The Great Śrāvakas Who Cannot See
Named one by one — Śāriputra, Mahāmaudgalyāyana, Mahākāśyapa, and the other foremost disciples — the great śrāvakas are sitting in this very Jeta Grove at this very moment, and yet the sūtra states plainly that not one of them can see any part of the transformation this fascicle has just spent so many pages describing.
Present, and Yet Unable to See
These are not minor figures: Śāriputra, foremost in wisdom; Mahāmaudgalyāyana, foremost in spiritual powers; Mahākāśyapa, foremost in ascetic practice — named individually, seated in the same grove, and stated to be entirely blind to everything this fascicle has just described.
于時，上首諸大聲聞——舍利弗、大目揵連、摩訶迦葉、離婆多、須菩提、阿㝹樓馱、難陀、劫賓那、迦旃延、富樓那等諸大聲聞，在逝多林皆悉不見如來神力、如來嚴好、如來境界、如來遊戲、如來神變、如來尊勝、如來妙行、如來威德、如來住持、如來淨剎，亦復不見不可思議菩薩境界、菩薩大會、菩薩普入、菩薩普至、菩薩普詣、菩薩神變、菩薩遊戲、菩薩眷屬、菩薩方所、菩薩莊嚴師子座、菩薩宮殿、菩薩住處、菩薩所入三昧自在、菩薩觀察、菩薩頻申、菩薩勇猛、菩薩供養、菩薩受記、菩薩成熟、菩薩勇健、菩薩法身清淨、菩薩智身圓滿、菩薩願身示現、菩薩色身成就、菩薩諸相具足清淨、菩薩常光眾色莊嚴、菩薩放大光網、菩薩起變化雲、菩薩身遍十方、菩薩諸行圓滿。如是等事，一切聲聞諸大弟子皆悉不見。
At that time, the foremost great śrāvakas — Śāriputra, Mahāmaudgalyāyana, Mahākāśyapa, Revata, Subhūti, Aniruddha, Nanda, Kapphiṇa, Kātyāyana, Pūrṇa, and the other great śrāvakas — though present in the Jeta Grove, were entirely unable to see the tathāgata's own spiritual power, the tathāgata's own adornment and excellence, the tathāgata's own domain, the tathāgata's own play, the tathāgata's own spiritual transformation, the tathāgata's own venerable supremacy, the tathāgata's own wondrous conduct, the tathāgata's own awesome virtue, the tathāgata's own sustaining power, or the tathāgata's own pure land. Nor were they able to see the inconceivable domain of the bodhisattvas, the great bodhisattva assembly, the bodhisattvas' own universal entering, the bodhisattvas' own universal arrival, the bodhisattvas' own universal approach, the bodhisattvas' own spiritual transformation, the bodhisattvas' own play, the bodhisattvas' own retinues, the bodhisattvas' own places, the bodhisattvas' own adorned lion-seats, the bodhisattvas' own palaces, the bodhisattvas' own abodes, the sovereign freedom of the samādhis the bodhisattvas have entered, the bodhisattvas' own contemplation, the bodhisattvas' own lion's stretch, the bodhisattvas' own valiant courage, the bodhisattvas' own offerings, the bodhisattvas' own reception of predictions, the bodhisattvas' own maturation, the bodhisattvas' own valiant strength, the purity of the bodhisattvas' own dharma-body, the perfection of the bodhisattvas' own wisdom-body, the manifestation of the bodhisattvas' own vow-body, the accomplishment of the bodhisattvas' own form-body, the pure completeness of every one of the bodhisattvas' own marks, the adornment of every color in the bodhisattvas' own constant light, the bodhisattvas' own emitting of a great net of light, the bodhisattvas' own arising clouds of transformation, the bodhisattvas' own bodies pervading the ten directions, or the perfection of every one of the bodhisattvas' own practices. None of these things whatsoever could be seen by any of the great śrāvaka disciples.
亦復不見……菩薩諸行圓滿 — a note on what changed. Several parts earlier, this same procession showed a bodhisattva manifesting, among other things, "clouds of the images of every śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha" from his own body. Now the sūtra turns the lens around: the actual śrāvakas sitting in this assembly cannot see even a fraction of what that bodhisattva so effortlessly displayed.
Part 849 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty. Part 850 turns to the reasons the sūtra gives for this blindness — a long list of roots of goodness the śrāvakas never cultivated, beginning with never having practiced to see a buddha's own sovereign freedom in the first place.