Awakening Within a Single Thought
The verse pairs an image of impossible speed — traveling to boundless lands throughout countless kalpas without stirring even the width of a hair's tip — with two images of appearance without mixture: an illusionist's forms that are neither form nor non-form, and the sun and moon reflected in every body of water without ever being mixed together with it.
Present in the Water, Never Mixed With It
The moon's reflection appears in every body of water without ever being mixed together with that water — genuinely present, genuinely distinct. The verse applies this exact relationship to the bodhisattva's own wheel of dharma: it appears within the water of the world's own mind, fully present there, and yet never once confused with what it appears in.
雜染清淨行，種種悉了知，
一念得菩提，成就一切智。
住佛不思議，究竟智慧心，
一念悉能知，一切眾生行。
菩薩神通智，功力已自在，
能於一念中，往詣無邊剎。
如是速疾往，盡於無數劫，
無處而不周，莫動毫端分。
"Every kind of defiled and pure practice, he fully understands each and every one; within a single thought he attains awakening, accomplishing all-knowing wisdom.
Abiding in the buddha's own inconceivable state, the ultimate mind of wisdom, within a single thought he is entirely able to know the conduct of every sentient being.
The bodhisattva's own wisdom of spiritual superknowledge has already attained sovereign power; within a single thought, he is able to travel to boundless lands.
Traveling this swiftly, throughout countless kalpas, there is no place he does not reach, and yet he does not stir even the width of a hair's tip.
譬如工幻師，示現種種色，
於彼幻中求，無色無非色。
菩薩亦如是，以方便智幻，
種種皆示現，充滿於世間。
譬如淨日月，皎鏡在虛空，
影現於眾水，不為水所雜。
菩薩淨法輪，當知亦如是，
現世間心水，不為世所雜。
It is like a skilled illusionist manifesting every kind of form; seeking within that very illusion, there is neither form nor non-form to be found.
The bodhisattva is likewise the same: through the illusion of wisdom's own skillful means, he manifests every kind of thing, filling the entire world.
It is like the pure sun and moon, a bright mirror set in empty space, whose reflection appears in every body of water, and yet is never mixed together with that water.
The bodhisattva's own pure wheel of dharma should be known to be just the same: it appears within the water of the world's own mind, and yet is never mixed together with the world.
於彼幻中求，無色無非色 — seeking within that very illusion, there is neither form nor non-form to be found. This line refuses both of the easy resolutions a reader might reach for: the illusionist's forms are not simply "real forms" the eye is fooled by, and they are not simply "no forms at all" either — searched for directly, the illusion offers neither answer.
Part 815 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-eight, 離世間品, in fascicle fifty-nine. Part 816 continues the verse with the dream that compresses a thousand years into a single unfinished night, and the mountain valley whose echo answers every sound while holding no discrimination at all.