Benefit Even for the Blind
A person born blind still benefits from the sun, though they have never seen it; the tathāgata's wisdom-sun is shown reaching, in exactly this way, those without the faith or understanding to ever perceive it directly — and from a thousand named lights emitted from every pore, its benefit cascades outward to bodhisattvas, pratyekabuddhas, śrāvakas, the blind, and even beings trapped in the hells, the hungry-ghost realm, and the animal realm.
A Thousand Lights, Reaching Every Realm
The sun benefits those who cannot see it as surely as those who can; from every pore of the tathāgata's body, a thousand named lights carry that same unseen benefit outward, reaching every level of the assembly, down to beings suffering in the lowest realms.
「復次，佛子！譬如日出，生盲眾生無眼根故，未曾得見。雖未曾見，然為日光之所饒益。何以故？因此得知晝夜時節，受用種種衣服、飲食，令身調適離眾患故。如來智日亦復如是，無信、無解、毀戒、毀見、邪命自活生盲之類無信眼故，不見諸佛智慧日輪。雖不見佛智慧日輪，亦為智日之所饒益。何以故？以佛威力，令彼眾生所有身苦及諸煩惱、未來苦因皆消滅故。佛子！如來有光明，名：積集一切功德；有光明，名：普照一切；有光明，名：清淨自在照；有光明，名：出大妙音；有光明，名：普解一切語言法令他歡喜；有光明，名：示現永斷一切疑自在境界；有光明，名：無住智自在普照；有光明，名：永斷一切戲論自在智；有光明，名：隨所應出妙音聲；有光明，名：出清淨自在音莊嚴國土成熟眾生。
"Furthermore, Sons of the Buddha! It is like when the sun rises: sentient beings born blind, lacking the faculty of the eye, have never once been able to see it. Although they have never seen it, they are nonetheless benefited by the sun's own light. Why is this? Because of it, they come to know the times of day and night, and can make use of every kind of clothing and food, keeping the body regulated and free of every affliction. The tathāgata's own sun of wisdom is likewise just the same: those of the kind born blind through lacking faith, lacking understanding, breaking the precepts, breaking right view, and sustaining themselves through wrong livelihood, lacking the eye of faith, do not see the solar disk of the wisdom of every buddha. Although they do not see the solar disk of the buddha's own wisdom, they are nonetheless benefited by the sun of wisdom. Why is this? Because, through the buddha's own majestic power, whatever bodily suffering, affliction, and cause of future suffering those sentient beings have is thereby entirely dissolved. Sons of the Buddha! The tathāgata has a light named Accumulating Every Merit; a light named Universally Illuminating All; a light named Pure and Sovereign Illumination; a light named Emitting a Great, Wondrous Sound; a light named Universally Explaining Every Language and Dharma to Bring Others Joy; a light named Displaying the Sovereign Domain of the Eternal Severance of Every Doubt; a light named the Sovereign Wisdom of Non-Abiding Universally Illuminating; a light named the Sovereign Wisdom of the Eternal Severance of Every Idle Discourse; a light named Emitting a Wondrous Sound According to What Is Needed; and a light named Emitting a Pure, Sovereign Sound That Adorns Lands and Ripens Sentient Beings.
佛子！如來一一毛孔放如是等千種光明，五百光明普照下方，五百光明普照上方。種種剎中種種佛所諸菩薩眾，其菩薩等見此光明，一時皆得如來境界，十頭、十眼、十耳、十鼻、十舌、十身、十手、十足、十地、十智，皆悉清淨。彼諸菩薩先所成就諸處諸地，見彼光明轉更清淨，一切善根皆悉成熟，趣一切智；住二乘者，滅一切垢；其餘一分生盲眾生，身既快樂，心亦清淨，柔軟調伏，堪修念智；地獄、餓鬼、畜生諸趣所有眾生，皆得快樂，解脫眾苦，命終皆生天上、人間。
Sons of the Buddha! From each and every pore of his body, the tathāgata emits a thousand kinds of light such as these — five hundred lights universally illuminating the lower direction, and five hundred lights universally illuminating the upper direction. The assemblies of bodhisattvas in the presence of every buddha, throughout every manner of land, upon beholding this light, at once all attain the tathāgata's own domain — ten heads, ten eyes, ten ears, ten noses, ten tongues, ten bodies, ten hands, ten feet, ten grounds, and ten wisdoms, all of them made entirely pure. Those bodhisattvas, in the every place and every ground they had already accomplished, upon beholding that light, become purer still, every one of their wholesome roots brought to ripeness, advancing toward all-knowing wisdom; those dwelling in the two lesser vehicles have every defilement extinguished; the remaining portion of sentient beings born blind become physically at ease, their minds likewise made pure, gentle and tamed, fit to cultivate mindfulness and wisdom; and every sentient being in the destinies of the hells, the hungry ghosts, and the animals alike attains ease, is delivered from every suffering, and upon the end of that life is reborn in the heavens or the human realm.
雖未曾見，然為日光之所饒益 — although they have never seen it, they are nonetheless benefited by the sun's own light. The fifth mark's opening claim quietly reframes what counts as receiving a benefit — perception is not the precondition for it. This single principle, established first with an ordinary blind person and the physical sun, is then extended in one unbroken movement all the way down to beings in the lowest hells, who receive the identical structure of benefit from a light they, too, could never see coming.
Part 649 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-seven, 如來出現品, in fascicle fifty. Part 650 continues the fifth mark's narrative, as beings freed from suffering wonder how it happened, and briefly mistake themselves for the god Brahmā.