Not by a Single Cause
Wondrous Virtue Born of the Tathāgata's Nature closes his prose request and restates it in verse — body, speech, mind, awakening, teaching, and final nirvāṇa, all asked after in turn — before Samantabhadra opens his answer with a single governing principle: a tathāgata never appears through one cause or one circumstance alone.
Every Question, Asked Twice
The prose request closes with a final list — body, speech, and mind, the path to awakening, the turning of the dharma-wheel, even the display of final nirvāṇa — and the verse that follows restates each of these in turn, before Samantabhadra answers with the principle that will govern everything he says next.
善哉佛子！願說如來、應、正等覺出現之法，身相、言音、心意境界，所行之行，成道轉法，乃至示現入般涅槃，見聞親近所生善根；如是等事，願皆為說！」時，如來性起妙德菩薩欲重明此義，向普賢菩薩而說頌曰：
Excellent, Son of the Buddha! I beg you to speak of the dharma of the appearance of every tathāgata, the worthy one, the perfectly and fully awakened one — his bodily marks, his speech and voice, the domain of his mind and intention, the practices he carries out, his accomplishment of the path and turning of the dharma-wheel, even his display of entering final nirvāṇa, and the wholesome roots born of seeing, hearing, and drawing near to him; of all such matters as these, I beg you to speak in full!" At that time, the bodhisattva Wondrous Virtue Born of the Tathāgata's Nature, wishing to illuminate this meaning once more, spoke to Samantabhadra in verse, saying:
「善哉無礙大智慧，善覺無邊平等境，願說無量佛所行，佛子聞已皆欣慶！
菩薩云何隨順入，諸佛如來出興世？云何身語心境界？及所行處願皆說！
云何諸佛成正覺？云何如來轉法輪？云何善逝般涅槃？大眾聞已心歡喜。
若有見佛大法王，親近增長諸善根，願說彼諸功德藏，眾生見已何所獲？
若有得聞如來名，若現在世若涅槃，於彼福藏生深信，有何等利願宣說！
此諸菩薩皆合掌，瞻仰如來仁及我，大功德海之境界，淨眾生者願為說！
願以因緣及譬諭，演說妙法相應義，眾生聞已發大心，疑盡智淨如虛空。
如遍一切國土中，諸佛所現莊嚴身，願以妙音及因諭，示佛菩提亦如彼。
十方千萬諸佛土，億那由他無量劫，如今所集菩薩眾，於彼一切悉難見。
此諸菩薩咸恭敬，於微妙義生渴仰，願以淨心具開演，如來出現廣大法！」
"Excellent is your unobstructed, great wisdom, skillfully awakened to the boundless, equal domain; I beg you to speak of the measureless practice of the buddhas, so that every son of the Buddha who hears it may rejoice!
How does a bodhisattva enter in accordance with the appearance of every buddha tathāgata in the world? What are the domains of his body, speech, and mind, and the places where he carries out his practice — I beg you to tell all of this!
How does every buddha attain perfect awakening? How does the tathāgata turn the dharma-wheel? How does the well-gone one enter final nirvāṇa? Let the great assembly hear it and rejoice in their hearts.
If there is one who beholds the buddha, the great king of dharma, drawing near to him and increasing every wholesome root, I beg you to speak of that treasury of merit — what does a sentient being gain upon seeing it?
If there is one who comes to hear the tathāgata's name, whether he dwells in the present age or has entered nirvāṇa, and gives rise to deep faith in that treasury of merit, what benefit does this bring — I beg you to proclaim it!
These bodhisattvas all press their palms together, gazing up at the tathāgata's benevolence, and at me as well; of the domain of this great ocean of merit, I beg the one who purifies sentient beings to speak of it!
I beg you to expound the meaning that accords with this wondrous dharma, through causes and conditions and through similes, so that sentient beings, having heard it, give rise to the great resolve, their doubts exhausted and their wisdom pure as empty space.
Just as, pervading every land, the adorned bodies displayed by every buddha are seen, I beg you, through wondrous sound and through simile, to reveal the buddha's own awakening in just the same way.
Throughout the ten directions, across a thousand myriad buddha-lands, through koṭis of nayutas of measureless kalpas, even the assembly of bodhisattvas gathered here now would find it difficult to see the whole of it.
These bodhisattvas, every one reverent, thirst after this subtle and wondrous meaning; I beg you, with a pure mind, to fully disclose the vast and great dharma of the tathāgata's appearance!"
爾時，普賢菩薩摩訶薩告如來性起妙德等諸菩薩大眾言：「佛子！此處不可思議，所謂如來、應、正等覺以無量法而得出現。何以故？非以一緣，非以一事，如來出現而得成就；以十無量百千阿僧祇事而得成就。
At that time, Samantabhadra Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva addressed Wondrous Virtue Born of the Tathāgata's Nature and the great assembly of bodhisattvas, saying: "Sons of the Buddha! This matter is inconceivable — namely, that the tathāgata, the worthy one, the perfectly and fully awakened one, comes to appear through measureless dharmas. Why is this? A tathāgata's appearance is never accomplished through a single circumstance, nor through a single event; it is accomplished only through ten immeasurable hundred thousand asaṃkhyeyas of circumstances.
非以一緣，非以一事，如來出現而得成就 — a tathāgata's appearance is never accomplished through a single circumstance, nor through a single event. This single sentence sets the method for the entire chapter that follows: rather than naming one cause of buddhahood, Samantabhadra will answer each of the questions just asked — body, speech, mind, awakening, teaching, nirvāṇa — through an explicit multiplicity of factors, refusing in advance any answer that could be mistaken for a single, simple origin.
Part 638 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-seven, 如來出現品, in fascicle fifty. Part 639 continues with the ten immeasurable factors themselves, listed in full, that bring a tathāgata into appearance.