Verses from the West
The third bodhisattva, Universally Victorious Unsurpassed Awesome-Virtue King, arriving from the west, builds his ten stanzas almost entirely from natural imagery — sun, moon, wind, earth, and a great wheel of water — each one a familiar constant of the world pressed into service as a likeness for something that has no likeness at all.
Neither Measured Nor Measureless
Before turning to its run of natural similes, this set of verses states its central claim as a direct paradox: perfect awakening is neither something with measure, nor is it without measure — a formula that refuses both of the only two categories ordinary thought usually offers.
爾時，普勝無上威德王菩薩，承佛神力，觀察十方而說頌言：
汝觀無上士，
廣大智圓滿，
善達時非時，
為眾演說法；
摧伏眾外道，
一切諸異論，
普隨眾生心，
為現神通力。
正覺非有量，
亦復非無量；
若量若無量，
牟尼悉超越。
如日在虛空，
照臨一切處；
佛智亦如是，
了達三世法。
譬如十五夜，
月輪無減缺；
如來亦復然，
白法悉圓滿。
譬如空中日，
運行無暫已；
如來亦如是，
神變恒相續。
譬如十方剎，
於空無所礙，
世燈現變化，
於世亦復然。
譬如世間地，
群生之所依；
照世燈法輪，
為依亦如是。
譬如猛疾風，
所行無障礙；
佛法亦如是，
速遍於世間。
譬如大水輪，
世界所依住；
智慧輪亦爾，
三世佛所依。
At that time, Universally Victorious Unsurpassed Awesome-Virtue King Bodhisattva, sustained by the Buddha's own spiritual power, surveyed the ten directions and spoke these verses:
Behold the unsurpassed one, whose vast wisdom is fully perfect, who skillfully discerns the right time from the wrong time, and speaks the dharma for the sake of the assembly;
who subdues every non-Buddhist teacher and every divergent doctrine, and, according with every sentient being's own mind, manifests spiritual superknowledge for their sake.
Perfect awakening is neither something with measure, nor is it without measure; whether measured or measureless, the Silent Sage transcends both entirely.
Just as the sun in empty space shines down upon every place, the Buddha's own wisdom is exactly the same, fully penetrating the dharma of all three times.
It is like the night of the fifteenth, when the moon's own disk is without any waning or blemish; the tathāgata is exactly the same, every pure dharma within him fully perfected.
It is like the sun moving through the sky, its course never pausing even for a moment; the tathāgata is exactly the same, his spiritual transformations constantly continuing without break.
It is like every buddha-land in the ten directions, unobstructed within empty space; the lamp of the world manifests his transformations throughout the world in exactly the same way.
It is like the very earth of the world, on which every living being depends; the wheel of dharma turned by the lamp illuminating the world is a support in exactly the same way.
It is like a swift, forceful wind, whose passage meets no obstruction at all; the Buddha's own dharma is exactly the same, swiftly pervading the whole of the world.
It is like the great wheel of water on which the whole world rests and abides; the wheel of wisdom is exactly the same, the very support on which every buddha across the three times depends.
正覺非有量，亦復非無量 — perfect awakening is neither something with measure, nor is it without measure. Rather than settling the question of whether awakening can be quantified, this line refuses the question's own premise: awakening is not found by choosing between "measured" and "measureless," but by transcending the pair of them entirely, exactly as the Silent Sage is said to do.
Part 859 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty. Part 860 turns to the fourth bodhisattva, Unobstructed Victorious Treasury King, arriving from the north, who compares seeing the Buddha to a great mountain and a clear ocean able to remove every being's own thirst.