The Tathāgata's Great Nirvāṇa Begins
The chapter's final topic opens with ten declarations that the tathāgata's nirvāṇa is identical to suchness, ultimate reality, the dharma-realm, and empty space itself, then explains why he never actually shows bodhisattvas his own final extinction — before a sunlight simile makes the point vivid: when a water vessel breaks and a reflection disappears, the fault was never the sun's.
A Reflection Fails, Never the Sun
Ten parallel declarations identify the tathāgata's nirvāṇa with suchness, ultimate reality, and every other name this chapter has already given to what cannot arise or cease, before a single, concrete image carries the whole teaching: sunlight never travels or fails, and a shattered vessel's dark reflection was always the vessel's fault, never the sun's.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩應云何知如來、應、正等覺般涅槃？佛子！菩薩摩訶薩欲知如來大涅槃者，當須了知根本自性。如真如涅槃，如來涅槃亦如是；如實際涅槃，如來涅槃亦如是；如法界涅槃，如來涅槃亦如是；如虛空涅槃，如來涅槃亦如是；如法性涅槃，如來涅槃亦如是；如離欲際涅槃，如來涅槃亦如是；如無相際涅槃，如來涅槃亦如是；如我性際涅槃，如來涅槃亦如是；如一切法性際涅槃，如來涅槃亦如是；如真如際涅槃，如來涅槃亦如是。何以故？涅槃無生無出故；若法無生無出，則無有滅。佛子！如來不為菩薩說諸如來究竟涅槃，亦不為彼示現其事。何以故？為欲令見一切如來常住其前，於一念中見過去、未來一切諸佛色相圓滿皆如現在，亦不起二、不二想。何以故？菩薩摩訶薩永離一切諸想著故。
"Sons of the Buddha! How should bodhisattva-mahāsattvas come to know the tathāgata's, the worthy one's, the perfectly and fully awakened one's, entry into parinirvāṇa? Sons of the Buddha! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva who wishes to know the tathāgata's great nirvāṇa must come to fully understand its fundamental, intrinsic nature. Just as suchness is nirvāṇa, the tathāgata's own nirvāṇa is likewise so; just as ultimate reality is nirvāṇa, the tathāgata's own nirvāṇa is likewise so; just as the dharma-realm is nirvāṇa, the tathāgata's own nirvāṇa is likewise so; just as empty space is nirvāṇa, the tathāgata's own nirvāṇa is likewise so; just as the nature of dharmas is nirvāṇa, the tathāgata's own nirvāṇa is likewise so; just as the limit apart from desire is nirvāṇa, the tathāgata's own nirvāṇa is likewise so; just as the limit of having no mark is nirvāṇa, the tathāgata's own nirvāṇa is likewise so; just as the limit of the nature of self is nirvāṇa, the tathāgata's own nirvāṇa is likewise so; just as the limit of the nature of every dharma is nirvāṇa, the tathāgata's own nirvāṇa is likewise so; and just as the limit of suchness is nirvāṇa, the tathāgata's own nirvāṇa is likewise so. Why is this? Because nirvāṇa is without birth and without arising; and if a dharma is without birth and without arising, then it has no cessation at all. Sons of the Buddha! The tathāgata does not speak to bodhisattvas of any tathāgata's ultimate nirvāṇa, nor does he manifest that event for them. Why is this? Because he wishes to let them see every tathāgata constantly abiding before them, seeing within a single thought the perfectly complete forms of every buddha of the past and future exactly as if present, without giving rise to any thought of duality or non-duality at all. Why is this? Because a bodhisattva-mahāsattva has forever left behind every kind of conceptual attachment.
佛子！諸佛如來為令眾生生欣樂故，出現於世；欲令眾生生戀慕故，示現涅槃；而實如來無有出世，亦無涅槃。何以故？如來常住清淨法界，隨眾生心示現涅槃。佛子！譬如日出，普照世間，於一切淨水器中影無不現，普遍眾處而無來往，或一器破便不現影。佛子！於汝意云何，彼影不現為日咎不？」答言：「不也。但由器壞，非日有咎。」「佛子！如來智日亦復如是，普現法界無前無後，一切眾生淨心器中佛無不現，心器常淨常見佛身，若心濁器破則不得見。佛子！若有眾生應以涅槃而得度者，如來則為示現涅槃，而實如來無生、無歿、無有滅度。
Sons of the Buddha! Every buddha tathāgata appears in the world in order to cause sentient beings to give rise to joy, and manifests nirvāṇa in order to cause sentient beings to give rise to longing devotion; yet in truth the tathāgata neither appears in the world nor enters nirvāṇa at all. Why is this? Because the tathāgata forever abides in the pure dharma-realm, and manifests nirvāṇa only according to the minds of sentient beings. Sons of the Buddha! It is like the sun rising and shining universally upon the world: its reflection appears without exception in every vessel of clear water, present everywhere at once without ever coming or going — and yet, should one such vessel break, its reflection simply no longer appears. Sons of the Buddha! What do you think — is that reflection's failure to appear a fault of the sun?" He answered: "No indeed. It is only because the vessel is broken; the fault does not lie with the sun." "Sons of the Buddha! The tathāgata's sun of wisdom is likewise so: it universally appears throughout the dharma-realm without any before or after, and the buddha appears without exception in the clear vessel of every sentient being's mind; when that mind-vessel is always clear, the buddha's body is always seen, but should that mind become clouded and the vessel break, it can no longer be seen. Sons of the Buddha! If there are sentient beings who can only be delivered through nirvāṇa, the tathāgata then manifests nirvāṇa for their sake; yet in truth the tathāgata is without birth, without death, and without any extinction at all.
心器常淨常見佛身，若心濁器破則不得見 — when that mind-vessel is always clear, the buddha's body is always seen, but should that mind become clouded and the vessel break, it can no longer be seen. The simile relocates the entire question of the Buddha's disappearance: nirvāṇa was never news about the sun, only news about a vessel, which means the sutra has quietly turned a statement about the Buddha's death into a statement about the condition of the viewer's own mind.
Part 676 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-seven, 如來出現品, in fascicle fifty-two. Part 677 continues the great nirvāṇa section with a fire simile — one fire going out in one place is no proof that fire itself has vanished from the world — applied to a tathāgata entering nirvāṇa in a single world-system.