A Blind Man on an Island of Jewels
Two more similes sharpen the point further: a blind man can stand directly among the jewels of a treasure island and gain nothing from them, and a man with an unusually pure eye can see an entire crowd in pitch darkness while not one person in that crowd can see him at all.
Seen by No One, Seeing Everyone
The second simile reverses the usual direction of these comparisons: rather than describing someone who cannot see, it describes a man who sees perfectly while remaining invisible to everyone around him — an image that maps onto the Buddha's own condition in this very assembly with unusual precision.
譬如盲人至大寶洲，若行、若住、若坐、若臥，不能得見一切眾寶；以不見故，不能採取，不得受用。此亦如是，諸大弟子雖在林中親近世尊，不見如來自在神力，亦不得見菩薩大會。何以故？無有菩薩無礙淨眼，不能次第悟入法界見於如來自在力故。
It is like a blind man who arrives at a great island of jewels: whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, he is unable to see any of the many jewels there at all, and because he cannot see them, he is unable to gather them, and gains no use from them whatsoever. It is exactly the same here: though the great disciples are in the grove, close to the World-Honored One himself, they do not see the tathāgata's own sovereign spiritual power, nor are they able to see the great bodhisattva assembly. Why is this so? Because they lack the bodhisattva's own unobstructed, pure eye, and so are unable, step by step, to awaken into the dharma-realm and see the tathāgata's own sovereign power.
譬如有人得清淨眼，名：離垢光明，一切暗色不能為障。爾時，彼人於夜暗中，處在無量百千萬億人眾之內，或行、或住、或坐、或臥，彼諸人眾形相威儀，此明眼人莫不具見；其明眼者威儀進退，彼諸人眾悉不能覩。佛亦如是，成就智眼，清淨無礙，悉能明見一切世間；其所示現神通變化，大菩薩眾所共圍遶，諸大弟子悉不能見。
It is like a certain man who has attained a pure eye, called Stainless Light, against which no degree of darkness can ever be an obstruction. At that time, this man, in the darkness of night, situated in the midst of measureless hundreds of thousands of millions of people, sees completely and without exception every form and manner of all these people, whether they are walking, standing, sitting, or lying down; yet none of these people is able to see this clear-eyed man's own manner, advancing or withdrawing, at all. The Buddha is exactly the same: having accomplished the eye of wisdom, pure and unobstructed, he is able to clearly see the whole of every world; but the spiritual transformations he manifests, and the great bodhisattva assembly that surrounds him, cannot be seen at all by any of the great disciples.
其明眼者威儀進退，彼諸人眾悉不能覩 — none of these people is able to see this clear-eyed man's own manner, advancing or withdrawing, at all. This is the exact shape of the great śrāvakas' own situation: the Buddha sees them completely, sitting right beside them in this same grove, while his own transformation remains as invisible to them as the clear-eyed man's movements are to the crowd in the dark.
Part 854 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty. Part 855 turns to two further similes drawn from meditative practice itself — the kasina absorption seen only by the one who holds it, and a man whose invisibility ointment lets him move through a crowd entirely unseen.