Knowing Māra, Recalling the Biography
Knowing māra's own path leads directly into a compressed recollection of everything this chapter's long biographical sequence already unfolded across dozens of Parts — Tuṣita, the womb, birth, the smile, the seven steps, the palace, going forth, austerity, the site of awakening, subduing māra, turning the wheel of dharma — spoken here as a single completed arc ending in great parinirvāṇa.
Seized by the Buddha, Not by Māra
Rather than describing resistance to māra as a struggle, this entry names it as a simple matter of which power one is held by: never seized by the power of māra, but seized instead by the buddha, and seized as well by the dharma — belonging, in the end, is what determines everything else.
知魔及魔道，誓願咸捨離；
見佛與佛業，發心皆攝取，
離慢修智慧，不為魔力持；
為佛所攝持，亦為法所持。
現住兜率天，又現彼命終；
示現住母胎，亦現微細趣。
現生及微笑，亦現行七步；
示修眾技術，亦示處深宮。
"Knowing māra and every path of māra, he vows to leave them all behind entirely; seeing every buddha and every buddha's own deed, he gives rise to the resolve to gather them all in; free of conceit, cultivating wisdom, he is never seized by the power of māra; he is seized instead by the buddha, and seized as well by the dharma.
He manifests dwelling in Tuṣita heaven, and manifests the ending of that life as well; he manifests dwelling in the womb, and manifests the most subtle of destinies too.
He manifests birth and the smile, and also manifests taking the seven steps; he shows the cultivation of every art, and also shows dwelling within the depths of the palace.
出家修苦行，往詣於道場，
端坐放光明，覺悟諸群生，
降魔成正覺，轉無上法輪，
所現悉已終，入於大涅槃。
Going forth from home, cultivating austere practice, proceeding to the site of awakening, sitting upright and emitting light, awakening the multitude of beings, subduing māra and attaining perfect awakening, turning the unsurpassed wheel of dharma — every one of these manifestations having now come to its end, he enters great parinirvāṇa.
所現悉已終，入於大涅槃 — every one of these manifestations having now come to its end, he enters great parinirvāṇa. In four brief lines, this verse retraces the entire arc this chapter spent dozens of Parts unfolding in full — Tuṣita, the womb, birth, going forth, awakening, teaching — closing the recollection with the same word, "manifestation," that has framed every one of these events from the very beginning.
Part 824 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-eight, 離世間品, in fascicle fifty-nine. Part 825 continues the verse, turning from the completed biography to the bodhisattva's own unfinished work — measureless kalpas of practice condensed, by Samantabhadra's own account, into only a small part now spoken.