The Lion, Space, and the Moon in Water
Chapter Nine's three remaining similes each capture a different quality of fearless, unshared, universally visible buddhahood: the lion who dwells unafraid amid any herd, empty space which shares nothing in common with earth, water, fire, or wind, and the moon reflected in still autumn water, seen by every passerby yet understood in entirely different ways by the deluded and the awakened.
The Four Fearlessnesses as the Lion King
又依四無畏師子王喻故，說二偈。
譬如師子王， 諸獸中自在，
常處於山林， 不怖畏諸獸。
佛人王亦爾， 處於諸群眾，
不畏及善住， 堅固奮迅等。
此偈示現何義？略說偈言：
知病苦知因， 遠離彼苦因，
說聖道妙藥， 為離病證滅。
遠離諸怖畏， 善住奮迅城，
佛王在大眾， 無畏如師子。
以知一切法， 是故能善住，
一切處不畏。 離愚癡凡夫，
二乘及清淨， 以見我無等，
於一切法中， 心常定堅固。
何故名奮迅？ 過無明住地，
自在無閡處， 是故名奮迅。
Furthermore, in dependence on the simile of the lion king for the four fearlessnesses, two verses are spoken:
It is like the lion king, master among all beasts,
who dwells forever in the mountain forest, unafraid of any beast.
The Buddha, king among people, is likewise: dwelling amid every assembly,
fearless, well-established, firm, vigorous, and the rest.
What meaning do these verses reveal? Briefly stated, a verse says:
Knowing suffering, knowing its cause, teaching freedom from that cause of suffering,
and teaching the wondrous medicine of the noble path — for the sake of freedom from illness, these realize cessation.
Apart from every fear, well-established in the city of vigor,
the Buddha-king, amid the great assembly, is fearless like a lion.
Because he knows every dharma, he is therefore able to be well-established, unafraid in every place.
Apart from foolish, ordinary people, the two vehicles, and even the purified bodhisattvas —
because he sees that no one is his equal, his mind, with regard to every dharma, is ever settled and firm.
Why is it called "vigor"? Because he has gone beyond the ignorance-dwelling-ground,
into a domain of mastery, unobstructed — for this reason it is called "vigor."
The lion is a natural pairing for the four fearlessnesses because a lion's confidence, unlike a soldier's, is not readiness for a fight it might lose — a lion in its own territory simply has no rival worth fearing. The chapter is careful to note this fearlessness holds even against "the two vehicles... and even the purified bodhisattvas," extending the comparison beyond ordinary beings to the very practitioners closest to buddhahood itself, since even they have not yet fully gone "beyond the ignorance-dwelling-ground" — the same subtle residue of affliction this site's Śrīmālā translation identifies as remaining even for an arhat.
The Eighteen Unshared Dharmas as Space
又依十八不共法虛空譬喻故，說三偈：
地水火風等， 彼法空中無，
諸色中亦無， 虛空無閡法。
諸佛無障礙， 猶如虛空相，
如來在世間， 如地水火風。
而諸佛如來， 所有諸功德，
乃至無一法， 共餘世間有。
此偈示現何義？略說偈言：
聲聞及空行， 智者及自在，
上上微細法， 故示現五大。
諸眾生受用， 如地水火風，
離世離出世， 故說虛空大，
三十二功德， 依止法身有。
如世間燈炷， 明煖及色相，
相應無差別； 諸如來法身，
一切諸功德， 無差別亦爾。
Furthermore, in dependence on the simile of space for the eighteen unshared dharmas, three verses are spoken:
Earth, water, fire, and wind — these elements are absent from space;
they are also absent among all other forms; space is the dharma without any obstruction.
The buddhas are unobstructed, just like the mark of space;
the Tathāgata, present within the world, is like earth, water, fire, and wind.
Yet of all the qualities that the buddhas, the tathāgatas, possess,
there is not even a single one shared with anything else in the world.
What meaning do these verses reveal? Briefly stated, a verse says:
Śrāvakas, and those who course in emptiness, the wise, and those with mastery —
ascending through ever higher, more subtle dharmas — hence the five great elements are shown as similes.
What sentient beings make use of is like earth, water, fire, and wind;
apart from both the worldly and the transcendent, hence the great element of space is spoken of;
the thirty-two qualities rest upon and exist in dependence on the dharmakāya.
Just as, in a worldly lamp's wick, the brightness, the warmth, and the visible flame
correspond, undifferentiated — the Tathāgata's dharmakāya and all of its qualities are likewise undifferentiated.
The verse's precise claim is easy to read past: the Tathāgata is "present within the world, like earth, water, fire, and wind" — universally encountered, touching every domain of experience — and yet shares "not even a single" quality in common with them, because space, unlike the other four elements, has no positive characteristics of its own to share; it is simply the absence of obstruction that lets the other four occupy any place at all. The lamp simile then closes the point memorably: no one asks whether a flame's brightness could exist apart from its warmth, because they were never separate qualities to begin with — exactly the relationship this treatise claims holds between the dharmakāya and its sixty-four qualities.
The Thirty-Two Marks as the Moon in Water
又依三十二大丈夫相水中月喻故，說二偈：
秋空無雲曀， 月在天及水，
一切世間人， 皆見月勢力。
清淨佛輪中， 具功德勢力，
佛子見如來， 功德身亦爾。
此偈示現何義？略說偈言：
三十二功德， 見者生歡喜，
依法報化身， 三種佛而有。
法身淨無垢， 遠離於世間，
在如來輪中， 眾生見二處。
如清淨水中， 見於月影像，
是三十二相， 依色身得名。
如摩尼寶珠， 不離光色相，
色身亦如是， 不離三十二。
Furthermore, in dependence on the simile of the moon in water for the thirty-two marks of a great being, two verses are spoken:
In the autumn sky, free of cloud and haze, the moon is present both in the sky and in the water,
and every person in the world can see the moon's own power reflected.
Within the pure buddha-disc, complete with the power of every quality,
the sons of the Buddha see the Tathāgata, and his body of qualities is likewise seen.
What meaning do these verses reveal? Briefly stated, a verse says:
The thirty-two qualities, which bring joy to whoever sees them,
exist by way of the three kinds of buddha-body — the dharmakāya, the reward-body, and the transformation-body.
The dharmakāya is pure and stainless, apart from the world;
within the Tathāgata's own disc, sentient beings see it in two places.
Just as, in pure water, the moon's reflected image is seen,
so too these thirty-two marks obtain their name in dependence on the form-body.
Just as a maṇi-jewel is never separate from its light and color,
the form-body is likewise: never separate from the thirty-two marks.
"Sentient beings see it in two places" is the chapter's most economical restatement of a distinction it has drawn throughout: the moon in the sky and its reflection in the water are, in one sense, the identical moon, seen twice, and in another sense, two entirely different objects of experience — one a luminous body, the other a fragile image that ripples and scatters the instant the water is disturbed. Applied to the thirty-two marks, the point is exact: the marks genuinely belong to the Tathāgata and are not illusions, yet what an ordinary being takes them to be — a physical body to be venerated or, per the Diamond Sūtra citation, mistaken for the whole of buddhahood — is only the water's reflection of something whose real nature, the dharmakāya, was never in the water at all.
Part 29 Complete — Chapter Nine Concluded
This closes Chapter Nine, 如來功德品第九 ("The Tathāgata's Qualities"), and with it the treatise's full sixty-four-fold catalogue of buddhahood. Part 30 opens the treatise's tenth chapter, 自然不休息佛業品第十 ("The Buddha's Spontaneous, Unceasing Activity") — the shortest of the treatise's fruit-chapters, addressing a final question: if a buddha has fully entered nirvāṇa, apart from all conceptual activity, how can buddha-activity in the world continue at all, spontaneously and without rest?
Continue to Part 30 — Spontaneous, Unceasing Buddha-Activity →