The Bodhisattva's Body Pervading Every Place
Constant reverence and unbroken presence at every buddha's assembly give way here to the verse's own illusion-master image: wisdom's skillful means fully knows the world to be entirely like an illusion, and precisely because of that knowing, is able to manifest within the world every boundless illusory dharma there is.
Entering the Net of Conception, Unattached
The final image here does not describe standing apart from ordinary thought but entering directly into it: the bodhisattva manifests form, mind, and speech, entering into the very net of every conception sentient beings weave — and remains, even there, constantly attached to nothing at all.
菩薩身無邊，普現一切處，
常恭敬供養，最勝兩足尊。
香華眾妓樂，幢幡及寶蓋，
恒以深淨心，供養於諸佛。
不離一佛會，普在諸佛所，
於彼大眾中，問難聽受法。
"The bodhisattva's own body is boundless, universally manifesting in every place; he constantly reveres and makes offerings to the most excellent, two-footed honored one.
Fragrant flowers, every kind of music, banners, pennants, and jeweled canopies — with a deep and pure mind, he constantly makes offerings to every buddha.
Without ever leaving a single buddha's own assembly, he is universally present at the place of every buddha, within that great assembly, asking questions and listening to receive the dharma.
聞法入三昧，一一無量門，
起定亦復然，示現無窮盡。
智慧巧方便，了世皆如幻，
而能現世間，無邊諸幻法。
示現種種色，亦現心及語，
入諸想網中，而恒無所著。
Hearing the dharma, he enters samādhi, each and every one of measureless gates; rising from that concentration is likewise the same — he manifests this without end or exhaustion.
Through the skillful means of wisdom, he fully understands the world to be entirely like an illusion, and yet he is still able to manifest within the world every boundless illusory dharma.
He manifests every kind of form, and manifests mind and speech as well; entering into the very net of every conception, he yet remains, constantly, attached to nothing at all.
了世皆如幻，而能現世間，無邊諸幻法 — he fully understands the world to be entirely like an illusion, and yet he is still able to manifest within the world every boundless illusory dharma. Knowing the world's illusory nature does not, in this verse, lead to withdrawal from it; it is stated here as precisely the condition that makes the bodhisattva's boundless manifestation within that same illusion possible.
Part 811 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-eight, 離世間品, in fascicle fifty-nine. Part 812 opens the verse's long sequence of manifested lives, beginning with a bodhisattva who appears sometimes as a newly resolved beginner and sometimes as one whose practice already spans an immeasurable expanse.