The Voice Teaching's Verse Recap
Ten marks that took an entire section in prose are here compressed into ten quatrain pairs — the world-ending sounds, the echo with no shape, the heavenly drum, the dancer's hundred thousand melodies, Brahmā's assembly each hearing itself addressed alone, water's single flavor, and the four nāga kings from Anavatapta to Sāgara — closing the whole teaching on the tathāgata's voice before a new question opens.
Ten Marks in Ten Pairs of Lines
Every simile from the prose section returns here in miniature — a single pair of lines for the world-ending sounds, the echo, the drum, the dancer, Brahmā, the waters, and each of the four nāga kings — moving at a pace the prose never allowed itself.
「三千世界將壞時，眾生福力聲告言，四禪寂靜無諸苦，令其聞已悉離欲。
十力世尊亦如是，出妙音聲遍法界，為說諸行苦無常，令其永度生死海。
譬如深山大谷中，隨有音聲皆響應，雖能隨逐他言語，而響畢竟無分別。
十力言音亦復然，隨其根熟為示現，令其調伏生歡喜，不念我今能演說。
如天有鼓名能覺，常於空中震法音，誡彼放逸諸天子，令其聞已得離著。
十力法鼓亦如是，出於種種妙音聲，覺悟一切諸群生，令其悉證菩提果。
自在天王有寶女，口中善奏諸音樂，一聲能出百千音，一一音中復百千。
善逝音聲亦如是，一聲而出一切音，隨其性欲有差別，各令聞已斷煩惱。
譬如梵王吐一音，能令梵眾皆歡喜，音唯及梵不出外，一一皆言己獨聞。
十力梵王亦復然，演一言音充法界，唯霑眾會不遠出，以無信故未能受。
"When the great trichiliocosm is about to be destroyed, the power of sentient beings' own merit declares in sound: the tranquility of the four dhyānas is free of every suffering; hearing this, they entirely depart from desire.
The world-honored one of the ten powers is likewise just the same: emitting a wondrous sound that pervades the dharma-realm, expounding that every conditioned activity is suffering and impermanent, causing them to forever cross the ocean of birth and death.
It is like within a deep mountain's great valley, wherever there is a sound, an echo answers it; though it is able to follow another's speech, the echo ultimately has no discrimination of its own.
The speech of the ten powers is likewise just the same: displayed according to the ripeness of each one's own faculties, causing them to be tamed and to give rise to joy, without ever thinking, "I am now able to expound."
It is like how the gods have a drum named Able to Awaken, constantly shaking the dharma-sound within empty space, admonishing those negligent sons of heaven, causing them, upon hearing it, to depart from attachment.
The dharma-drum of the ten powers is likewise just the same: emitting every manner of wondrous sound, awakening every multitude of beings, causing them all to attain the fruit of awakening.
The sovereign heavenly king has a jeweled woman, skillfully playing every music from within her mouth; a single sound is able to produce a hundred thousand tones, and within each and every tone there are further a hundred thousand.
The well-gone one's own voice is likewise just the same: from a single sound issues every sound, differing according to each one's own nature and desire, each causing them, upon hearing it, to sever their afflictions.
It is like how the Brahmā king utters a single sound, causing the entire Brahmā assembly to rejoice; the sound reaches only the Brahmā realm and goes no further, and yet each and every one of them says they alone have heard it.
The Brahmā king of the ten powers is likewise just the same: expounding a single word that fills the dharma-realm, and yet it touches only the assembly and travels no further, since, lacking faith, they are unable to receive it.
譬如眾水同一性，八功德味無差別，因地在器各不同，是故令其種種異。
一切智音亦如是，法性一味無分別，隨諸眾生行不同，故使聽聞種種異。
譬如無熱大龍王，降雨普洽閻浮地，能令草樹皆生長，而不從身及心出。
諸佛妙音亦如是，普雨法界悉充洽，能令生善滅諸惡，不從內外而得有。
譬如摩那斯龍王，興雲七日未先雨，待諸眾生作務竟，然後始降成利益。
十力演義亦如是，先化眾生使成熟，然後為說甚深法，令其聞者不驚怖。
大莊嚴龍於海中，霔於十種莊嚴雨，或百或千百千種，水雖一味莊嚴別。
究竟辯才亦如是，說十二十諸法門，或百或千至無量，不生心念有殊別。
最勝龍王娑竭羅，興雲普覆四天下，於一切處雨各別，而彼龍心無二念。
諸佛法王亦如是，大悲身雲遍十方，為諸修行雨各異，而於一切無分別。」
It is like how every kind of water shares the same one nature, the flavor of its eight virtues without any difference; because the ground and the vessels differ, it is caused thereby to become manifold and distinct.
The voice of all-knowing wisdom is likewise just the same: the nature of dharma is a single flavor, without any discrimination; it is only because the conduct of sentient beings differs that what is heard becomes manifold and distinct.
It is like the great nāga king Anavatapta, sending down rain that universally moistens the land of Jambudvīpa, able to cause every grass and tree to grow, and yet it does not issue from his own body or mind.
The wondrous voice of every buddha is likewise just the same: universally raining upon the dharma-realm, entirely saturating it, able to give rise to what is wholesome and extinguish every evil, and yet arising from neither within nor without.
It is like the nāga king Manasvin, raising clouds for seven days without raining first, waiting for every sentient being to finish their own work, and only then sending down rain that accomplishes their benefit.
The exposition of meaning by the ten powers is likewise just the same: first transforming sentient beings to bring them to ripeness, and only then expounding the profound dharma, causing whoever hears it to feel no alarm.
The nāga Great Adornment, within the ocean, pours down ten kinds of adorned rain, or a hundred, or a thousand, or a hundred thousand kinds; though the water is of a single flavor, its adornment differs.
Ultimate eloquence is likewise just the same: expounding ten or twenty dharma-gates, or a hundred, or a thousand, up to measureless numbers, without ever giving rise to a thought that there is any real distinction between them.
The most excellent nāga king, Sāgara, raises clouds that universally cover the four continents, raining differently in every place, and yet that nāga's own mind holds no thought of duality.
Every buddha, king of dharma, is likewise just the same: his cloud of great compassion pervading the ten directions, raining differently for the sake of every practitioner, and yet without any discrimination toward any of them."
不生心念有殊別 — without ever giving rise to a thought that there is any real distinction between them. Applied here to Great Adornment's rain and the tathāgata's own eloquence, this exact phrase — denying that the source of a multiplicity ever experiences that multiplicity as difference — has now appeared, in one wording or another, attached to nearly every simile in this entire section: the echo, the drum, the dancer, Brahmā, the waters, and four separate nāga kings. The verse's real achievement is not variety of image but the relentless repetition of a single claim through as many images as can be found to carry it.
Part 661 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-seven, 如來出現品, in fascicle fifty-one. Part 662 continues with a new question — how should a bodhisattva come to know the tathāgata's own mind? — opening with the claim that mind, thought, and consciousness can none of them ever be found in him.