A Voice With No Origin in Body or Mind
Three marks turn from heavenly and divine similes to nāga kings: rain from Anavatapta that nourishes Jambudvīpa without ever coming from his own body or mind, a nāga who patiently waits seven days so his rain will not disturb anyone's unfinished work, and a nāga named Great Adornment whose undifferentiated water becomes a thousand distinct, adorned rains according only to his own inconceivable power.
Rain From Neither Body Nor Mind, Timed With Care
Three nāga kings model three separate qualities of the tathāgata's voice: benefit that comes from neither inside nor outside a body, patience that waits for the right moment rather than acting the instant it is able, and a single undifferentiated source producing rains as numerous and varied as the beings who receive them.
「復次，佛子！譬如阿那婆達多龍王興大密雲，遍閻浮提普霔甘雨，百穀苗稼皆得生長，江河泉池一切盈滿；此大雨水不從龍王身心中出，而能種種饒益眾生。佛子！如來、應、正等覺亦復如是，興大悲雲遍十方界，普雨無上甘露法雨，令一切眾生皆生歡喜，增長善法，滿足諸乘。佛子！如來音聲不從外來、不從內出，而能饒益一切眾生。是為如來音聲第七相，諸菩薩摩訶薩應如是知。「復次，佛子！譬如摩那斯龍王將欲降雨，未便即降，先起大雲彌覆虛空凝停七日，待諸眾生作務究竟。何以故？彼大龍王有慈悲心，不欲惱亂諸眾生故。過七日已，降微細雨普潤大地。佛子！如來、應、正等覺亦復如是，將降法雨，未便即降，先興法雲成熟眾生，為欲令其心無驚怖；待其熟已，然後普降甘露法雨，演說甚深微妙善法，漸次令其滿足如來一切智智無上法味。佛子！是為如來音聲第八相，諸菩薩摩訶薩應如是知。
"Furthermore, Sons of the Buddha! It is like the nāga king Anavatapta, who raises a great, dense cloud and pours down sweet rain throughout Jambudvīpa, so that every kind of grain and crop grows and thrives, and every river, spring, and pool is entirely filled; and yet this great rainwater does not issue from that nāga king's own body or mind, and yet is able to benefit sentient beings in every manner. Sons of the Buddha! The tathāgata, the worthy one, the perfectly and fully awakened one, is likewise just the same: raising a cloud of great compassion throughout the ten directions, he universally rains down the unsurpassed sweet rain of dharma, causing every sentient being to rejoice, increasing their wholesome dharmas, and satisfying every vehicle. Sons of the Buddha! The tathāgata's voice comes from nowhere outside, and issues from nowhere inside, and yet is able to benefit every sentient being. This is the seventh mark of the tathāgata's voice — bodhisattva-mahāsattvas should know it thus. "Furthermore, Sons of the Buddha! It is like the nāga king Manasvin, who, when about to send down rain, does not do so all at once, but first raises a great cloud that spreads over empty space and remains suspended for seven days, waiting for every sentient being to finish their own work. Why is this? Because that great nāga king has a heart of loving-kindness and compassion, and does not wish to trouble or disturb any sentient being. Only after seven days have passed does he send down a fine, gentle rain that universally moistens the great earth. Sons of the Buddha! The tathāgata, the worthy one, the perfectly and fully awakened one, is likewise just the same: when about to send down the rain of dharma, he does not do so all at once, but first raises a cloud of dharma to ripen sentient beings, wishing to keep their minds free of alarm and fear; only once they have ripened does he then universally send down the sweet rain of dharma, expounding the profound and subtle, wholesome dharma, gradually causing them to be satisfied with the unsurpassed dharma-flavor of the tathāgata's own all-knowing wisdom. Sons of the Buddha! This is the eighth mark of the tathāgata's voice — bodhisattva-mahāsattvas should know it thus.
「復次，佛子！譬如海中有大龍王，名：大莊嚴，於大海中降雨之時，或降十種莊嚴雨，或百、或千、或百千種莊嚴雨。佛子！水無分別，但以龍王不思議力令其莊嚴，乃至百千無量差別。如來、應、正等覺亦復如是，為諸眾生說法之時，或以十種差別音說，或百、或千、或以百千，或以八萬四千音聲說八萬四千行，乃至或以無量百千億那由他音聲各別說法，令其聞者皆生歡喜；如來音聲無所分別，但以諸佛於甚深法界圓滿清淨，能隨眾生根之所宜，出種種言音皆令歡喜。佛子！是為如來音聲第九相，諸菩薩摩訶薩應如是知。
"Furthermore, Sons of the Buddha! It is like how, in the ocean, there is a great nāga king named Great Adornment, and whenever he sends down rain within the great ocean, he sends down ten kinds of adorned rain, or a hundred, or a thousand, or a hundred thousand kinds of adorned rain. Sons of the Buddha! The water itself makes no discrimination; it is only through the nāga king's own inconceivable power that it becomes adorned, reaching even a hundred thousand measureless distinctions. The tathāgata, the worthy one, the perfectly and fully awakened one, is likewise just the same: whenever he expounds the dharma for the sake of sentient beings, he may speak with ten kinds of distinct sounds, or a hundred, or a thousand, or a hundred thousand, or with eighty-four thousand sounds expounding eighty-four thousand practices, or even with measureless hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of sounds expounding the dharma each separately, causing every one who hears it to rejoice; and yet the tathāgata's voice makes no discrimination of its own — it is only because every buddha, within the profound dharma-realm, is perfectly complete and pure, that he is able, according to what suits the faculties of sentient beings, to produce every manner of speech and sound, causing them all to rejoice. Sons of the Buddha! This is the ninth mark of the tathāgata's voice — bodhisattva-mahāsattvas should know it thus.
先起大雲彌覆虛空凝停七日，待諸眾生作務究竟 — first raises a great cloud that spreads over empty space and remains suspended for seven days, waiting for every sentient being to finish their own work. The eighth mark's nāga king delays an ability he already possesses purely out of consideration for beings he has not yet even benefited — a compassion expressed through patience and timing rather than through the rain itself, matched to a tathāgata who likewise ripens his listeners before teaching them the deepest dharma, rather than teaching it the moment they are merely able to hear it.
Part 657 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-seven, 如來出現品, in fascicle fifty-one. Part 658 continues with the tenth and final mark, the nāga king Sāgara's storm-clouds of countless colors, each emitting lightning of a color entirely different from its own.