The Great Rain That Only Bodhisattvas Can Measure
Three more marks of the tathāgata's appearance continue the rain-cloud simile: a rain too vast for the narrow-minded two vehicles to hold, a rain with no point of origin or destination at all, and a rain whose every drop only a great bodhisattva — matched to Maheśvara, lord of the great trichiliocosm — can fully comprehend.
Too Vast to Hold, Nowhere From, and Known Only to One
Each mark takes a single feature of the rain that forms a world — its overwhelming volume, its placeless origin, its ungraspable measure — and matches it precisely to a feature of the great rain of dharma the tathāgata pours forth.
「復次，佛子！譬如三千大千世界將欲成時，大雲降雨，名曰：洪霔，一切方處所不能受、所不能持，唯除大千界將欲成時。佛子！如來、應、正等覺亦復如是，興大法雲，雨大法雨，名：成就如來出現，一切二乘心志狹劣所不能受、所不能持，唯除諸大菩薩心相續力。佛子！是為如來、應、正等覺出現第二相，菩薩摩訶薩應如是知。
"Furthermore, Sons of the Buddha! It is like when a great trichiliocosm is about to be formed: a great cloud pours down rain, named Vast Torrent, which no place in any direction is able to receive or able to hold, except only when the great trichiliocosm is about to be formed. Sons of the Buddha! The tathāgata, the worthy one, the perfectly and fully awakened one, is likewise just the same: raising a great cloud of dharma, he pours down a great rain of dharma, named Accomplishing the Tathāgata's Appearance, which every one of the two lesser vehicles, their minds and aspirations narrow and inferior, is unable to receive or able to hold, except only through the sustained power of the mind of every great bodhisattva. Sons of the Buddha! This is the second mark of the appearance of the tathāgata, the worthy one, the perfectly and fully awakened one — a bodhisattva-mahāsattva should know it thus.
「復次，佛子！譬如眾生以業力故，大雲降雨，來無所從，去無所至。如來、應、正等覺亦復如是，以諸菩薩善根力故，興大法雲，雨大法雨，亦無所從來，無所至去。佛子！是為如來、應、正等覺出現第三相，菩薩摩訶薩應如是知。
"Furthermore, Sons of the Buddha! It is like when, through the power of sentient beings' own karma, a great cloud pours down rain, coming from no place, going to no place. The tathāgata, the worthy one, the perfectly and fully awakened one, is likewise just the same: through the power of the wholesome roots of every bodhisattva, he raises a great cloud of dharma and pours down a great rain of dharma, likewise coming from no place, going to no place. Sons of the Buddha! This is the third mark of the appearance of the tathāgata, the worthy one, the perfectly and fully awakened one — a bodhisattva-mahāsattva should know it thus.
「復次，佛子！譬如大雲降霔大雨，大千世界一切眾生，無能知數，若欲算計，徒令發狂；唯大千世界主——摩醯首羅，以過去所修善根力故，乃至一滴無不明了。佛子！如來、應、正等覺亦復如是，興大法雲，雨大法雨，一切眾生、聲聞、獨覺所不能知，若欲思量，心必狂亂；唯除一切世間主——菩薩摩訶薩，以過去所修覺慧力故，乃至一文一句，入眾生心，無不明了。佛子！是為如來、應、正等覺出現第四相，菩薩摩訶薩應如是知。
"Furthermore, Sons of the Buddha! It is like when a great cloud pours down a torrential rain: not a single sentient being in the great trichiliocosm is able to know its number, and should any of them attempt to reckon it, they would only be driven to madness in vain; only Maheśvara, lord of the great trichiliocosm, through the power of wholesome roots cultivated in ages past, is able to fully understand it down to the very last drop. Sons of the Buddha! The tathāgata, the worthy one, the perfectly and fully awakened one, is likewise just the same: raising a great cloud of dharma, he pours down a great rain of dharma that every sentient being, every śrāvaka, and every pratyekabuddha is unable to know, and should they attempt to ponder it, their minds would surely be driven to confusion; only the lord of every world — the bodhisattva-mahāsattva — through the power of awakened wisdom cultivated in ages past, fully understands it down to the very last word and phrase entering the minds of sentient beings, without anything left unclear. Sons of the Buddha! This is the fourth mark of the appearance of the tathāgata, the worthy one, the perfectly and fully awakened one — a bodhisattva-mahāsattva should know it thus.
唯大千世界主——摩醯首羅…唯除一切世間主——菩薩摩訶薩 — only Maheśvara, lord of the great trichiliocosm…only the lord of every world, the bodhisattva-mahāsattva. The fourth mark pairs its two halves by rank rather than by kind: Maheśvara stands as the one being within an entire physical universe capable of measuring its own rain, and the bodhisattva-mahāsattva is placed in the identical structural position toward the tathāgata's dharma-rain — not compared to Maheśvara's nature, but assigned his exact role.
Part 640 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-seven, 如來出現品, in fascicle fifty. Part 641 continues with the fifth mark, naming five distinct kinds of rain within the one great rain of dharma.