An Empty-Space Simile, Unchanged by Any World's Rise or Fall
Empty space never grows or shrinks no matter how many worlds form or collapse within it, and awakening is no different — a claim tested by a riddle about conjured minds conjuring buddhas, answered by Wondrous Virtue Born of the Tathāgata's Nature and confirmed by Samantabhadra, before the section closes with a buddha dwelling in every pore of the tathāgata's body and in every sentient being's own mind, thought after thought.
A Riddle That Answers Itself
The chapter poses its own trick question — how many buddhas would conjured minds conjuring buddhas produce? — only so that Wondrous Virtue Born of the Tathāgata's Nature and Samantabhadra can dissolve it together: since awakening has no mark to begin with, counting it was never the right question, whether the minds doing the conjuring are real or imagined.
佛子！譬如虛空，一切世界若成若壞，常無增減。何以故？虛空無生故。諸佛菩提亦復如是，若成正覺、不成正覺，亦無增減。何以故？菩提無相、無非相，無一、無種種故。佛子！假使有人能化作恒河沙等心，一一心復化作恒河沙等佛，皆無色、無形、無相，如是盡恒河沙等劫無有休息。佛子！於汝意云何？彼人化心，化作如來，凡有幾何？」如來性起妙德菩薩言：「如我解於仁所說義，化與不化等無有別，云何問言凡有幾何？」普賢菩薩言：「善哉善哉！佛子！如汝所說，設一切眾生，於一念中悉成正覺，與不成正覺等無有異。何以故？菩提無相故；若無有相，則無增無減。
"Sons of the Buddha! It is like empty space: whether every world-system forms or collapses, it is always without increase or decrease. Why is this? Because empty space is unborn. The awakening of every buddha is likewise so: whether perfect awakening is attained or not attained, it is likewise without increase or decrease. Why is this? Because awakening is without any mark and without the absence of a mark, without oneness and without multiplicity. Sons of the Buddha! Suppose someone were able to conjure minds as numerous as the sands of the Gaṅgā, and each single mind were to conjure buddhas as numerous as the sands of the Gaṅgā again, each entirely without color, without shape, without any mark — and suppose this continued without rest for as many kalpas as there are sands in the Gaṅgā. Sons of the Buddha! What do you think — this person's conjured minds, having conjured tathāgatas, how many are there in all?" The bodhisattva Wondrous Virtue Born of the Tathāgata's Nature said: "As I understand the meaning of what you, the honored one, have said, the conjured and the unconjured are equally without any distinction at all — how, then, could one ask how many there are in all?" Samantabhadra Bodhisattva said: "Excellent, excellent! Sons of the Buddha! Just as you have said: even if every sentient being, within a single thought, were to attain perfect awakening entirely, this would be no different at all from their not attaining it. Why is this? Because awakening is without any mark; and if it is without any mark, then there is neither increase nor decrease.
佛子！菩薩摩訶薩應如是知成等正覺同於菩提一相無相。如來成正覺時，以一相方便入善覺智三昧；入已，於一成正覺廣大身，現一切眾生數等身住於身中。如一成正覺廣大身，一切成正覺廣大身悉亦如是。佛子！如來有如是等無量成正覺門，是故應知如來所現身無有量；以無量故，說如來身為無量界、等眾生界。佛子！菩薩摩訶薩應知如來身一毛孔中，有一切眾生數等諸佛身。何以故？如來成正覺身究竟無生滅故。如一毛孔遍法界，一切毛孔悉亦如是，當知無有少許處空無佛身。何以故？如來成正覺，無處不至故；隨其所能，隨其勢力，於道場菩提樹下師子座上，以種種身成等正覺。佛子！菩薩摩訶薩應知自心念念常有佛成正覺。何以故？諸佛如來不離此心成正覺故。如自心，一切眾生心亦復如是，悉有如來成等正覺，廣大周遍，無處不有，不離不斷，無有休息，入不思議方便法門。佛子！菩薩摩訶薩應如是知如來成正覺。」
Sons of the Buddha! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva should know in just this way that attaining perfect awakening is identical to awakening's own single mark, which is the mark of having no mark. At the moment the tathāgata attains perfect awakening, through the skillful means of that single mark he enters the samādhi of skillful, awakened wisdom; having entered it, within his one vast body of perfect awakening, he manifests bodies equal in number to every sentient being, dwelling within that very body. And just as this is true of his one vast body of perfect awakening, it is likewise true of every vast body of perfect awakening. Sons of the Buddha! The tathāgata has measureless gateways to perfect awakening such as these, and therefore one should know that the bodies the tathāgata manifests are without measure; and because they are without measure, the tathāgata's body is said to be a measureless realm, equal to the realm of every sentient being. Sons of the Buddha! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva should know that within a single pore of the tathāgata's body there are buddha-bodies equal in number to every sentient being. Why is this? Because the body of the tathāgata's perfect awakening is, in the end, without birth or cessation. Just as a single pore pervades the whole dharma-realm, every pore is likewise so, and one should know that there is not the slightest place empty of a buddha-body. Why is this? Because the tathāgata's perfect awakening reaches every place without exception; according to each being's own capacity and each being's own power, he attains perfect awakening in a body of every kind, seated upon the lion-throne beneath the bodhi tree at the site of awakening. Sons of the Buddha! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva should know that within their own mind, thought after thought, a buddha is always attaining perfect awakening. Why is this? Because every buddha tathāgata attains perfect awakening without ever departing from this very mind. Just as this is true of one's own mind, it is likewise true of the mind of every sentient being: each one entirely holds the tathāgata attaining perfect awakening, vast and all-pervading, present in every place without exception, never departing and never interrupted, never resting, entering the inconceivable gateway of skillful means. Sons of the Buddha! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva should come to know the tathāgata's attainment of perfect awakening in just this way."
化與不化等無有別，云何問言凡有幾何 — the conjured and the unconjured are equally without any distinction at all; how, then, could one ask how many there are in all? Wondrous Virtue Born of the Tathāgata's Nature refuses the question on its own terms rather than attempting an answer, and Samantabhadra's "excellent, excellent" confirms that refusing it was the correct response — a small enacted lesson in a chapter otherwise built from long declarative lists, showing what it looks like to actually apply the teaching that awakening has no mark, rather than simply stating it.
Part 673 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-seven, 如來出現品, in fascicle fifty-two. Part 674 restates this whole section on perfect awakening in verse, then opens a final new section on how the tathāgata turns the dharma-wheel.