Manifesting Form From What Has No Form
The catalogue turns briefly to illusion: it is like a master illusionist, who first studies the illusionist's own art before manifesting every illusory scene; a bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise, first raising the mind of bodhi before manifesting the true Dharma of every buddha and bodhisattva. It is like illusion itself, which manifests form from what possesses no form at all; the mark of the mind of bodhi is likewise, manifesting the adornment of merit throughout the whole Dharma-realm.
The Illusionist's Study and Illusion's Own Paradox
「譬如幻師，先讀幻術，然後示現一切幻事。菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，發菩提心，然後顯現一切諸佛菩薩正法。
「譬如幻術，非色現色。菩提心相亦復如是，顯現法界功德莊嚴。
"It is like a master illusionist, who first studies the illusionist's own art, and only afterward manifests every illusory scene. A bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise: he first raises the mind of bodhi, and only afterward manifests the true Dharma of every buddha and bodhisattva.
"It is like illusion itself, which manifests form out of what is not form at all. The mark of the mind of bodhi is likewise: it manifests the adornment of merit throughout the whole Dharma-realm."
The second simile here briefly touches the philosophically loaded language of the Prajñāpāramitā literature — "manifests form out of what is not form" (非色現色) recalls the standard analysis of illusion (māyā) as a stock example throughout Mahāyāna thought for how phenomena can appear vividly without possessing any inherent, independent nature. Fazang reads its brief, almost aphoristic appearance here, without further elaboration, as assuming the audience's own prior familiarity with this analysis from elsewhere, using it simply to characterize bodhicitta's own paradoxical mode of manifestation: real in its effects, adorning the entire Dharma-realm, yet not reducible to any single, fixed, substantial "thing" that could be pointed to as bodhicitta's own form.
Part 368 Complete
Two similes on illusion are now given in full. Part 369 turns to a person adorned with jambu-river gold whose radiance eclipses all others, and to an indestructible iron whose smallest fragment shatters every ordinary lock and chain.
Continue to Part 369 →