Thirty-Two Marks, and the Vajra Scepter

Furthermore, in dependence on the thirty-two marks of a great being, eleven verses are spoken:

The soles of the feet are flat and full, complete with the thousand-spoked wheel;
the heels are broad, the insteps arched, the calves like the antelope-king's.
Hands and feet are entirely soft and supple, every finger slender and long,
the fingers webbed like a royal goose's; the arms and elbows, above and below, are full.
Both shoulders, front and back, are level, left and right equally rounded;
standing, the hands reach past the knees; the mark of a sheathed organ, like a stallion's.
The body's proportion is grand and graceful, like the king of banyan trees;
the body is full in seven places, the upper body like a lion's.
Majestic power, firm, like Nārāyaṇa; the body's color fresh, pure, and wondrous,
soft, golden-colored skin, pure, soft, fine, smooth, and dense — one hair grows from each pore.
The hairs are soft, curling upward, each fine whorl turning to the right;
the body's pure light surrounds it all around, the crown-mark rising high and visible.
The neck is like a peacock king's, the jaw square, like a lion's;
the hair is pure, the color of refined gold, likened to Indra's.
The mark of a white curl on the forehead, the whole face pure and radiant;
the mouth holds forty teeth, the two eyeteeth whiter than snow,
deep-rooted, closely set, bright within and without, the upper and lower teeth even.
A kalaviṅka's voice, a wondrous, deep, far-reaching voice;
whatever is eaten, upon reaching the throat, manifests as the supreme among flavors.
A fine, thin, broad, and long tongue; both eyes a pure, deep-blue color,
blinking like a bull-king, their beauty like a lotus flower.

Thus are told the honored one's thirty-two wondrous marks —
each one distinct, without any confusion, and, in every part, without a single flaw.

These — the Buddha's ten powers, four fearlessnesses, eighteen unshared dharmas, and thirty-two marks of a great being — briefly gathered together in one place, should be understood as the sixty-four kinds of qualities. A verse says:

The sixty-four qualities, their cultivated causes and their resulting fruits,
each one distinct in turn, are explained in the Ratnadārikā Sūtra.

What meaning does this verse make clear? It was explained above that the buddhas, the tathāgatas, have sixty-four kinds of qualities, distinct in cause and fruit; it should be understood that this is explained at length, in this same order, in the Ratnadārikā Sūtra. Furthermore, in dependence on these four categories, there are, in due order, four similes — namely, the vajra scepter, the lion king, the simile of space, and the moon in water — given in nine verses. In dependence on those nine verses, it is briefly stated in a verse:

Breaking through, without a mind of ill will; unshared by others, without a limiting mind —
hence the similes of the scepter, the lion, space, and the moon in water are spoken.

Furthermore, in dependence on the simile of the vajra scepter for the ten powers, two verses are spoken:

The fruit-nature of what is and is not the case; the faculties and dispositions of sentient beings;
the various paths and grounds of cultivation; the distinctions beyond ordinary knowledge of past lives.

The heavenly eye, the exhaustion of contaminants, and the rest — the Buddha's powers, like a vajra scepter,
are able to pierce, shatter, scatter, and cut down the armor, the mountain, the wall, and the tree of delusion.

What meaning do these verses reveal? Briefly stated, a verse says:

Of the Tathāgata's ten powers, six, then three, then one, in that order, act within the domain to be known,
apart from every obstruction of samādhi and apart from every remaining taint — just as one breaks, scatters,
and cuts through armor, walls, and trees, though these be heavy and firm and cannot ordinarily be broken —
the Tathāgata's ten powers are just like that vajra, and hence the simile of the vajra scepter is spoken.