The Tathāgata's Own Voice Begins
Having finished the tathāgata's body, Samantabhadra turns to his voice — first ten qualities by which it should be known, then a simile of a world's own final destruction, when four ownerless sounds arise unbidden to guide beings up through the four dhyānas, before the tathāgata's own four great sounds begin in just the same way, the first proclaiming that every conditioned thing is suffering.
A Voice With No Owner and No Maker
Ten qualities open the teaching on the tathāgata's voice; then a simile shifts from a world's beginning to its very end, where four sounds with no owner and no maker arise on their own to carry beings upward through the four dhyānas — a pattern the tathāgata's own voice will now repeat.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩應云何知如來、應、正等覺音聲？「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩應知如來音聲遍至，普遍無量諸音聲故；應知如來音聲隨其心樂皆令歡喜，說法明了故；應知如來音聲隨其信解皆令歡喜，心得清涼故；應知如來音聲化不失時，所應聞者無不聞故；應知如來音聲無生滅，如呼響故；應知如來音聲無主，修習一切業所起故；應知如來音聲甚深，難可度量故；應知如來音聲無邪曲，法界所生故；應知如來音聲無斷絕，普入法界故；應知如來音聲無變易，至於究竟故。佛子！菩薩摩訶薩應知如來音聲，非量、非無量，非主、非無主，非示、非無示。何以故？
"Sons of the Buddha! How should bodhisattva-mahāsattvas come to know the voice of the tathāgata, the worthy one, the perfectly and fully awakened one? Sons of the Buddha! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva should know that the tathāgata's voice reaches everywhere, because it universally pervades measureless other voices; should know that the tathāgata's voice causes joy according to each one's own delight, because it expounds the dharma with clarity; should know that the tathāgata's voice causes joy according to each one's own faith and understanding, because it brings coolness to the mind; should know that the tathāgata's voice transforms beings without ever missing the right moment, because whoever should hear it will hear it without exception; should know that the tathāgata's voice is without arising or ceasing, because it is like a called-out echo; should know that the tathāgata's voice has no owner, because it arises from the cultivation of every kind of karma; should know that the tathāgata's voice is profound, because it is difficult to fathom or measure; should know that the tathāgata's voice is without any crookedness, because it is born from the dharma-realm; should know that the tathāgata's voice is without interruption, because it universally enters the dharma-realm; and should know that the tathāgata's voice is without change, because it reaches to the very ultimate. Sons of the Buddha! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva should know that the tathāgata's voice is neither of a measure nor without measure, neither having an owner nor without an owner, neither a display nor without a display. Why is this?
佛子！譬如世界將欲壞時，無主無作，法爾而出四種音聲。其四者何？一曰：『汝等當知初禪安樂，離諸欲惡，超過欲界。』眾生聞已，自然而得成就初禪，捨欲界身，生於梵天。二曰：『汝等當知二禪安樂，無覺無觀，超於梵天。』眾生聞已，自然而得成就二禪，捨梵天身，生光音天。三曰：『汝等當知三禪安樂，無有過失，超光音天。』眾生聞已，自然而得成就三禪，捨光音身，生遍淨天。四曰：『汝等當知四禪寂靜，超遍淨天。』眾生聞已，自然而得成就四禪，捨遍淨身，生廣果天。是為四。佛子！此諸音聲無主無作，但從眾生諸善業力之所出生。佛子！如來音聲亦復如是，無主無作，無有分別，非入非出，但從如來功德法力，出於四種廣大音聲。其四者何？一曰：『汝等當知一切諸行皆悉是苦，所謂：地獄苦、畜生苦、餓鬼苦、無福德苦、著我我所苦、作諸惡行苦。欲生人、天當種善根；生人、天中，離諸難處。』眾生聞已，捨離顛倒，修諸善行，離諸難處，生人、天中。
Sons of the Buddha! It is like when a world is about to be destroyed: without any owner, without any maker, four kinds of sound naturally arise of themselves. What are these four? The first declares: 'You should know the ease and joy of the first dhyāna, departing from every desire and evil, surpassing the desire realm.' Sentient beings, having heard it, naturally accomplish the first dhyāna, cast off their body of the desire realm, and are born in the Brahmā heaven. The second declares: 'You should know the ease and joy of the second dhyāna, without thought and without examination, surpassing the Brahmā heaven.' Sentient beings, having heard it, naturally accomplish the second dhyāna, cast off their body of the Brahmā heaven, and are born in the heaven of streaming light. The third declares: 'You should know the ease and joy of the third dhyāna, without any fault, surpassing the heaven of streaming light.' Sentient beings, having heard it, naturally accomplish the third dhyāna, cast off their body of streaming light, and are born in the heaven of universal purity. The fourth declares: 'You should know the tranquility of the fourth dhyāna, surpassing the heaven of universal purity.' Sentient beings, having heard it, naturally accomplish the fourth dhyāna, cast off their body of universal purity, and are born in the heaven of extensive reward. This is the four. Sons of the Buddha! These sounds have no owner and no maker; they arise only from the power of the wholesome karma of sentient beings themselves. Sons of the Buddha! The tathāgata's own voice is likewise just the same: without owner, without maker, without discrimination, neither entering nor issuing forth, arising only from the tathāgata's own power of meritorious dharma, in four kinds of vast and great sound. What are these four? The first declares: 'You should know that every conditioned activity is entirely suffering — namely, the suffering of the hells, the suffering of animals, the suffering of hungry ghosts, the suffering of lacking merit, the suffering of clinging to a self and to what belongs to a self, and the suffering of committing every evil deed. If you wish to be born among gods and humans, you should plant wholesome roots; being born among gods and humans, you depart from every place of difficulty.' Sentient beings, having heard it, abandon their inverted views, cultivate every wholesome practice, depart from every place of difficulty, and are born among gods and humans.
無主無作，法爾而出四種音聲 — without any owner, without any maker, four kinds of sound naturally arise of themselves. The simile is built on a cosmic event that requires no speaker at all — a dying world's own four sounds, arising from nothing but the collective karma of the beings within it — before applying the identical structure to the tathāgata's voice, which is likewise said to have no owner and no maker, arising instead from the tathāgata's own accumulated merit rather than from any act of speaking as ordinarily understood.
Part 654 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-seven, 如來出現品, in fascicle fifty-one. Part 655 continues with the remaining three of the tathāgata's four great sounds — the peril of saṃsāra, the choice between the two lesser vehicles, and the great vehicle that surpasses them both.