A Net Woven of Thought
False conception alone is said to send beings to heaven or to hell; the same conception, woven into a net that every world merely displays, is entered entirely within a single thought — and with a final claim that no boundary can be found to this skillful wisdom, Samantabhadra's long verse recitation comes to its close.
The Net of Illusion, Entered in a Single Thought
Heaven and hell alike are traced back to false conception; that same conception is described as a net which every world merely manifests, entered completely within a single thought, closing the verse on a claim of boundless skillful wisdom.
眾生皆妄起，善惡諸趣想，由是或生天，或復墮地獄。
菩薩觀世間，妄想業所起，妄想無邊故，世間亦無量。
一切諸國土，想網之所現，幻網方便故，一念悉能入。
眼耳鼻舌身，意根亦如是，世間想別異，平等皆能入。
一一眼境界，無量眼皆入，種種性差別，無量不可說。
所見無差別，亦復無雜亂，各隨於自業，受用其果報。
Sentient beings all give rise, falsely, to conceptions of good and evil destinies; because of this, some are born among the heavens, and some fall instead into the hells.
The bodhisattva, observing the world, sees that it arises from the karma of false conception; because false conception is boundless, the world too is measureless.
Every land there is, is but the manifestation of a net of conception; through the skillful means of this net of illusion, one is able to enter it entirely within a single thought.
The eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body, and the faculty of mind likewise, though the world's own conceptions differ each from the other, can all equally be entered.
Within each and every domain of the eye, measureless eyes all enter it; the manifold differences of nature within it are measureless and unspeakable.
What is seen is without any difference, and moreover without any confusion; each, according to their own karma, receives and makes use of its fruit.
普賢力無量，悉知彼一切，一切眼境界，大智悉能入。
如是諸世間，悉能分別知，而修一切行，亦復無退轉。
佛說眾生說，及以國土說，三世如是說，種種悉了知。
過去中未來，未來中現在，三世互相見，一一皆明了。
如是無量種，開悟諸世間，一切智方便，邊際不可得。」
The power of Samantabhadra is measureless, entirely knowing all of this; every domain of the eye is entirely entered by great wisdom.
Every world such as this can be entirely and distinctly known, and yet one cultivates every practice without ever once retreating.
What is spoken by the buddhas, what is spoken of sentient beings, and what is spoken of lands — the three times are spoken of in just this way, every kind of it entirely known.
The future within the past, the present within the future — the three times behold one another, each and every one entirely clear.
Such measureless kinds of skillful means awaken every world; of this wisdom that knows all things, and the skillful means it employs, no boundary at all can be found."
想網之所現 — the manifestation of a net of conception. This single phrase draws together the chapter's two governing images — perception as illusion, and the world as something woven — into one figure: not a net that catches or entangles, but one whose very display is what a world is. The claim that follows, that this same net can be entered entirely within a single thought, closes the loop opened back in Part 631, where a single mote of dust was first said to hold every world.
Chapter 36 and Fascicle 49 Complete
This completes both chapter thirty-six, 普賢行品 ("The Practices of Samantabhadra"), and fascicle forty-nine of eighty. Fascicle fifty opens chapter thirty-seven, 如來出現品 ("The Tathāgata's Appearance"), which Part 636 will begin.