A Fire Simile, an Illusionist, and the Samādhi of Unmoving Stillness
Two more similes test the same claim from new angles — a fire dying out in one town does not extinguish fire everywhere, and a master illusionist ending one performance does not vanish from every stage at once — before a third scene replaces argument with sheer image: the tathāgata entering a samādhi of unmoving stillness and filling countless lotus-pistils with buddhas equal in number to every sentient being.
Two Everyday Similes, Then One Vision
Fire and illusion supply two ordinary counterexamples to the idea that a single ending means a total ending, clearing the ground for a final image that needs no argument at all: the tathāgata's samādhi of unmoving stillness, releasing light into lotus after lotus, each one seating a buddha whose body has, in the end, no fixed location anywhere.
佛子！譬如火大，於一切世間能為火事，或時一處其火息滅。於意云何，豈一切世間火皆滅耶？」答言：「不也。」「佛子！如來、應、正等覺亦復如是，於一切世界施作佛事，或於一世界能事已畢示入涅槃，豈一切世界諸佛如來悉皆滅度？佛子！菩薩摩訶薩應如是知如來、應、正等覺大般涅槃。「復次，佛子！譬如幻師善明幻術，以幻術力，於三千大千世界一切國土、城邑、聚落示現幻身，以幻力持經劫而住；然於餘處，幻事已訖，隱身不現。佛子！於汝意云何，彼大幻師豈於一處隱身不現，便一切處皆隱滅耶？」答言：「不也。」「佛子！如來、應、正等覺亦復如是，善知無量智慧方便種種幻術，於一切法界普現其身，持令常住盡未來際；或於一處，隨眾生心，所作事訖，示現涅槃。豈以一處示入涅槃，便謂一切悉皆滅度？佛子！菩薩摩訶薩應如是知如來、應、正等覺大般涅槃。
"Sons of the Buddha! It is like the fire element, which is able to perform the work of fire throughout the world; and yet, should its flame die out in one particular place, what do you think — has fire itself thereby been extinguished throughout the entire world?" He answered: "No indeed." "Sons of the Buddha! The tathāgata, the worthy one, the perfectly and fully awakened one, is likewise so: he carries out buddha-work throughout every world-system, and should he, having finished his work in one particular world, manifest his entry into nirvāṇa there, has every buddha tathāgata throughout every world-system thereby entered final extinction? Sons of the Buddha! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva should come to know the tathāgata's, the worthy one's, the perfectly and fully awakened one's, great parinirvāṇa in just this way. "Furthermore, sons of the Buddha! It is like a master illusionist who is skilled in the art of illusion: through the power of that illusory art, he manifests illusory bodies throughout every land, city, and village of a great trichiliocosm, and through that illusory power sustains them, dwelling there for as long as a kalpa; and yet, in some other place, once the illusory display is finished there, he withdraws that body so it no longer appears. Sons of the Buddha! What do you think — because that great illusionist has withdrawn his body from view in one place, has he thereby withdrawn and vanished from every place at once?" He answered: "No indeed." "Sons of the Buddha! The tathāgata, the worthy one, the perfectly and fully awakened one, is likewise so: skillfully knowing measureless wisdom, skillful means, and every kind of illusory art, he universally manifests his body throughout the whole dharma-realm, sustaining it so that it constantly abides to the very end of the future; and in some particular place, according to the minds of sentient beings, once his work there is finished, he manifests nirvāṇa. How, then, could manifesting entry into nirvāṇa in one single place mean that he has entirely and completely entered final extinction everywhere? Sons of the Buddha! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva should come to know the tathāgata's, the worthy one's, the perfectly and fully awakened one's, great parinirvāṇa in just this way.
「復次，佛子！如來、應、正等覺示涅槃時，入不動三昧；入此三昧已，於一一身各放無量百千億那由他大光明，一一光明各出阿僧祇蓮華，一一蓮華各有不可說妙寶華蘂，一一華蘂有師子座，一一座上皆有如來結跏趺坐，其佛身數正與一切眾生數等，皆具上妙功德莊嚴，從本願力之所生起。若有眾生善根熟者，見佛身已，則皆受化。然彼佛身，盡未來際究竟安住，隨宜化度一切眾生未曾失時。佛子！如來身者，無有方處，非實非虛，但以諸佛本誓願力，眾生堪度則便出現。菩薩摩訶薩應如是知如來、應、正等覺大般涅槃。佛子！如來住於無量無礙究竟法界、虛空界，真如法性無生無滅及以實際，為諸眾生隨時示現；本願持故，無有休息，不捨一切眾生、一切剎、一切法。」
"Furthermore, sons of the Buddha! At the moment the tathāgata, the worthy one, the perfectly and fully awakened one, manifests nirvāṇa, he enters the samādhi of unmoving stillness; having entered this samādhi, from each and every one of his bodies he releases measureless hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of great lights, and from each and every light there emerge asaṃkhyeya lotus flowers, and within each and every lotus flower there are unspeakably many wondrous jeweled flower-pistils, and within each and every flower-pistil there is a lion-throne, and upon each and every throne there sits a tathāgata cross-legged, the number of buddha-bodies exactly equal to the number of every sentient being, each one fully endowed with the finest adornments of merit, arising entirely from the power of his original vows. Whichever sentient beings have wholesome roots now ripened, once they have seen these buddha-bodies, are entirely transformed by them; and yet those very buddha-bodies abide, in the end, to the very limit of the future, teaching and delivering every sentient being as fits each occasion, never once missing the right moment. Sons of the Buddha! The tathāgata's body has no fixed location at all; it is neither real nor unreal — it is only through the power of every buddha's original vow that, whenever a sentient being is ready to be delivered, it appears. A bodhisattva-mahāsattva should come to know the tathāgata's, the worthy one's, the perfectly and fully awakened one's, great parinirvāṇa in just this way. Sons of the Buddha! The tathāgata abides in the measureless, unobstructed, ultimate dharma-realm and realm of empty space, in suchness and the unborn, unceasing nature of dharmas, and in ultimate reality itself, manifesting for the sake of every sentient being according to the occasion; sustained by his original vow, he never rests, and never abandons any sentient being, any land, or any dharma at all."
如來身者，無有方處，非實非虛 — the tathāgata's body has no fixed location at all; it is neither real nor unreal. After three similes built from ordinary experience — fire, illusion, a vision of countless lotus-seated buddhas — the text steps back and refuses even its own images: the body just described in such vivid, specific detail is, in the same breath, denied any fixed place to be, and denied the simple labels "real" and "unreal" alike, so that no reader mistakes the vision for a literal claim about where the tathāgata actually is.
Part 677 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-seven, 如來出現品, in fascicle fifty-two. Part 678 restates this whole nirvāṇa section in verse — the sun, the fire, the illusionist, and the unmoving samādhi all recapped in turn — before the chapter turns to a final new topic: the roots of goodness planted by seeing, hearing, or drawing near to the tathāgata.