The Heavenly Drum's Teaching Continues
The drum draws out its own voice as an illustration: it comes from nowhere, just as karma, light, and the ornaments of heaven come from nowhere, and yet all still arise and still teach — closing with an exhortation to know and repay kindness, and a name for the samādhi such understanding opens.
Neither Coming Nor Going, Neither Male Nor Female
The drum multiplies its own analogy — sound, light, heavenly ornaments, all without any place of origin — then turns to a direct exhortation on gratitude before naming the samādhi this teaching opens onto.
諸天子！譬如汝等昔在地獄，地獄及身非十方來，但由於汝顛倒惡業愚癡纏縛，生地獄身，此無根本、無有來處。諸天子！毘盧遮那菩薩威德力故放大光明，而此光明非十方來。諸天子！我天鼓音亦復如是，非十方來，但以三昧善根力故，般若波羅蜜威德力故，出生如是清淨音聲，示現如是種種自在。諸天子！譬如須彌山王有三十三天上妙宮殿種種樂具，而此樂具非十方來；我天鼓音亦復如是，非十方來。諸天子！譬如億那由他佛剎微塵數世界盡末為塵，我為如是塵數眾生，隨其所樂而演說法，令大歡喜，然我於彼不生疲厭、不生退怯、不生憍慢、不生放逸。
'Sons of heaven! Just as, when you were formerly in the hells, that hell and that body did not come from the ten directions, but arose only because you were bound by inverted, unwholesome karma and ignorance, giving rise to a hell-body that has no root and no place from which it came. Sons of heaven! Through the majestic power of Bodhisattva Vairocana, great light is emitted, and this light too does not come from the ten directions. Sons of heaven! My own heavenly-drum voice is likewise just the same: it does not come from the ten directions, but arises only through the power of wholesome roots gained in samādhi, through the majestic power of the perfection of wisdom, producing a pure sound such as this, manifesting every kind of mastery such as this. Sons of heaven! Just as the palaces and every manner of instrument of pleasure atop Sumeru, king of mountains, in the Trāyastriṃśa heaven, do not come from the ten directions, my own heavenly-drum voice is likewise just the same: it does not come from the ten directions. Sons of heaven! Just as, were the worlds as numerous as motes of dust in a koṭi of nayutas of buddha-lands entirely ground into dust, I would, for beings as numerous as those motes of dust, expound the dharma according to what each one delights in, causing them great joy, and yet I would give rise among them neither to weariness, nor to retreat and timidity, nor to arrogance, nor to negligence.
諸天子！毘盧遮那菩薩住離垢三昧亦復如是，於右手掌一隨好中放一光明，出現無量自在神力，一切聲聞、辟支佛尚不能知，況諸眾生！諸天子！汝當往詣彼菩薩所親近供養，勿復貪著五欲樂具，著五欲樂障諸善根。諸天子！譬如劫火燒須彌山，悉令除盡，無餘可得；貪欲纏心亦復如是，終不能生念佛之意。諸天子！汝等應當知恩報恩。諸天子！其有眾生不知報恩，多遭橫死，生於地獄。諸天子！汝等昔在地獄之中，蒙光照身，捨彼生此；汝等今者宜疾迴向，增長善根。諸天子！如我天鼓，非男非女，而能出生無量無邊不思議事；汝天子、天女亦復如是，非男非女，而能受用種種上妙宮殿園林。如我天鼓不生不滅，色、受、想、行、識亦復如是不生不滅。汝等若能於此悟解，應知則入無依印三昧。』
Sons of heaven! Bodhisattva Vairocana, dwelling in the samādhi of freedom from defilement, is likewise just the same: from within a single minor mark on his right palm he emits a single light, and out of it come measureless spiritual powers of mastery that even every śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha are unable to know, how much less every other sentient being! Sons of heaven! You should go before that bodhisattva and draw near to make offerings, and never again crave and cling to the pleasures of the five desires — clinging to the pleasures of the five desires obstructs every wholesome root. Sons of heaven! Just as the fire at the end of an age burns Sumeru until nothing at all remains, craving and desire binding the mind is likewise just the same: it can never in the end give rise to a mind that is mindful of the Buddha. Sons of heaven! You should know kindness and repay kindness. Sons of heaven! Whatever beings do not know how to repay kindness mostly meet a violent death and are born into the hells. Sons of heaven! You yourselves, when formerly in the hells, were touched by that light upon your bodies, and left that place to be born in this one; you should now swiftly dedicate this merit and increase your wholesome roots. Sons of heaven! Just as I, the heavenly drum, am neither male nor female, and yet am able to give rise to measureless, boundless, inconceivable things, so too are you, sons and daughters of heaven, neither male nor female, and yet able to enjoy every manner of wondrous palace and garden grove. Just as I, the heavenly drum, neither arise nor cease, form, sensation, perception, mental formations, and consciousness are likewise just the same, neither arising nor ceasing. If you are able to awaken to and understand this, you should know that you thereby enter the samādhi of the seal of relying on nothing.'
無依印三昧 — the samādhi of the seal of relying on nothing. The drum's entire teaching builds toward this single name: every example given — the hell-body, the light, the drum's own sound, the heavenly ornaments, the ground-up world-dust — shares the same structure of arising without any place of origin, and the samādhi named at the close is simply what opens when that pattern is recognized in the five aggregates themselves, not only in these more exotic illustrations.
Part 621 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-five, 如來隨好光明功德品, in fascicle forty-eight. Part 622 continues with the sons of heaven's response and their search for Vairocana Bodhisattva.