶、如意王寶、摩尼王寶以為莊嚴，常放菩薩焰燈光明，普照十方一切世界，於中顯現一切諸佛眾色相海、大音聲海、清淨力海，是為八。
Next there is a mark of a great being named Cloud Emitting Jeweled Light, purely adorned with maṇi jewel-kings, with vaidūrya jewels forming its flower-stamens; its light illuminates every dharma-realm of the ten directions, universally manifesting within it every manner of spiritual transformation, extolling the wisdom and merit the tathāgata has practiced since ages past. This is the fifth. Next there is a mark of a great being named Cloud Manifesting the Tathāgata's Great Mastery Pervading the Dharma-Realm, crowned with the jeweled-flame maṇi of a bodhisattva's spiritual transformation, garlanded with the wheel of jeweled-flame light that is endowed with the tathāgata's power of awakening; its light universally illuminates the worlds of the ten directions, manifesting within it every tathāgata seated at the seat of awakening, the cloud of all-knowing wisdom filling the measureless dharma-realm of empty space. This is the sixth. Next there is a mark of a great being named Cloud of the Tathāgata's Universal Lamp, adorned with an ocean of great mastery-jewels able to shake every land throughout the dharma-realm, emitting pure light that fills the dharma-realm, universally manifesting within it the ocean of merit of every bodhisattva of the ten directions, and the ocean of wisdom-banners of every buddha of the past, present, and future. This is the seventh. Next there is a mark of a great being named Cloud Universally Illuminating the Buddhas, Vast and Great, adorned with indra jewels, wish-fulfilling king jewels, and maṇi king jewels, constantly emitting the light of a bodhisattva's flame-lamp, universally illuminating every world of the ten directions, displaying within it the ocean of forms and colors, the ocean of great sound, and the ocean of pure power of every buddha. This is the eighth.
今當為汝演說如來所有相海 — I shall now expound for you the ocean of marks possessed by the tathāgata. Chapter thirty-three closed with Blue Lotus Treasury Bodhisattva's answer to a question about the buddha's inconceivable qualities in general. This new chapter, spoken instead by Samantabhadra, takes the most concrete possible starting point — the physical body — and finds the same inexhaustibility there: each of the thirty-two marks on the crown alone is itself a named cloud containing buddhas, bodhisattvas, and oceans of light.
Part 608 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-four, 如來十身相海品, in fascicle forty-eight. Part 609 continues the thirty-two marks crowning the tathāgata's head, with marks nine through sixteen.