Verses from the South
The second bodhisattva to speak is the second to have arrived — Indestructible Diligence King, from the south — whose ten stanzas turn on a single paradox: bodhisattvas who know that no dharma of transformation exists at all, and who nonetheless manifest transformative deeds without contradiction.
Manifesting Change While Knowing There Is None
At the center of these ten stanzas sits a paradox stated as plainly as the sūtra ever states one: bodhisattvas know that no dharma of transformation exists, and yet they manifest transformative deeds regardless — travelling to measureless buddha-lands at the same instant without ever dividing their own body.
爾時，不可壞精進王菩薩，承佛神力，觀察十方而說頌言：
汝觀諸佛子，
智慧功德藏，
究竟菩提行，
安隱諸世間。
其心本明達，
善入諸三昧，
智慧無邊際，
境界不可量。
今此逝多林，
種種皆嚴飾，
菩薩眾雲集，
親近如來住。
汝觀無所著，
無量大眾海，
十方來詣此，
坐寶蓮華座。
無來亦無住，
無依無戲論，
離垢心無礙，
究竟於法界。
建立智慧幢，
堅固不動搖，
知無變化法，
而現變化事。
十方無量剎，
一切諸佛所，
同時悉往詣，
而亦不分身。
汝觀釋師子，
自在神通力，
能令菩薩眾，
一切俱來集。
一切諸佛法，
法界悉平等，
言說故不同，
此眾咸通達。
諸佛常安住，
法界平等際，
演說差別法，
言辭無有盡。
At that time, Indestructible Diligence King Bodhisattva, sustained by the Buddha's own spiritual power, surveyed the ten directions and spoke these verses:
Behold these buddha's children, treasuries of wisdom and merit, who have brought the practice of awakening to its ultimate end, bringing peace and security to every world.
Their minds are, from the very root, bright and penetrating; they enter skillfully into every samādhi; their wisdom has no boundary or limit, and their domain cannot be measured.
Now this Jeta Grove is adorned in every way, and the bodhisattva assembly has gathered here like clouds, drawing close to abide near the tathāgata.
Behold this ocean of measureless assembly, attached to nothing at all, who have come here from the ten directions and taken their seats upon jeweled lotus thrones.
They neither come nor abide, rely on nothing, and engage in no idle discourse; their minds are free of stain and without obstruction, having reached the ultimate end of the dharma-realm.
They have raised up a banner of wisdom, firm and unshakeable; knowing that there is, in truth, no dharma of transformation at all, they yet manifest transformative deeds.
To measureless buddha-lands in the ten directions, to the place of every single buddha, they travel all at the very same time, and yet without dividing their own body at all.
Behold the Lion of the Śākyas, whose sovereign power of spiritual superknowledge has caused this entire bodhisattva assembly to come together, gathering all at once.
Every dharma of every buddha is, within the dharma-realm, entirely equal; it is only through speech that any difference appears, and this very assembly has penetrated that truth completely.
Every buddha constantly abides at the equal limit of the dharma-realm, and yet proclaims differentiated dharmas, their words never coming to an end.
知無變化法，而現變化事 — knowing that there is, in truth, no dharma of transformation at all, they yet manifest transformative deeds. This single line holds together everything this fascicle has shown so far: the vast pavilion, the ten-direction procession, the clouds of jewels and light are none of them evidence against emptiness — they are what emptiness looks like once it is fully realized rather than merely reasoned about.
Part 858 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty. Part 859 turns to the third bodhisattva, Universally Victorious Unsurpassed Awesome-Virtue King, arriving from the west, who compares the Buddha's own wisdom to the sun, the full moon, and a wind that meets no obstruction.