Chapter Fourteen Complete, a Thousand Buddhas Named Dharma Wisdom
Unsurpassed Wisdom Bodhisattva and Firm Wisdom Bodhisattva close the sequence of ten hymns, and the chapter turns to its own conclusion: Dharma Wisdom Bodhisattva enters a samādhi of immeasurable skillful means, and a thousand buddhas — every one of them, remarkably, also named Dharma Wisdom — appear before him, granting him ten kinds of wisdom and touching his crown, empowering him to teach the Ten Abodes.
Unsurpassed Wisdom Bodhisattva: Not a Body, Yet He Speaks of a Body
Unsurpassed Wisdom Bodhisattva closes the chapter's philosophical arc with its most compressed formulation: the Buddha's own domain holds no number, no two and no one, not even a "no two" that could itself be grasped — and the Buddha's own body is spoken of only as "not a body," manifesting an arising that is not truly an arising at all.
爾時，無上慧菩薩承佛威力，普觀十方而說頌言：
「無上摩訶薩，遠離眾生想，
無有能過者，故號為無上。
諸佛所得處，無作無分別，
麁者無所有，微細亦復然。
諸佛所行境，於中無有數，
正覺遠離數，此是佛真法。
如來光普照，滅除眾暗冥，
是光非有照，亦復非無照。
於法無所著，無念亦無染，
無住無處所，不壞於法性。
此中無有二，亦復無有一，
大智善見者，如理巧安住。
無中無有二，無二亦復無，
三界一切空，是則諸佛見。
凡夫無覺解，佛令住正法，
諸法無所住，悟此見自身。
非身而說身，非起而現起，
無身亦無見，是佛無上身。
如是實慧說，諸佛妙法性，
若聞此法者，當得清淨眼。」
At that time, Unsurpassed Wisdom Bodhisattva, receiving the Buddha's own awesome power, universally surveyed the ten directions and spoke this verse, saying:
"The unsurpassed great being is forever removed from every notion of living beings; there is nothing at all able to surpass him, and it is for this reason that he is titled 'Unsurpassed.'
The place that every buddha has attained is without any doing and without any discrimination at all; the coarse has nothing at all to it, and likewise so does the subtle.
The domain in which every buddha moves holds no number at all within it; the perfectly awakened one is forever removed from number — this is the Buddha's own true Dharma.
The Tathāgata's own light universally illumines, extinguishing every darkness there is; and yet this light is not truly an illumining, nor is it truly a non-illumining.
Toward the Dharma he has nothing at all to cling to, no thought at all and no defilement at all, no abiding and no place at all, and yet he does not destroy the very nature of dharmas.
Within this there is no two, and likewise there is no one at all; the one of great wisdom who sees well abides skillfully, in accordance with true principle.
Within nothing there is no two, and even the "no two" is itself nothing at all; the three realms are, every one, entirely empty — this, then, is what every buddha sees.
Ordinary beings, without any awakened understanding, are caused by the Buddha to abide within the true Dharma; every dharma has nowhere at all that it abides — awakening to this, one beholds one's own self.
Not a body, and yet he speaks of a body; not arising, and yet he manifests an arising; without any body and without any seeing at all — this is the Buddha's own unsurpassed body.
Thus has True Wisdom spoken of every buddha's own wondrous nature of dharmas; whoever hears this very Dharma shall attain a pure eye."
Firm Wisdom Bodhisattva: A Stūpa Within the World
Firm Wisdom Bodhisattva closes the sequence with a return to devotion: without a buddha's own arising in the world, no living being could ever attain peace, and even the bare act of hearing the Buddha's name and giving rise to faith is itself a stūpa within the world — a treasure that even countless kalpas of proclaiming could never exhaust the telling of.
爾時，堅固慧菩薩承佛威力，普觀十方而說頌言：
「偉哉大光明，勇健無上士，
為利群迷故，而興於世間。
佛以大悲心，普觀諸眾生，
見在三有中，輪迴受眾苦。
唯除正等覺，具德尊導師，
一切諸天人，無能救護者。
若佛菩薩等，不出於世間，
無有一眾生，而能得安樂。
如來等正覺，及諸賢聖眾，
出現於世間，能與眾生樂。
若見如來者，為得大善利，
聞佛名生信，則是世間塔。
我等見世尊，為得大利益，
聞如是妙法，悉當成佛道。
諸菩薩過去，以佛威神力，
得清淨慧眼，了諸佛境界。
今見盧舍那，重增清淨信，
佛智無邊際，演說不可盡。
勝慧等菩薩，及我堅固慧，
無數億劫中，說亦不能盡。」
At that time, Firm Wisdom Bodhisattva, receiving the Buddha's own awesome power, universally surveyed the ten directions and spoke this verse, saying:
"Magnificent indeed is his great radiance, the valiant and vigorous, unsurpassed one, who, for the sake of benefiting the deluded multitude, has arisen within the world.
The Buddha, with a mind of great compassion, universally beholds every living being, seeing them present within the three states of existence, transmigrating and undergoing every suffering.
Only excepting the perfectly and fully awakened one, the honored guide fully endowed with virtue — among all the gods and humans there is, there is none at all able to save and protect them.
If the buddhas and bodhisattvas did not arise within the world, there would not be a single living being able to attain peace and happiness.
The Tathāgata, perfectly and fully awakened, together with every worthy and sage, appears within the world, able to give happiness to living beings.
If one beholds the Tathāgata, one thereby attains a great and excellent benefit; hearing the Buddha's own name and giving rise to faith — this is itself a stūpa within the world.
We ourselves, beholding the World-Honored One, thereby attain a great benefit; hearing such a wondrous Dharma as this, we shall all accomplish the buddha-path.
Every bodhisattva, in ages past, by the Buddha's own awesome spiritual power, attained a pure eye of wisdom, and understood every buddha's own domain.
Now beholding Vairocana himself, our pure faith is once again increased; the Buddha's own wisdom is without any boundary at all, and cannot be exhausted by any proclaiming of it.
Supreme Wisdom and the other bodhisattvas, and I myself, Firm Wisdom — even across countless hundreds of millions of kalpas, we could never exhaust its telling."
A Thousand Buddhas Named Dharma Wisdom
With the ten hymns complete, the chapter turns to its own frame: Dharma Wisdom Bodhisattva enters the samādhi of immeasurable skillful means, and a thousand buddhas — every one of them bearing his own name — appear before him, granting him ten kinds of unobstructed wisdom and touching his crown with their right hands, empowering him to teach the Ten Abodes.
爾時，法慧菩薩承佛威力，入菩薩無量方便三昧。以三昧力，十方各千佛剎微塵數世界之外，有千佛剎微塵數諸佛，皆同一號，名曰法慧，普現其前，告法慧菩薩言：「善哉！善哉！善男子！汝能入是菩薩無量方便三昧。善男子！十方各千佛剎微塵數諸佛，悉以神力共加於汝。又是毘盧遮那如來往昔願力、威神之力，及汝所修善根力故，入此三昧，令汝說法。為增長佛智故，深入法界故，善了眾生界故，所入無礙故，所行無障故，得無等方便故，入一切智性故，覺一切法故，知一切根故，能持說一切法故，所謂：發起諸菩薩十種住。善男子！汝當承佛威神之力而演此法。」
是時，諸佛即與法慧菩薩無礙智、無著智、無斷智、無癡智、無異智、無失智、無量智、無勝智、無懈智、無奪智。何以故？此三昧力，法如是故。是時，諸佛各申右手，摩法慧菩薩頂。法慧菩薩即從定起，告諸菩薩言：
At that time, Dharma Wisdom Bodhisattva, receiving the Buddha's own awesome power, entered the bodhisattva's own samādhi of immeasurable skillful means. By the power of that samādhi, beyond worlds as numerous as the fine motes of dust in a thousand buddha-lands in each of the ten directions, there were buddhas as numerous as the fine motes of dust in a thousand buddha-lands, all alike bearing the very same name, Dharma Wisdom, who universally manifested before him and said to Dharma Wisdom Bodhisattva: "Excellent! Excellent! Good son! You are able to enter this bodhisattva's own samādhi of immeasurable skillful means. Good son! Buddhas as numerous as the fine motes of dust in a thousand buddha-lands in each of the ten directions have all, together, empowered you with their own spiritual power. And it is likewise by the power of Vairocana Tathāgata's own past vow and awesome spiritual might, and by the power of the wholesome roots you yourself have cultivated, that you have entered this samādhi, causing you to teach the Dharma — for the sake of increasing the Buddha's own wisdom, for the sake of entering profoundly into the Dharma-realm, for the sake of skillfully understanding the realm of living beings, for the sake of an entering that is without obstruction, for the sake of a practice that is without hindrance, for the sake of attaining an unequaled skillful means, for the sake of entering the very nature of omniscience, for the sake of awakening to every dharma, for the sake of knowing every faculty, and for the sake of being able to uphold and proclaim every dharma — namely, giving rise to the ten kinds of abodes of the bodhisattvas. Good son! You should now, receiving the Buddha's own awesome spiritual power, expound this very Dharma."
At that time, every buddha at once granted Dharma Wisdom Bodhisattva an unobstructed wisdom, an unattached wisdom, an uninterrupted wisdom, an undeluded wisdom, an unvarying wisdom, an unfailing wisdom, an immeasurable wisdom, an unsurpassed wisdom, an untiring wisdom, and an unassailable wisdom. Why was this so? Because it is the very nature of this samādhi's own power that it should be so. At that time, every buddha, each one, extended his own right hand, and touched Dharma Wisdom Bodhisattva's own crown. Dharma Wisdom Bodhisattva then at once rose from his own concentration, and said to the bodhisattvas:
The image of a thousand buddhas bearing the very same name as the bodhisattva they empower is a quiet but pointed continuation of the chapter's own opening wonder — that the same names, the same worlds, and the same vows replicate exactly across countless assemblies. Here that principle becomes the mechanism of transmission itself: Dharma Wisdom does not receive his authority to teach from some other, higher figure, but from a thousand versions of what he himself already is, each one recognizing in him what it already knows. The chapter closes not with a philosophical conclusion but with a direct empowerment — ten wisdoms and a touch upon the crown — setting up the next chapter's teaching in a manner the sūtra has used before, at the close of chapter 12's own hymn on faith.
Part 73 Complete — Chapter Fourteen Complete
This closes Part 73 and the sūtra's fourteenth chapter, "Verses of Praise at the Summit of Mount Sumeru" (須彌頂上偈讚品第十四): ten hymns from ten wisdom-named bodhisattvas, each building on the one before, culminating in Dharma Wisdom's own empowerment by a thousand buddhas bearing his name. Part 74 opens the sūtra's fifteenth chapter, "The Ten Abodes" (十住品第十五), as Dharma Wisdom begins to teach what he has just been empowered to reveal.