The Tathāgata's Body as the Sun
The sun over Jambudvīpa dispels darkness, dries the damp, ripens the grain, and opens the lotus without ever intending any of it; the tathāgata's own sun of wisdom is shown doing the same for every kind of benefit a sentient being could receive, and its light is shown falling on the tallest mountains before the lowest valley floor — not through any preference of the sun's own, but simply because that is the shape of the land it shines upon.
A Sun That Never Chooses Where It Shines
Two marks built on the same image of the sun: first its manifold, unintended benefits to every being beneath it, and second the order in which its light actually reaches the land — an order that belongs entirely to the terrain, never to any preference of the sun's own.
「復次，佛子！譬如日出於閻浮提，無量眾生皆得饒益。所謂：破闇作明，變濕令燥，生長草木，成熟穀稼，廓徹虛空，開敷蓮華，行者見道，居者辦業。何以故？日輪普放無量光故。佛子！如來智日亦復如是，以無量事普益眾生。所謂：滅惡生善，破愚為智，大慈救護，大悲度脫；令其增長根、力、覺分；令生深信，捨離濁心；令得見聞，不壞因果；令得天眼，見歿生處；令心無礙，不壞善根；令智修明，開敷覺華；令其發心，成就本行。何以故？如來廣大智慧日身，放無量光普照耀故。佛子！是為如來身第三相，諸菩薩摩訶薩應如是見。
"Furthermore, Sons of the Buddha! It is like when the sun rises over Jambudvīpa: measureless sentient beings all obtain its benefit. Namely: it dispels darkness and makes light; it changes what is damp and makes it dry; it causes grasses and trees to grow, and grain to ripen; it clears and opens empty space; it causes the lotus flower to open; it lets the traveler see the road, and lets the one who dwells complete their work. Why is this? Because the solar disk universally emits measureless light. Sons of the Buddha! The tathāgata's own sun of wisdom is likewise just the same, universally benefiting sentient beings through measureless activities. Namely: he extinguishes evil and gives rise to what is wholesome; he breaks apart ignorance and turns it into wisdom; through great loving-kindness he rescues and protects, and through great compassion he delivers; he causes their faculties, powers, and factors of awakening to increase; he causes them to give rise to deep faith and abandon a mind of turbidity; he causes them to gain sight and hearing that never damages cause and effect; he causes them to gain the heavenly eye, seeing where beings die and are born; he causes their minds to be unobstructed, never damaging their wholesome roots; he causes their wisdom to be cultivated to clarity, opening the flower of awakening; and he causes them to give rise to the resolve that accomplishes their original practice. Why is this? Because the tathāgata's own vast and great body of the sun of wisdom emits measureless light that universally shines forth. Sons of the Buddha! This is the third mark of the tathāgata's body — bodhisattva-mahāsattvas should behold it thus.
「復次，佛子！譬如日出於閻浮提，先照一切須彌山等諸大山王，次照黑山，次照高原，然後普照一切大地。日不作念：『我先照此，後照於彼。』但以山地有高下故，照有先後。如來、應、正等覺亦復如是，成就無邊法界智輪，常放無礙智慧光明，先照菩薩摩訶薩等諸大山王，次照緣覺，次照聲聞，次照決定善根眾生，隨其心器示廣大智，然後普照一切眾生，乃至邪定亦皆普及，為作未來利益因緣令成熟故。而彼如來大智日光不作是念：『我當先照菩薩大行，乃至後照邪定眾生。』但放光明平等普照，無礙無障，無所分別。佛子！譬如日月隨時出現，大山、幽谷普照無私。如來智慧亦復如是，普照一切無有分別，隨諸眾生根欲不同，智慧光明種種有異。佛子！是為如來身第四相，諸菩薩摩訶薩應如是見。
"Furthermore, Sons of the Buddha! It is like when the sun rises over Jambudvīpa: it first illuminates every great king of mountains such as Sumeru, next illuminates the dark mountains, next illuminates the high plateaus, and only afterward universally illuminates the entire great earth. The sun does not think: 'I shall illuminate this place first, and that place afterward.' It is only because the mountains and the land have height and lowness that its illumination has an earlier and a later. The tathāgata, the worthy one, the perfectly and fully awakened one, is likewise just the same: having accomplished the wheel of wisdom of the boundless dharma-realm, he constantly emits the unobstructed light of wisdom, first illuminating bodhisattva-mahāsattvas and other great kings of mountains, next illuminating the pratyekabuddhas, next illuminating the śrāvakas, next illuminating sentient beings of resolute wholesome roots, displaying vast wisdom according to each one's own capacity of mind, and only afterward universally illuminating every sentient being, reaching even those of fixed wrong views, in order to ripen the causes and conditions for their future benefit. And yet that great sun of wisdom's light does not think: 'I shall illuminate the great practice of bodhisattvas first, and illuminate beings of fixed wrong views only afterward.' It only emits its light, equally and universally illuminating, without obstruction, without hindrance, and without any discrimination. Sons of the Buddha! It is like how the sun and moon appear according to their season, illuminating great mountains and dark valleys alike, without any partiality. The tathāgata's own wisdom is likewise just the same, universally illuminating everything without discrimination, and yet, according to the differing faculties and desires of sentient beings, the light of that wisdom appears in every manner of different way. Sons of the Buddha! This is the fourth mark of the tathāgata's body — bodhisattva-mahāsattvas should behold it thus.
日不作念：『我先照此，後照於彼。』但以山地有高下故，照有先後 — the sun does not think: "I shall illuminate this place first, and that place afterward." It is only because the mountains and the land have height and lowness that its illumination has an earlier and a later. The fourth mark locates the entire cause of sequence and preference in the terrain, not the sun — a distinction the tathāgata's own wisdom-light repeats explicitly, denying in its own voice the very thought a listener might otherwise attribute to it, that bodhisattvas are illuminated first because they are somehow favored, rather than because their own capacity simply receives the identical light earliest.
Part 648 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-seven, 如來出現品, in fascicle fifty. Part 649 continues with the fifth mark, comparing the tathāgata's benefit even to those blind to it, to a sun that still warms those without eyes to see it.