Verses from the Southwest
The seventh bodhisattva, Wisdom-Banner King Who Crushes Every Army of Māra, arriving from the southwest, opens with a paradox as sharp as any in this sequence: a wisdom-body that is not, in truth, any kind of body at all, arising from karma the mind cannot conceive.
A Body That Is Not a Body
These verses open by unsettling the very idea of a body before saying anything else — the wisdom-body is not a body in any ordinary sense — and close by declaring that awakening itself cannot be spoken of, framing everything in between as an attempt to gesture toward something language was never built to hold.
爾時，破一切魔軍智幢王菩薩，承佛神力，觀察十方而說頌言：
智身非是身，
無礙難思議；
設有思議者，
一切無能及。
從不思議業，
起此清淨身，
殊特妙莊嚴，
不著於三界。
光明照一切，
法界悉清淨，
開佛菩提門，
出生眾智慧。
譬如世間日，
普放慧光明，
遠離諸塵垢，
滅除一切障，
普淨三有處，
永絕生死流，
成就菩薩道，
出生無上覺。
示現無邊色，
此色無依處；
所現雖無量，
一切不思議。
菩提一念頃，
能覺一切法；
云何欲測量，
如來智邊際？
一念悉明達，
一切三世法；
故說佛智慧，
無盡無能壞。
智者應如是，
專思佛菩提；
此思難思議，
思之不可得。
菩提不可說，
超過語言路；
諸佛從此生，
是法難思議。
At that time, Wisdom-Banner King Who Crushes Every Army of Māra Bodhisattva, sustained by the Buddha's own spiritual power, surveyed the ten directions and spoke these verses:
The wisdom-body is not, in truth, any kind of body at all; it is unobstructed and inconceivable — and even if someone should try to conceive of it, nothing at all could ever reach it.
Out of inconceivable karma this pure body arises, uniquely and wondrously adorned, attached to none of the three realms.
Its light illuminates everything, the entire dharma-realm becoming pure; it opens the buddha's own gate of awakening, giving rise to every kind of wisdom.
It is like the sun of the world, universally radiating the light of wisdom, far removed from every speck of dust and defilement, extinguishing every obstruction,
universally purifying every realm of the three states of existence, forever cutting off the stream of birth and death, accomplishing the bodhisattva's own path, and giving rise to unsurpassed awakening.
It manifests boundless forms, and yet these very forms rely upon nothing at all; though what is manifested is measureless, every bit of it is inconceivable.
In a single instant of thought, awakening is able to comprehend every dharma; how, then, could anyone wish to measure the outer limit of the tathāgata's own wisdom?
In a single thought it fully comprehends every dharma across the three times; and therefore it is said that the Buddha's own wisdom is inexhaustible, and nothing can ever destroy it.
The wise should reflect exactly in this way, single-mindedly contemplating the Buddha's own awakening; yet this very contemplation is itself inconceivable, and cannot be grasped through contemplation at all.
Awakening cannot be spoken of; it transcends the very path of language; every buddha is born from this, and this dharma is inconceivable.
智身非是身 — the wisdom-body is not, in truth, any kind of body at all. Naming something a "body" and then immediately denying it is a body sets the tone for everything that follows: forms that rely on nothing, contemplation that cannot be grasped through contemplation, an awakening that cannot be spoken of even as this very verse speaks of it.
Part 863 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty. Part 864 turns to the eighth bodhisattva, Vow-Wisdom Light Banner, arriving from the northwest, who describes turning away from the aggregates and realms of ordinary existence to seek the Buddha's own merit alone.