The Medicine-King Tree Named Well-Seen
A tree in the Himalaya named Well-Seen purifies whoever sees, hears, smells, tastes, or touches it, and even the soil beneath it heals; the tathāgata is the same medicine at cosmic scale, purifying every sense through his form, name, teaching, and light — and the whole teaching just given is finally named the tathāgata's own secret place, spoken for bodhisattvas alone.
Ten Names for One Secret Place
Every one of the five senses gets its own purification, first from an ordinary tree and then from the tathāgata himself, before the chapter closes this teaching by giving it ten names at once — each one a different way of saying that what has just been taught belongs to bodhisattvas and to no one else.
佛子！譬如雪山有藥王樹，名曰：善見。若有見者，眼得清淨；若有聞者，耳得清淨；若有嗅者，鼻得清淨；若有嘗者，舌得清淨；若有觸者，身得清淨；若有眾生取彼地土，亦能為作除病利益。佛子！如來、應、正等覺無上藥王亦復如是，能作一切饒益眾生。若有得見如來色身，眼得清淨；若有得聞如來名號，耳得清淨；若有得嗅如來戒香，鼻得清淨；若有得嘗如來法味，舌得清淨，具廣長舌，解語言法；若有得觸如來光者，身得清淨，究竟獲得無上法身；若於如來生憶念者，則得念佛三昧清淨；若有眾生供養如來所經土地及塔廟者，亦具善根，滅除一切諸煩惱患，得賢聖樂。佛子！我今告汝，設有眾生見聞於佛，業障纏覆不生信樂，亦種善根無空過者，乃至究竟入於涅槃。佛子！菩薩摩訶薩應如是知於如來所見聞親近所種善根，悉離一切諸不善法，具足善法。
"Sons of the Buddha! It is like how the Himalaya has a medicine-king tree named Well-Seen. Whoever sees it has their eyes made pure; whoever hears of it has their ears made pure; whoever smells it has their nose made pure; whoever tastes it has their tongue made pure; whoever touches it has their body made pure; and if any sentient being takes even the soil beneath it, that too can remove sickness and bring benefit. Sons of the Buddha! The tathāgata, the worthy one, the perfectly and fully awakened one, the unsurpassed king of medicine, is likewise so, able to bring benefit to every sentient being. Whoever comes to see the tathāgata's bodily form has their eyes made pure; whoever comes to hear the tathāgata's name has their ears made pure; whoever comes to smell the tathāgata's fragrance of moral discipline has their nose made pure; whoever comes to taste the tathāgata's flavor of dharma has their tongue made pure, becoming endowed with the broad, long tongue and understanding the nature of language; whoever comes to touch the tathāgata's light has their body made pure, ultimately attaining the unsurpassed dharma-body; whoever gives rise to mindfulness of the tathāgata attains the pure samādhi of buddha-recollection; and any sentient being who makes offerings to the ground the tathāgata has walked upon, or to a stūpa built for him, likewise becomes endowed with roots of goodness, extinguishing every affliction and trouble, and attaining the joy of the noble ones. Sons of the Buddha! I tell you now: even should a sentient being see or hear the Buddha while bound and covered by karmic obstruction, unable to give rise to faith or joy, the root of goodness thereby planted is still never wasted, and will in the end bring that being all the way into nirvāṇa. Sons of the Buddha! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva should know in just this way that the roots of goodness planted through seeing, hearing, or drawing near to the tathāgata are entirely free of every unwholesome dharma and entirely complete with wholesome dharmas.
「佛子！如來以一切譬諭說種種事，無有譬諭能說此法。何以故？心智路絕，不思議故。諸佛菩薩但隨眾生心，令其歡喜，為說譬諭，非是究竟。佛子！此法門名為：如來祕密之處，名：一切世間所不能知，名：入如來印，名：開大智門，名：示現如來種性，名：成就一切菩薩，名：一切世間所不能壞，名：一向隨順如來境界，名：能淨一切諸眾生界，名：演說如來根本實性不思議究竟法。佛子！此法門，如來不為餘眾生說，唯為趣向大乘菩薩說，唯為乘不思議乘菩薩說；此法門不入一切餘眾生手，唯除諸菩薩摩訶薩。
"Sons of the Buddha! The tathāgata uses every kind of simile to speak of every kind of matter, and yet there is no simile that can ever speak of this particular dharma. Why is this? Because the path of mind and intellect is cut off here, and it is beyond all conception. Buddhas and bodhisattvas speak in similes only in order to accord with the minds of sentient beings and bring them joy — this is never the ultimate truth itself. Sons of the Buddha! This dharma-gate is named the tathāgata's own secret place; it is named that which no being in any world can ever know; it is named entering the tathāgata's own seal; it is named opening the gateway of great wisdom; it is named manifesting the tathāgata's own lineage; it is named accomplishing every bodhisattva; it is named that which no being in any world can ever destroy; it is named being wholly and singly in accord with the tathāgata's own domain; it is named being able to purify the realm of every sentient being; and it is named expounding the tathāgata's fundamental, true, inconceivable, and ultimate dharma. Sons of the Buddha! This dharma-gate, the tathāgata does not speak for the sake of any other sentient being; he speaks it only for bodhisattvas heading toward the Great Vehicle, only for bodhisattvas riding the inconceivable vehicle; this dharma-gate does not fall into the hands of any other sentient being at all, except for bodhisattva-mahāsattvas."
設有眾生見聞於佛，業障纏覆不生信樂，亦種善根無空過者，乃至究竟入於涅槃 — even should a sentient being see or hear the Buddha while bound and covered by karmic obstruction, unable to give rise to faith or joy, the root of goodness thereby planted is still never wasted, and will in the end bring that being all the way into nirvāṇa. This single sentence extends the medicine-tree simile past its natural limit: an ordinary medicine still requires a willing patient, but the text insists the benefit here reaches even those actively unable to feel gladness about it, since the mechanism at work was never belief in the first place.
Part 679 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-seven, 如來出現品, in fascicle fifty-two. Part 680 continues with a wheel-turning king's seven treasures, which vanish from the world entirely if no worthy heir survives him — an image for why this teaching itself would not last without true children of the tathāgata to carry it.