The Four Wind-Wheels of Great Wisdom
Ten immeasurable factors, all cultivated across the past, complete a tathāgata; Samantabhadra then reaches for the sutra's most physical simile yet — a great trichiliocosm forming from cloud, rain, and four sustaining wind-wheels — and matches it point for point with four wind-wheels of great wisdom that bring a tathāgata's own awakening into being.
As a World Forms, So a Tathāgata Appears
Ten factors cultivated across immeasurable ages complete a tathāgata; the simile that follows describes how a great trichiliocosm itself is never formed by a single cause either, built instead from cloud, rain, and four wind-wheels that hold, dissolve, establish, and adorn — each one mirrored precisely by a wind-wheel of the tathāgata's own great wisdom.
何等為十？所謂：過去無量攝受一切眾生菩提心所成故，過去無量清淨殊勝志樂所成故，過去無量救護一切眾生大慈大悲所成故，過去無量相續行願所成故，過去無量修諸福智心無厭足所成故，過去無量供養諸佛教化眾生所成故，過去無量智慧方便清淨道所成故，過去無量清淨功德藏所成故，過去無量莊嚴道智所成故，過去無量通達法義所成故。佛子！如是無量阿僧祇法門圓滿，成於如來。
"What are these ten? They are: accomplished through immeasurable ages past of embracing the awakening-mind of every sentient being; accomplished through immeasurable ages past of pure and supreme aspiration; accomplished through immeasurable ages past of great loving-kindness and great compassion that rescues and protects every sentient being; accomplished through immeasurable ages past of vows and practice carried on without interruption; accomplished through immeasurable ages past of cultivating every merit and wisdom with a mind never once weary or satisfied; accomplished through immeasurable ages past of making offerings to every buddha and teaching and transforming sentient beings; accomplished through immeasurable ages past of a pure path of wisdom and skillful means; accomplished through immeasurable ages past of a pure treasury of merit; accomplished through immeasurable ages past of the wisdom that adorns the path; and accomplished through immeasurable ages past of penetrating the meaning of the dharma. Sons of the Buddha! Immeasurable asaṃkhyeyas of dharma-gates such as these, brought to fullness, become the tathāgata.
佛子！譬如三千大千世界，非以一緣，非以一事，而得成就，以無量緣、無量事，方乃得成。所謂：興布大雲，降霔大雨，四種風輪相續為依。其四者何？一名：能持，能持大水故；二名：能消，能消大水故；三名：建立，建立一切諸處所故；四名：莊嚴，莊嚴分布咸善巧故。如是皆由眾生共業及諸菩薩善根所起，令於其中一切眾生各隨所宜而得受用。佛子！如是等無量因緣乃成三千大千世界，法性如是，無有生者，無有作者，無有知者，無有成者，然彼世界而得成就。
Sons of the Buddha! It is like the great trichiliocosm, which is never accomplished through a single circumstance, nor through a single event, but is accomplished only through measureless circumstances and measureless events. Namely: great clouds arise and spread, a great rain pours down, and four kinds of wind-wheels, following one upon another, serve as its support. What are these four? The first is named Able to Hold, because it is able to hold the great waters; the second is named Able to Dissolve, because it is able to dissolve the great waters; the third is named Establishing, because it establishes every place there is; the fourth is named Adorning, because it adorns and arranges everything with complete skill. All of this arises from the shared karma of sentient beings and the wholesome roots of every bodhisattva, causing every sentient being within it to receive and make use of it according to what suits them. Sons of the Buddha! Immeasurable causes and conditions such as these bring about the great trichiliocosm; the nature of dharma is such that there is no one who gives rise to it, no one who makes it, no one who knows it, and no one who accomplishes it, and yet that world nonetheless comes to be accomplished.
如來出現亦復如是，非以一緣，非以一事，而得成就；以無量因緣，無量事相，乃得成就。所謂：曾於過去佛所聽聞受持大法雲雨，因此能起如來四種大智風輪。何等為四？一者念持不忘陀羅尼大智風輪，能持一切如來大法雲雨故；二者出生止觀大智風輪，能消竭一切煩惱故；三者善巧迴向大智風輪，能成就一切善根故；四者出生離垢差別莊嚴大智風輪，令過去所化一切眾生善根清淨，成就如來無漏善根力故。如來如是成等正覺，法性如是，無生無作而得成就。佛子！是為如來、應、正等覺出現第一相，菩薩摩訶薩應如是知。
A tathāgata's appearance is likewise just the same: it is never accomplished through a single circumstance, nor through a single event, but is accomplished only through measureless causes and conditions, measureless circumstances and forms. Namely: having once heard and upheld the great cloud and rain of dharma in the presence of buddhas of the past, one is thereby able to give rise to the tathāgata's four kinds of wind-wheels of great wisdom. What are these four? The first is the wind-wheel of great wisdom that holds in mind and never forgets the dhāraṇī, because it is able to hold every great cloud and rain of dharma of the tathāgata; the second is the wind-wheel of great wisdom that gives rise to calm and insight, because it is able to dissolve and exhaust every affliction; the third is the wind-wheel of great wisdom of skillful dedication, because it is able to bring every wholesome root to completion; the fourth is the wind-wheel of great wisdom that gives rise to the differentiated adornment free of defilement, because it purifies the wholesome roots of every sentient being transformed in ages past, and accomplishes the power of the tathāgata's own undefiled wholesome roots. The tathāgata thus attains perfect awakening; the nature of dharma is such, neither arisen nor made, and yet it comes to be accomplished. Sons of the Buddha! This is the first mark of the appearance of the tathāgata, the worthy one, the perfectly and fully awakened one — a bodhisattva-mahāsattva should know it thus.
法性如是，無有生者，無有作者，無有知者，無有成者，然彼世界而得成就 — the nature of dharma is such that there is no one who gives rise to it, no one who makes it, no one who knows it, and no one who accomplishes it, and yet that world nonetheless comes to be accomplished. This same sentence appears twice in this Part, once for the trichiliocosm and once for the tathāgata's own awakening, with only "that world" replaced by the tathāgata's attainment — the simile is not decorative but structural, asserting that a buddha's arising follows exactly the same causeless-yet-accomplished pattern already true of the physical universe.
Part 639 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-seven, 如來出現品, in fascicle fifty. Part 640 continues with the second mark of the tathāgata's appearance, likening the great rain of dharma to the rain that forms a world.