The Tathāgata's Own Domain Begins
Having finished the tathāgata's mind, this new question turns to his domain — identical to every domain of the world, of the three times, of every land, and even to the domain of having no domain at all — and opens with a rain that comes from neither inside nor outside a nāga king, before beginning the sutra's grandest ocean simile yet: twenty-five thousand rivers pouring from the four continents into the sea.
The Domain of No Domain at All
Every domain there is — of the world, the three times, sentient beings, even the domain of having no domain — is declared identical to the tathāgata's own; a nāga's rain becomes the image for how that domain manifests without any place of origin, and the great ocean of all-knowing wisdom opens with the rivers that first fill an ordinary ocean.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩應云何知如來、應、正等覺境界？佛子！菩薩摩訶薩以無障無礙智慧，知一切世間境界是如來境界，知一切三世境界、一切剎境界、一切法境界、一切眾生境界、真如無差別境界、法界無障礙境界、實際無邊際境界、虛空無分量境界、無境界境界是如來境界。佛子！如一切世間境界無量，如來境界亦無量；如一切三世境界無量，如來境界亦無量；乃至，如無境界境界無量，如來境界亦無量；如無境界境界一切處無有，如來境界亦如是一切處無有。佛子！菩薩摩訶薩應知心境界是如來境界。如心境界無量無邊、無縛無脫，如來境界亦無量無邊、無縛無脫。何以故？以如是如是思惟分別，如是如是無量顯現故。佛子！如大龍王隨心降雨，其雨不從內出、不從外出。如來境界亦復如是，隨於如是思惟分別，則有如是無量顯現，於十方中悉無來處。佛子！如大海水，皆從龍王心力所起。諸佛如來一切智海亦復如是，皆從如來往昔大願之所生起。
"Sons of the Buddha! How should bodhisattva-mahāsattvas come to know the domain of the tathāgata, the worthy one, the perfectly and fully awakened one? Sons of the Buddha! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva, through unobstructed, unhindered wisdom, knows that every domain of the world is the tathāgata's own domain; knows that every domain of the three times, every domain of every land, every domain of every dharma, every domain of every sentient being, the undifferentiated domain of suchness, the unobstructed domain of the dharma-realm, the boundless domain of ultimate reality, the measureless domain of empty space, and the domain of having no domain at all are all the tathāgata's own domain. Sons of the Buddha! Just as every domain of the world is measureless, the tathāgata's domain is likewise measureless; just as every domain of the three times is measureless, the tathāgata's domain is likewise measureless; and so on, up to: just as the domain of having no domain is measureless, the tathāgata's domain is likewise measureless; just as the domain of having no domain exists nowhere at all, the tathāgata's domain is likewise present nowhere at all. Sons of the Buddha! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva should know that the domain of mind is the tathāgata's own domain. Just as the domain of mind is measureless, boundless, without bondage and without release, the tathāgata's domain is likewise measureless, boundless, without bondage and without release. Why is this? Because, according to just such and such reflection and discrimination, just such and such measureless manifestation appears. Sons of the Buddha! It is like how a great nāga king sends down rain according to his own mind, and yet that rain issues neither from within nor from without. The tathāgata's domain is likewise just the same: according to just such reflection and discrimination, there arises just such measureless manifestation, and yet, throughout the ten directions, it has no place of origin at all. Sons of the Buddha! It is like how the waters of the great ocean all arise from the power of a nāga king's own mind. The ocean of all-knowing wisdom of every buddha tathāgata is likewise just the same: it entirely arises from the great vow the tathāgata made in ages past.
「佛子！一切智海無量無邊，不可思議，不可言說；然我今者略說譬諭，汝應諦聽。佛子！此閻浮提有二千五百河流入大海，西拘耶尼有五千河流入大海，東弗婆提有七千五百河流入大海，北欝單越有一萬河流入大海。「佛子！此四天下，如是二萬五千河相續不絕流入大海。於意云何，此水多不？」答言：「甚多。」
"Sons of the Buddha! The ocean of all-knowing wisdom is measureless and boundless, inconceivable, and beyond words; and yet I shall now speak of it briefly through a simile — you should listen closely. Sons of the Buddha! This Jambudvīpa has two thousand five hundred rivers flowing into the great ocean; Godānīya to the west has five thousand rivers flowing into the great ocean; Pūrvavideha to the east has seven thousand five hundred rivers flowing into the great ocean; and Uttarakuru to the north has ten thousand rivers flowing into the great ocean. "Sons of the Buddha! Throughout these four continents, twenty-five thousand rivers in this way flow into the great ocean, continuing without interruption. What do you think — is this water abundant or not?" He answered: "Exceedingly abundant."
如無境界境界一切處無有，如來境界亦如是一切處無有 — just as the domain of having no domain exists nowhere at all, the tathāgata's domain is likewise present nowhere at all. The opening list of domains climbs steadily toward paradox, ending not with a domain of the greatest possible extent but with the domain of having no domain whatsoever — and rather than treating this final case as an exception, the text applies the identical measurelessness formula to it that it applied to every ordinary domain before it, matching absence itself to the same standard as presence.
Part 668 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-seven, 如來出現品, in fascicle fifty-two. Part 669 continues the ocean simile with eighty koṭis of great nāga kings, each doubling the rain of the one before, filling the ocean of all-knowing wisdom to its true, immeasurable scale.