Sāgara's Storm of a Thousand Colors
The tenth and final mark of the tathāgata's voice opens with the sutra's most elaborate weather yet: the nāga king Sāgara spreads clouds across twelve jeweled colors, each flashing lightning of a different color from its own, thunder in nine distinct voices from heavenly women to a lion's roar, and finally ten separately named rains, each suited exactly to the realm it falls upon — all from a single nāga whose own heart makes no distinction between any of them.
Clouds, Lightning, Thunder, and Ten Rains
Before the tathāgata's own parallel is drawn, the nāga king Sāgara's storm is described in full — clouds of twelve jeweled colors each flashing a different color of lightning, thunder in nine distinct voices, and ten separately named rains falling across the realms of gods, asuras, and nāgas alike, all from a single, undivided source.
「復次，佛子！譬如娑竭羅龍王，欲現龍王大自在力，饒益眾生咸令歡喜，從四天下乃至他化自在天處，興大雲網周匝彌覆。其雲色相無量差別，或閻浮檀金光明色，或毘瑠璃光明色，或白銀光明色，或玻瓈光明色，或牟薩羅光明色，或碼碯光明色，或勝藏光明色，或赤真珠光明色，或無量香光明色，或無垢衣光明色，或清淨水光明色，或種種莊嚴具光明色，如是雲網周匝彌布。既彌布已，出種種色電光。所謂：閻浮檀金色雲出瑠璃色電光，瑠璃色雲出金色電光，銀色雲出玻瓈色電光，玻瓈色雲出銀色電光，牟薩羅色雲出碼碯色電光，碼碯色雲出牟薩羅色電光，勝藏寶色雲出赤真珠色電光，赤真珠色雲出勝藏寶色電光，無量香色雲出無垢衣色電光，無垢衣色雲出無量香色電光，清淨水色雲出種種莊嚴具色電光，種種莊嚴具色雲出清淨水色電光；乃至種種色雲出一色電光，一色雲出種種色電光。
"Furthermore, Sons of the Buddha! It is like how the nāga king Sāgara, wishing to display a nāga king's own great sovereign power, benefiting sentient beings and causing them all to rejoice, raises a great net of clouds spreading and covering everywhere from the four continents up to the heaven of mastery over others' creations. The colors and forms of those clouds are measurelessly distinct: some are the color of Jambu-river gold's own light, some the color of vaidūrya's own light, some the color of white silver's own light, some the color of crystal's own light, some the color of musāragalva's own light, some the color of agate's own light, some the color of a supreme treasury's own light, some the color of red pearl's own light, some the color of measureless fragrance's own light, some the color of a stainless robe's own light, some the color of pure water's own light, and some the color of every manner of adornment's own light; the net of clouds spreads and covers everywhere in just this way. Having spread out entirely, it emits lightning of every manner of color: namely, the cloud of Jambu-river gold's color emits lightning of vaidūrya's color, the cloud of vaidūrya's color emits lightning of gold's color, the cloud of silver's color emits lightning of crystal's color, the cloud of crystal's color emits lightning of silver's color, the cloud of musāragalva's color emits lightning of agate's color, the cloud of agate's color emits lightning of musāragalva's color, the cloud of the supreme treasury's color emits lightning of red pearl's color, the cloud of red pearl's color emits lightning of the supreme treasury's color, the cloud of measureless fragrance's color emits lightning of the stainless robe's color, the cloud of the stainless robe's color emits lightning of measureless fragrance's color, the cloud of pure water's color emits lightning of every manner of adornment's color, and the cloud of every manner of adornment's color emits lightning of pure water's color; and so on, until clouds of every manner of color emit lightning of a single color, and a cloud of a single color emits lightning of every manner of color.
復於彼雲中出種種雷聲，隨眾生心皆令歡喜。所謂：或如天女歌詠音，或如諸天妓樂音，或如龍女歌詠音，或如乾闥婆女歌詠音，或如緊那羅女歌詠音，或如大地震動聲，或如海水波潮聲，或如獸王哮吼聲，或如好鳥鳴囀聲，及餘無量種種音聲。既震雷已，復起涼風，令諸眾生心生悅樂，然後乃降種種諸雨，利益安樂無量眾生。從他化天至於地上，於一切處所雨不同。所謂：於大海中雨清冷水，名：無斷絕；於他化自在天雨簫笛等種種樂音，名為：美妙；於化樂天雨大摩尼寶，名：放大光明；於兜率天雨大莊嚴具，名為：垂髻；於夜摩天雨大妙華，名：種種莊嚴具；於三十三天雨眾妙香，名為：悅意；於四天王天雨天寶衣，名為：覆蓋；於龍王宮雨赤真珠，名：涌出光明；於阿脩羅宮雨諸兵仗，名：降伏怨敵；於北欝單越雨種種華，名曰：開敷；餘三天下悉亦如是，然各隨其處，所雨不同。雖彼龍王其心平等無有彼此，但以眾生善根異故，雨有差別。
Further, from within those clouds, every manner of sound of thunder issues forth, causing every sentient being to rejoice according to their own mind. Namely: some are like the singing of heavenly women, some like the music of every heavenly being, some like the singing of nāga maidens, some like the singing of gandharva maidens, some like the singing of kiṃnara maidens, some like the sound of the great earth shaking, some like the sound of the ocean's own waves and tides, some like the roar of a king of beasts, some like the trilling call of a fine bird, and every other manner of measureless sound besides. Having thundered thus, a cool wind then rises, causing every sentient being's mind to give rise to delight and joy, and only afterward does every manner of rain descend, benefiting and giving ease to measureless sentient beings. From the heaven of mastery over others' creations down to the ground, the rain differs in every place. Namely: within the great ocean it rains cool, clear water, named Unceasing; in the heaven of mastery over others' creations it rains every manner of musical sound of flute and pipe, named Wondrous and Fine; in the heaven of delighting in creations it rains great maṇi jewels, named Emitting Great Light; in the Tuṣita heaven it rains great adornments, named Hanging Tresses; in the Yāma heaven it rains great, wondrous flowers, named Every Manner of Adornment; in the Trāyastriṃśa heaven it rains every wondrous fragrance, named Delighting the Mind; in the heaven of the four heavenly kings it rains heavenly jeweled robes, named Covering Canopy; in the palaces of the nāga kings it rains red pearls, named Springing Forth Light; in the palaces of the asuras it rains every manner of weapon, named Subduing the Enemy; in Uttarakuru to the north it rains every manner of flower, named Blossoming Forth; and it is likewise just the same throughout the remaining three continents, each according to its own place, the rain differing accordingly. Although that nāga king's own mind is equal, without any distinction between one and another, it is only because the wholesome roots of sentient beings differ that the rain comes to differ.
種種色雲出一色電光，一色雲出種種色電光 — clouds of every manner of color emit lightning of a single color, and a cloud of a single color emits lightning of every manner of color. After eleven paired reversals of specific colors, the passage closes the pattern with its own generalization stated both ways at once — many-to-one and one-to-many — refusing to let the list settle into a simple rule of "opposite colors pair," and instead asserting that the relationship between a cloud's color and its lightning admits no fixed correspondence at all.
Part 658 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-seven, 如來出現品, in fascicle fifty-one. Part 659 continues with the tathāgata's own parallel to Sāgara's storm — clouds of ten kinds of body, lightning of ten named lights, and thunderclaps of measureless samādhis.