How the Tathāgata Attains Perfect Awakening Begins
Having finished the tathāgata's conduct, this new question turns to how he attains perfect awakening — omniscient within a single thought, an ocean that mirrors every being's form without holding any image of its own, thirteen bodies each equal in measure to a different totality, and a closing claim that every being's own awakening and even their entry into nirvāṇa already share the tathāgata's single nature: the nature of having no nature at all.
Thirteen Bodies, One Nature of No Nature
An ocean that mirrors every form without holding one of its own becomes the image for awakening itself; from there the text lists thirteen bodies, each equal in measure to a different totality, before folding all of it back into a single claim — that every being's own nature, awakened or not, was never anything but this same nature of having no nature at all.
「佛子！諸菩薩摩訶薩應云何知如來、應、正等覺成正覺？佛子！菩薩摩訶薩應知如來成正覺，於一切義無所觀察，於法平等無所疑惑，無二無相，無行無止，無量無際，遠離二邊，住於中道，出過一切文字言說，知一切眾生心念所行、根性欲樂、煩惱染習；舉要言之，於一念中悉知三世一切諸法。佛子！譬如大海普能印現四天下中一切眾生色身形像，是故共說以為大海；諸佛菩提亦復如是，普現一切眾生心念、根性樂欲而無所現，是故說名諸佛菩提。佛子！諸佛菩提，一切文字所不能宣，一切音聲所不能及，一切言語所不能說，但隨所應方便開示。
"Sons of the Buddha! How should bodhisattva-mahāsattvas come to know how the tathāgata, the worthy one, the perfectly and fully awakened one, attains perfect awakening? Sons of the Buddha! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva should know that when the tathāgata attains perfect awakening, he examines no particular meaning at all, and has no doubt at all regarding the equality of all dharmas; he is without duality, without any mark, without motion, without rest, measureless and without limit, having left the two extremes far behind and abiding in the middle way, passing beyond every written word and spoken statement; and he knows the mental activity, faculties, desires, and afflictive habits of every sentient being — in brief, within a single thought he knows every phenomenon of the three times in full. Sons of the Buddha! It is like how the great ocean is able to stamp and reflect the bodily forms and shapes of every sentient being throughout the four continents, which is why it is spoken of together as "the great ocean"; the awakening of every buddha is likewise so: it universally manifests the mental activity, faculties, and desires of every sentient being, and yet manifests nothing at all — which is why it is called "the awakening of the buddhas." Sons of the Buddha! The awakening of every buddha cannot be proclaimed by any written word, cannot be reached by any sound, and cannot be spoken by any language at all — it is only ever disclosed through whatever skillful means fits the occasion.
佛子！如來、應、正等覺成正覺時，得一切眾生量等身，得一切法量等身，得一切剎量等身，得一切三世量等身，得一切佛量等身，得一切語言量等身，得真如量等身，得法界量等身，得虛空界量等身，得無礙界量等身，得一切願量等身，得一切行量等身，得寂滅涅槃界量等身。佛子！如所得身，言語及心亦復如是，得如是等無量無數清淨三輪。佛子！如來成正覺時，於其身中普見一切眾生成正覺，乃至普見一切眾生入涅槃，皆同一性，所謂：無性。無何等性？所謂：無相性、無盡性、無生性、無滅性、無我性、無非我性、無眾生性、無非眾生性、無菩提性、無法界性、無虛空性，亦復無有成正覺性。知一切法皆無性故，得一切智，大悲相續，救度眾生。
Sons of the Buddha! At the moment the tathāgata, the worthy one, the perfectly and fully awakened one, attains perfect awakening, he attains a body equal in measure to every sentient being, a body equal in measure to every dharma, a body equal in measure to every land, a body equal in measure to the three times, a body equal in measure to every buddha, a body equal in measure to every language, a body equal in measure to suchness, a body equal in measure to the dharma-realm, a body equal in measure to the realm of empty space, a body equal in measure to the unobstructed realm, a body equal in measure to every vow, a body equal in measure to every practice, and a body equal in measure to the realm of still, extinguished nirvāṇa. Sons of the Buddha! Just as with the body he attains, his speech and mind are likewise so — he attains measureless, countless pure three wheels such as these. Sons of the Buddha! At the moment the tathāgata attains perfect awakening, within his own body he universally sees every sentient being attain perfect awakening, and even universally sees every sentient being enter nirvāṇa, all sharing one and the same nature — namely, the nature of having no nature at all. What is meant by having no nature? Namely: the nature of no mark, the nature of no exhaustion, the nature of no birth, the nature of no cessation, the nature of no self, the nature of no non-self, the nature of no sentient being, the nature of no non-sentient-being, the nature of no awakening, the nature of no dharma-realm, the nature of no empty space — and likewise the nature of no attaining of perfect awakening at all. Because he knows that every dharma is entirely without any nature at all, he attains all-knowing wisdom, and with great compassion continuing without interruption, he rescues and delivers sentient beings.
於其身中普見一切眾生成正覺，乃至普見一切眾生入涅槃，皆同一性，所謂：無性 — within his own body he universally sees every sentient being attain perfect awakening, and even sees every sentient being enter nirvāṇa, all sharing one and the same nature: the nature of having no nature at all. The eleven negated natures that follow are not eleven separate discoveries but one claim said eleven ways — that mark, arising, ceasing, selfhood, sentient being, awakening, the dharma-realm, and empty space were each never a fixed thing to begin with, which is exactly why they can appear, without contradiction, inside a single tathāgata's body all at once.
Part 672 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-seven, 如來出現品, in fascicle fifty-two. Part 673 continues this section with a simile of empty space, unchanged however many world-systems form or collapse within it, matched to the tathāgata's own awakening, unchanged whether or not any being attains it.