Not Going Anywhere, Yet Reaching Everywhere
The hymn continues: it is like the deep, great ocean, whose treasury of jewels can never be exhausted, within which every form and class of sentient being is entirely made visible. The profound ocean of causes and conditions has an inexhaustible treasury of merit; within the pure Dharma-body, there is no image at all that fails to appear. It is like the bright, pure sun, dispelling and removing the darkness of the world; the tathāgata's own pure sun of wisdom entirely dispels the darkness of the three times. It is like a nāga raising an auspicious cloud, universally raining upon everything, though neither its body nor its mind literally sends down the rain, removing heat and granting coolness. The tathāgata is likewise: raising the cloud of great compassion, universally raining the ambrosial Dharma, extinguishing the fire of the three poisons. Yet this Dharma, too, does not come forth from the tathāgata's own body or mind; the tathāgata's own pure Dharma-body has no equal throughout the three realms. It transcends every world, neither existent nor non-existent, in truth dependent on nothing at all, and without going anywhere, reaches everywhere.
The Ocean, the Sun, and the Nāga's Own Rain
「譬如深大海， 珍寶不可盡，
於中悉顯現， 眾生形類像。
甚深因緣海， 功德寶無盡，
清淨法身中， 無像而不現。
譬如明淨日， 照除世間闇，
如來淨智日， 悉除三世闇。
如龍興慶雲， 普雨於一切，
身心不降雨， 除熱得清涼。
如來亦如是， 興起大悲雲，
普雨甘露法， 滅除三毒火。
此法亦不從， 如來身心出，
如來淨法身， 三界無倫匹。
超出諸世間， 非有亦非無，
其實無所依， 不去而遍至。」
"It is like the deep, great ocean, whose treasury of jewels can never be exhausted,
Within which every form and class of sentient being is entirely made visible.
The profound ocean of causes and conditions has an inexhaustible treasury of merit;
Within the pure Dharma-body, there is no image at all that fails to appear.
It is like the bright, pure sun, dispelling and removing the darkness of the world;
The tathāgata's own pure sun of wisdom entirely dispels the darkness of the three times.
It is like a nāga raising an auspicious cloud, universally raining upon everything,
Though neither its body nor its mind literally sends down the rain, removing heat and granting coolness.
The tathāgata is likewise: raising the cloud of great compassion,
Universally raining the ambrosial Dharma, extinguishing the fire of the three poisons.
Yet this Dharma, too, does not come forth from the tathāgata's own body or mind;
The tathāgata's own pure Dharma-body has no equal throughout the three realms.
It transcends every world, neither existent nor non-existent,
In truth dependent on nothing at all, and without going anywhere, reaches everywhere."
The nāga-rain simile here directly recalls the very same image Maitreya used many parts earlier to explain how his own tower-vision could arise "from nowhere" — a nāga's rain proceeding from intention alone rather than from any physical source — and its recurrence in Samantabhadra's own closing teaching confirms Fazang's reading that both great visions of this final section of the sūtra rest on the identical philosophical foundation. The stanza's closing formula — "neither existent nor non-existent... dependent on nothing at all, and without going anywhere, reaches everywhere" — is among the most concentrated statements of the Dharma-body's own paradoxical nature anywhere in Mahāyāna literature, refusing every available category (existence, non-existence, dependence, motion) while still affirming its universal, unrestricted presence.
Part 452 Complete
This closing meditation on the Dharma-body's own paradoxical nature is now given in full. Part 453 continues Samantabhadra's own hymn, which does not yet appear to have reached its end.
Continue to Part 453 →