Not the Tathāgata's Own Making
Eight more named lights of great wisdom complete the tathāgata's own list of qualities, matching the ten wind-wheels that built the world; the mark closes with a sharp correction of a natural but mistaken thought — that all of this merit is something the tathāgata deliberately makes for others — insisting instead that a tathāgata neither creates nor destroys, and has no maker at all.
Eight More Lights, Then a Correction
The list of named lights runs to its close, and Samantabhadra turns at once to correct what he expects the listener to be thinking — that a bodhisattva could gain a tathāgata's wisdom without cause, or that a tathāgata deliberately fashions these merits at all.
復有無上大智光明，名：持佛種性，能成如來不傾動力。復有無上大智光明，名：逈出無能壞，能成如來無畏無壞智。復有無上大智光明，名：一切神通，能成如來諸不共法、一切智智。復有無上大智光明，名：出生變化，能成如來令見聞親近所生善根不失壞智。復有無上大智光明，名：普隨順，能成如來無盡福德智慧之身，為一切眾生而作饒益。復有無上大智光明，名：不可究竟，能成如來甚深妙智，隨所開悟，令三寶種永不斷絕。復有無上大智光明，名：種種莊嚴，能成如來相好嚴身，令一切眾生皆生歡喜。復有無上大智光明，名：不可壞，能成如來法界、虛空界等殊勝壽命無有窮盡。佛子！如來大悲一味之水無有分別，以諸眾生欲樂不同、根性各別，而起種種大智風輪，令諸菩薩成就如來出現之法。佛子！一切如來同一體性，大智輪中出生種種智慧光明。
"There is further an unsurpassed light of great wisdom, named Upholding the Buddha's Own Lineage, able to form the tathāgata's own unshakable power. There is further an unsurpassed light of great wisdom, named Rising Far Beyond and Unable to Be Destroyed, able to form the tathāgata's own fearless, indestructible wisdom. There is further an unsurpassed light of great wisdom, named Every Spiritual Power, able to form the tathāgata's own unique qualities and the wisdom of all-knowing wisdom. There is further an unsurpassed light of great wisdom, named Giving Rise to Transformation, able to form the tathāgata's own wisdom by which the wholesome roots born of seeing, hearing, and drawing near to him are never lost or ruined. There is further an unsurpassed light of great wisdom, named Universal Accord, able to form the tathāgata's own body of inexhaustible merit and wisdom, working benefit for every sentient being. There is further an unsurpassed light of great wisdom, named Beyond Final Reckoning, able to form the tathāgata's own profound and wondrous wisdom, causing the lineage of the three jewels never to be severed, according to whoever is awakened by it. There is further an unsurpassed light of great wisdom, named Every Manner of Adornment, able to form the tathāgata's own body adorned with excellent marks, causing every sentient being to rejoice. There is further an unsurpassed light of great wisdom, named Indestructible, able to form the tathāgata's own supreme lifespan, equal to the dharma-realm and the realm of empty space, without any end. Sons of the Buddha! The single flavor of water of the tathāgata's great compassion makes no discrimination of its own; it is only because the desires and delights of sentient beings differ, and their faculties and natures each differ, that every manner of wind-wheel of great wisdom arises, causing every bodhisattva to accomplish the dharma of the tathāgata's appearance. Sons of the Buddha! Every tathāgata shares one and the same essential nature, and from within the wheel of great wisdom, every manner of wisdom-light is given rise to.
佛子！汝等應知，如來於一解脫味出生無量不可思議種種功德，眾生念言：『此是如來神力所造。』佛子！此非如來神力所造。佛子！乃至一菩薩，不於佛所曾種善根，能得如來少分智慧，無有是處。但以諸佛威德力故，令諸眾生具佛功德，而佛如來無有分別，無成無壞，無有作者，亦無作法。佛子！是為如來、應、正等覺出現第八相，菩薩摩訶薩應如是知。
Sons of the Buddha! You should know that the tathāgata, from a single flavor of liberation, gives rise to measureless, inconceivable, and manifold merits, and sentient beings, upon reflection, say: 'This is what the tathāgata's spiritual power has made.' Sons of the Buddha! This is not what the tathāgata's spiritual power has made. Sons of the Buddha! It is not possible for even a single bodhisattva who has never once planted a wholesome root in the presence of a buddha to obtain even the smallest portion of the tathāgata's own wisdom. It is only through the majestic power of every buddha that sentient beings are caused to be endowed with a buddha's own merit, and yet the buddha, the tathāgata, makes no discrimination at all, neither creating nor destroying, having no maker, and having no method of making either. Sons of the Buddha! This is the eighth mark of the appearance of the tathāgata, the worthy one, the perfectly and fully awakened one — a bodhisattva-mahāsattva should know it thus.
此非如來神力所造 — this is not what the tathāgata's spiritual power has made. After eleven named lights of wisdom described in the most active, causal language available — each one able to accomplish this, able to form that — Samantabhadra abruptly denies the very framing his own description invited: sentient beings will naturally read all this activity as the tathāgata deliberately fashioning merit for them, and he corrects this immediately, insisting the tathāgata makes no discrimination and has no maker at all, even as bodhisattvas still cannot receive this wisdom without their own prior wholesome roots.
Part 643 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-seven, 如來出現品, in fascicle fifty. Part 644 continues with the ninth mark, comparing four wind-wheels that support the earth to four wind-wheels of great wisdom that support every sentient being's wholesome root.