Like the Moon, Manifesting Waxing and Waning
The hymn continues: whether in Yāma heaven or Tuṣita, Nirmāṇarati or Paranirmitavaśavartin, the Brahmā heavens all the way to the Pure Abodes, he proclaims the Dharma for their sake. Manifesting countless such varieties of dignified deportment, he delivers every multitude of beings through boundless power of skillful means. It is like a master illusionist, able to manifest every kind of scene; the buddha, in order to transform sentient beings, manifests every kind of body in just this way. It is like the moon, traveling through space, whom beholders say waxes and wanes, its reflection appearing in every river and pool, its own light nonetheless eclipsing even the light of a firefly. The tathāgata's own pure wisdom-moon is likewise: it manifests an apparent waxing and waning, dwelling within the water of an upright mind, eclipsing the light of the two lesser vehicles.
The Illusionist's Scenes, and a Reflection in Every River and Pool
「夜摩或兜率， 化樂化自在，
梵王至淨居， 為彼演說法。
如是現無數， 種種威儀法，
無量方便力， 度脫諸群生。
譬如工幻師， 能現種種事，
佛為化眾生， 示現種種身。
如月遊虛空， 覩者謂增損，
影現諸河池， 映蔽熒火光。
如來淨智月， 示現有增損，
處於直心水， 映蔽二乘光。」
"Whether in Yāma heaven or Tuṣita, Nirmāṇarati or Paranirmitavaśavartin,
The Brahmā heavens all the way to the Pure Abodes, he proclaims the Dharma for their sake.
Manifesting countless such varieties of dignified deportment,
He delivers every multitude of beings through boundless power of skillful means.
It is like a master illusionist, able to manifest every kind of scene;
The buddha, in order to transform sentient beings, manifests every kind of body in just this way.
It is like the moon, traveling through space, whom beholders say waxes and wanes,
Its reflection appearing in every river and pool, its own light nonetheless eclipsing even the light of a firefly.
The tathāgata's own pure wisdom-moon is likewise: it manifests an apparent waxing and waning,
Dwelling within the water of an upright mind, eclipsing the light of the two lesser vehicles."
"The Pure Abodes" (淨居, Śuddhāvāsa) names the five highest heavens of the form-realm, traditionally reserved for anāgāmins (non-returners) who will attain final liberation from those very heavens without further rebirth — its mention here closing the sequence of heavens visited marks the very summit of what is ordinarily accessible to advanced practice, beyond which lies only the formless realm the hymn has not needed to visit since a buddha's own teaching activity there would have no embodied audience to address. Fazang reads the moon simile's own careful phrasing — the moon "appears" to wax and wane only to beholders, while never actually changing itself — as this hymn's precise image for how the buddha's own teaching can appear to expand or diminish in scope (sometimes reaching vast audiences, sometimes seeming to withdraw) without any actual variation occurring in the buddha's own unchanging nature, itself outshining even the combined lesser lights of the śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha vehicles as thoroughly as moonlight outshines a firefly's own glow.
Part 451 Complete
The illusionist and moon similes are now given in full. Part 452 turns to the ocean simile, its inexhaustible treasury reflecting every form of every being, and to the sun simile, dispelling the darkness of the three times entire.
Continue to Part 452 →