How to Behold the Tathāgata's Own Body
The verse's final couplets close the rain-of-dharma teaching by tracing its chain of supports down to empty space itself; Samantabhadra then opens an entirely new question — how should a bodhisattva behold the tathāgata's own body? — and answers first that it is everywhere and nowhere at once, like space, and second that it has no body of its own, precisely so that a body may appear.
Everywhere, Yet Nowhere in Particular
The verse's final images return once more to a chain of supports ending in nothing supported; Samantabhadra then turns to a wholly new subject, opening with the claim that a tathāgata's body must never be sought in any single place, thing, or being.
諸天初見蓮華瑞，知佛當出生歡喜；水緣風力起世間，宮殿山川悉成立。
如來宿善大光明，巧別菩薩與其記；所有智輪體皆淨，各能開示諸佛法。
譬如樹林依地有，地依於水得不壞，水輪依風風依空，而其虛空無所依。
一切佛法依慈悲，慈悲復依方便立，方便依智智依慧，無礙慧身無所依。
譬如世界既成立，一切眾生獲其利，地水所住及空居，二足四足皆蒙益。
法王出現亦如是，一切眾生獲其利，若有見聞及親近，悉使滅除諸惑惱。
如來出現法無邊，世間迷惑莫能知，為欲開悟諸含識，無譬諭中說其譬。」
"When the gods first behold the auspicious sign of the lotus flower, they know a buddha will soon appear and rejoice; through the causes and conditions of water and the power of wind, the world arises, and its palaces, mountains, and rivers all come to be established.
The great light of the tathāgata's own wholesome roots cultivated in ages past skillfully distinguishes each bodhisattva and bestows their prediction; every wheel of wisdom he possesses is pure in its very substance, each one able to disclose the dharma of every buddha.
It is like how a forest of trees depends upon the earth to exist, the earth depends upon water to avoid falling apart, the water-wheel depends upon wind and the wind depends upon empty space, and yet that empty space depends upon nothing at all.
Every buddha-dharma depends upon great compassion, great compassion in turn depends upon and is established through skillful means, skillful means depends upon wisdom and wisdom depends upon deeper wisdom still, and the body of unobstructed wisdom depends upon nothing at all.
It is like how, once a world has already been established, every sentient being obtains its benefit — those who dwell on the earth, in the water, and in empty space, those with two legs and those with four, all receive its benefit.
The king of dharma's own appearance is likewise just the same: every sentient being obtains his benefit; whoever sees him, hears him, or draws near to him has every affliction and confusion thereby extinguished.
The dharma of the tathāgata's appearance is boundless, and the confused world is unable to know it; wishing to awaken every sentient being, I have spoken of it through similes where no true simile exists."
「佛子！諸菩薩摩訶薩應云何見如來、應、正等覺身？「佛子！諸菩薩摩訶薩應於無量處見如來身。何以故？諸菩薩摩訶薩不應於一法、一事、一身、一國土、一眾生見於如來，應遍一切處見於如來。佛子！譬如虛空遍至一切色、非色處，非至、非不至。何以故？虛空無身故。如來身亦如是，遍一切處，遍一切眾生，遍一切法，遍一切國土，非至、非不至。何以故？如來身無身故，為眾生故示現其身。佛子！是為如來身第一相，諸菩薩摩訶薩應如是見。「復次，佛子！譬如虛空寬廣非色，而能顯現一切諸色，而彼虛空無有分別亦無戲論。如來身亦復如是，以智光明普照明故，令一切眾生世、出世間諸善根業皆得成就，而如來身無有分別亦無戲論。何以故？從本已來，一切執著、一切戲論皆永斷故。佛子！是為如來身第二相，諸菩薩摩訶薩應如是見。
"Sons of the Buddha! How should bodhisattva-mahāsattvas behold the body of the tathāgata, the worthy one, the perfectly and fully awakened one? Sons of the Buddha! Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas should behold the tathāgata's body in measureless places. Why is this? Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas should not behold the tathāgata in a single dharma, a single event, a single body, a single land, or a single sentient being; they should behold the tathāgata pervading every place. Sons of the Buddha! It is like empty space, which pervasively reaches every place of form and every place without form, and yet neither arrives nor fails to arrive. Why is this? Because empty space has no body. The tathāgata's body is likewise just the same: pervading every place, pervading every sentient being, pervading every dharma, pervading every land, and yet neither arriving nor failing to arrive. Why is this? Because the tathāgata's body is without a body of its own, and displays a body only for the sake of sentient beings. Sons of the Buddha! This is the first mark of the tathāgata's body — bodhisattva-mahāsattvas should behold it thus. "Furthermore, Sons of the Buddha! It is like empty space, vast and expansive and without form, and yet able to display every form there is, while that empty space itself has no discrimination and no idle discourse. The tathāgata's body is likewise just the same: through the universal illumination of the light of wisdom, he causes every sentient being's own wholesome roots and actions, mundane and transmundane alike, to be brought to completion, while the tathāgata's body itself has no discrimination and no idle discourse. Why is this? Because, from the very beginning, every attachment and every idle discourse has been forever severed. Sons of the Buddha! This is the second mark of the tathāgata's body — bodhisattva-mahāsattvas should behold it thus.
如來身無身故，為眾生故示現其身 — the tathāgata's body is without a body of its own, and displays a body only for the sake of sentient beings. This first mark reverses the ordinary expectation that a visible body is the more basic fact, and its universality something added on top; here bodilessness is the tathāgata's actual condition, and any particular visible body is the secondary, deliberately shown thing — present only because sentient beings need something to see.
Part 647 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-seven, 如來出現品, in fascicle fifty. Part 648 continues with the third and fourth marks of the tathāgata's own body, likening it to the sun that benefits every being in Jambudvīpa without ever choosing to favor one place before another.