Purify the Mind Like Empty Space
Samantabhadra distills the ten marks just given into eleven clauses of knowing — measureless, vast, without coming or going, without body, equal — then turns to verse, reaching for image after image of a domain no ruler can measure and no word can capture, glimpsed only by a mind made as pure and empty as space itself.
A Ruler That Cannot Measure Empty Space
Eleven clauses distill the ten marks into a single statement of what it means to know the tathāgata's appearance; the verse that follows reaches for a chain of similes — dust, a ruler measuring space, a single hair's worth of merit — each one failing in exactly the way it is meant to.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩知如來出現，則知無量，知成就無量行故；則知廣大，知周遍十方故；則知無來去，知離生住滅故；則知無行、無所行，知離心、意、識故；則知無身，知如虛空故；則知平等，知一切眾生皆無我故；則知無盡，知遍一切剎無有盡故；則知無退，知盡後際無斷絕故；則知無壞，知如來智無有對故；則知無二，知平等觀察為、無為故；則知一切眾生皆得饒益，本願迴向自在滿足故。」爾時，普賢菩薩摩訶薩欲重明此義而說頌言：
"Sons of the Buddha! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva who knows the tathāgata's appearance thereby knows it as measureless, because he knows that it accomplishes measureless practice; thereby knows it as vast and great, because he knows that it pervades the ten directions; thereby knows it as without coming or going, because he knows that it is free of arising, abiding, and ceasing; thereby knows it as without action and without anything acted upon, because he knows that it is free of mind, thought, and consciousness; thereby knows it as without body, because he knows that it is like empty space; thereby knows it as equal, because he knows that every sentient being is without self; thereby knows it as inexhaustible, because he knows that it pervades every land without end; thereby knows it as without retreat, because he knows that it continues without severance to the farthest bounds of the future; thereby knows it as indestructible, because he knows that the tathāgata's wisdom has no opposite; thereby knows it as without duality, because he knows that it observes the conditioned and the unconditioned as equal; and thereby knows that every sentient being obtains benefit, because his original vow and dedication of merit are freely and fully satisfied." At that time, Samantabhadra Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva, wishing to illuminate this meaning once more, spoke in verse, saying:
「十力大雄最無上，譬如虛空無等等，境界廣大不可量，功德第一超世間。
十力功德無邊量，心意思量所不及，人中師子一法門，眾生億劫莫能知。
十方國土碎為塵，或有算計知其數；如來一毛功德量，千萬億劫無能說。
如人持尺量虛空，復有隨行計其數，虛空邊際不可得，如來境界亦如是。
或有能於剎那頃，悉知三世眾生心，設經眾生數等劫，不能知佛一念性。
譬如法界遍一切，不可見取為一切；十力境界亦復然，遍於一切非一切。
真如離妄恒寂靜，無生無滅普周遍；諸佛境界亦復然，體性平等不增減。
譬如實際而非際，普在三世亦非普；導師境界亦如是，遍於三世皆無礙。
法性無作無變易，猶如虛空本清淨；諸佛性淨亦如是，本性非性離有無。
法性不在於言論，無說離說恒寂滅；十力境界性亦然，一切文辭莫能辯。
了知諸法性寂滅，如鳥飛空無有迹，以本願力現色身，令見如來大神變。
若有欲知佛境界，當淨其意如虛空，遠離妄想及諸取，令心所向皆無礙。
是故佛子應善聽，我以少譬明佛境，十力功德不可量，為悟眾生今略說。」
"The great hero of the ten powers is most unsurpassed, like empty space, without equal or comparison; his domain is vast and great, beyond measure, his merit foremost, surpassing the world.
The merit of the ten powers is without any bound or measure, beyond the reach of mind, thought, or reckoning; the lion among people is a single dharma-gate that sentient beings could not know even in a koṭi of kalpas.
Should the lands of the ten directions be ground into dust, there might yet be one who could reckon and know their number; but the measure of merit in a single one of the tathāgata's hairs could not be told even in a thousand myriad koṭis of kalpas.
It is like a person holding a ruler to measure empty space, and continuing on, reckoning its number further still — the boundary of empty space can never be found, and the tathāgata's own domain is likewise just the same.
There might be one able, within the space of a single instant, to fully know the minds of every sentient being of the three times; yet even passing through kalpas equal in number to those sentient beings, one could not know the nature of a single thought of the Buddha's own.
It is like the dharma-realm, which pervades everything and yet cannot be seen or grasped as being everything; the domain of the ten powers is likewise just the same, pervading everything and yet not being everything.
Suchness, free of falsehood, is forever tranquil, neither arising nor ceasing, universally pervading; the domain of every buddha is likewise just the same, its essential nature equal, neither increasing nor decreasing.
It is like the ultimate reality, which is the limit of all things and yet not a limit at all, universally present in the three times and yet not universal; the guiding teacher's domain is likewise just the same, pervading the three times entirely without obstruction.
The nature of dharma is without action and without change, just like empty space, originally pure; the pure nature of every buddha is likewise just the same, its own nature not a nature at all, free of both existence and non-existence.
The nature of dharma does not reside in speech and discourse, without any statement, apart from statement, forever tranquil; the nature of the domain of the ten powers is likewise just the same, something no manner of word or phrase could ever argue into being.
Fully understanding that the nature of every dharma is tranquil, like a bird flying through the sky and leaving no trace, through the power of his original vow he manifests a form-body, causing others to behold the tathāgata's own great spiritual transformation.
If there is one who wishes to know the buddha's own domain, they should purify their mind to be like empty space, departing far from false thought and from every kind of grasping, so that wherever the mind turns, it meets with no obstruction.
For this reason, Sons of the Buddha, you should listen well: I use but a few similes to illuminate the buddha's domain; the merit of the ten powers cannot be measured, and I now speak of it only in brief, for the sake of awakening sentient beings."
如鳥飛空無有迹 — like a bird flying through the sky and leaving no trace. Set among a run of similes that each measure the tathāgata's domain and fail — dust, a ruler, a single hair — this one alone describes not a failed measurement but an actual, ordinary event: birds fly, and leave nothing behind in the air they pass through. It is offered as the positive counterpart to the entire chain of impossible measurements just given: the domain that cannot be measured is nonetheless traversed, constantly, without leaving anything to measure.
Part 645 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-seven, 如來出現品, in fascicle fifty. Part 646 continues the verse recitation, turning next to the tathāgata's own body, speech, and mind, and the great trichiliocosm simile once more.