Among Brāhmaṇas, an Emaciated Body Undergoing Austerities
The hymn continues: every buddha, the honored guide, shows himself entering the great assembly, skillfully manifesting whatever dignified deportment fits whoever needs to be transformed. For śrāvakas, he manifests the dignified deportment of one who has left home, constantly delighting in cultivating quiescence, realizing nirvāṇa without remainder. Among the brāhmaṇa multitude, he manifests an emaciated, aged body, with matted, bound hair, undergoing austerities, debating endlessly. Swallowing only air, or fasting entirely, scorching the body with the five fires — manifesting austerities such as these, he subdues every heterodox teaching. Or he upholds the precepts of other paths, skilled in calculation and many arts, astrology and calendrical reckoning, the signs of earthquakes, and every kind of characteristic of sentient beings.
Subduing Every Heterodox Teaching, Even by Its Own Methods
「諸佛尊導師， 示入於大眾，
隨其所應化， 善現威儀法。
為諸聲聞現， 出家威儀法，
常樂修寂滅， 無餘涅槃證。
婆羅門眾中， 示現羸老身，
縈髮而苦行， 語論無窮盡。
服氣或斷食， 五熱以炙身，
如是現苦行， 降伏諸異學。
或持異道戒， 善算多方術，
星曆地動相， 種種眾生相。」
"Every buddha, the honored guide, shows himself entering the great assembly,
Skillfully manifesting whatever dignified deportment fits whoever needs to be transformed.
For śrāvakas, he manifests the dignified deportment of one who has left home,
Constantly delighting in cultivating quiescence, realizing nirvāṇa without remainder.
Among the brāhmaṇa multitude, he manifests an emaciated, aged body,
With matted, bound hair, undergoing austerities, debating endlessly.
Swallowing only air, or fasting entirely, scorching the body with the five fires,
Manifesting austerities such as these, he subdues every heterodox teaching.
Or he upholds the precepts of other paths, skilled in calculation and many arts,
Astrology and calendrical reckoning, the signs of earthquakes, and every kind of characteristic of sentient beings."
"The five fires" (五熱) names a specific, historically attested ascetic practice found in classical Indian śramaṇa traditions — sitting surrounded by four fires with the sun overhead as a fifth, enduring the combined heat as a form of self-mortification — here attributed to a buddha's own manifestation for the sake of engaging brāhmaṇa ascetics on their own terms. Fazang reads this entire stretch as an extension of the "one voice, many understandings" principle into the register of bodily conduct rather than speech alone: subduing heterodox teachings does not mean refuting them from an external, superior position, but manifesting a form capable of matching and exceeding their own practices from within, whether the severe austerities of a brāhmaṇa ascetic or the technical arts (astrology, calendrical science) of another path's own adherents.
Part 449 Complete
This stretch on the buddha's own varied manifestation is now given in full. Part 450 turns to further such manifestations — deep meditative absorption for those who need it, martial and courtly skill for kings and ministers, and visits to the four heavenly kings and the eight classes of spirits.
Continue to Part 450 →