Indra's Drum and the Nine Similes of Activity
The treatise raises an objection against its own teaching: if the buddhas are truly unborn and unceasing, how can they still act, since an unconditioned dharma does not perform karmic activity? The answer is nine of the tradition's most enduring images — Indra's reflection, a divine drum no one strikes, rain that falls without intent, Brahmā seen in countless places without moving, the sun, a wish-granting jewel, an echo, space, and the earth — each showing how effect can proceed without the ordinary machinery of intention.
The Objection: Can the Unconditioned Act?
問曰：如向所說諸佛如來不生不滅，若如是者即無為法，無為法者不修行業。云何自然不休息常教化眾生事？答曰：為示現彼諸佛大事斷諸疑惑，是故依彼不可思議無垢清淨諸佛境界示現大事。故以譬喻說一行偈：
帝釋妙鼓雲， 梵天日摩尼，
響及虛空地， 如來身亦爾。
依此一行修多羅攝取義，偈九種譬喻。自此以下廣說餘殘六十六偈應知。又復依彼廣說偈義，九種譬喻略說彼義。及以次第廣說如來無上利益一切眾生修行究竟，以十九偈解釋應知。偈言：
遠離一切業， 未曾見有果，
為一切疑人， 除諸疑網故，
說九種譬喻， 彼修多羅名，
廣說此諸法。 彼修多羅中，
廣說九種喻， 彼名智境界。
Question: As explained above, the buddhas, the tathāgatas, are unborn and unceasing; if this is so, then they are an unconditioned dharma, and an unconditioned dharma does not perform karmic activity. How, then, can there be the spontaneous, unceasing, constant work of teaching and transforming sentient beings? Answer: In order to reveal that great matter of the buddhas and sever every doubt, nine similes are given, in dependence on the inconceivable, stainless, pure domain of the buddhas, to reveal that great matter. Hence, by way of simile, one verse states:
Like Indra's reflection, the wondrous drum, cloud, Brahmā, the sun, a maṇi-jewel,
an echo, and space and earth — the Tathāgata's body is likewise.
This one verse, gathering up the meaning of the sūtra, gives the nine similes. From here on, it should be understood that the remaining sixty-six verses explain this at length. Furthermore, in dependence on the meaning of these verses explained at length, the nine similes briefly state that meaning. And, in due order, explaining at length how the Tathāgata's unsurpassed benefiting of every sentient being through cultivation is brought to completion, it should be understood as explained through nineteen verses. A verse says:
Apart from every karmic activity, never having seen its fruit —
for the sake of all those in doubt, to remove the net of every doubt, nine similes are spoken;
that sūtra is named after this, explaining these dharmas at length;
within that sūtra, the nine similes are explained at length, and it is named "the domain of wisdom."
The objection is a fair one and cuts to the heart of the treatise's whole project: ordinary activity requires a mind that discriminates, deliberates, and intends, but the treatise has spent nine chapters insisting the buddha-mind does none of these things. The nine similes that follow do not so much answer the objection by argument as dissolve it by example — each picture shows a genuine effect (a reflection, a sound, benefit, illumination) arising from something that does nothing recognizable as ordinary "acting" at all, undermining the unstated assumption that effortful intention is the only possible source of effect.
How the Nine Similes Work
快妙智莊嚴， 有智者速入，
具足佛境界。 說彼天帝釋，
琉璃鏡像等， 九種諸譬喻，
應知彼要義， 見說及遍至。
以離諸相智， 身口意業密，
大慈悲者得， 離諸功用心，
無分別寂靜， 以智故無垢，
如大毘琉璃， 帝釋等譬喻。
智究竟滿足， 故究竟寂靜，
以有淨智慧， 是故無分別。
為成種種義， 故說釋等喻，
為成彼義者， 說九種見等。
離生離神通， 諸佛現是事，
是名為略說， 種種義譬喻。
先喻解異後， 後喻解異前，
佛體如鏡像， 如彼琉璃地。
Adorned with joyous, wondrous wisdom, one of wisdom swiftly enters and is complete with the domain of the Buddha.
It speaks of the lord of the gods, Indra, the beryl mirror-image, and the rest — these nine similes.
It should be understood that their essential meaning concerns: being seen, teaching, and pervading everywhere.
By the wisdom apart from every mark, the secret activity of body, speech, and mind,
attained by the one of great loving-kindness and compassion, apart from any mind of deliberate effort,
non-discriminating and tranquil, stainless because of this wisdom —
this is like the great beryl mirror, the simile of Indra and the rest.
Wisdom is ultimately complete, and therefore ultimately tranquil;
because there is this pure wisdom, there is therefore no discrimination.
In order to establish these various meanings, the simile of Indra and the rest is spoken;
in order to establish that meaning, the nine modes of being seen and the rest are spoken.
Apart from ordinary birth, apart from effortful supernatural power, the buddhas manifest this matter —
this is called, in brief, the similes for these various meanings.
The earlier similes explain something different from the later; the later similes explain something different from the earlier.
The Buddha's essence is like a mirror-image, like that beryl ground reflecting Indra's image.
Nine Similes: Drum, Cloud, Brahmā, Sun, Jewel, Echo, Space, Earth
人非不有聲， 如天妙法鼓，
非不作法事， 如彼大雲雨。
非不作利益， 而亦非不生，
種種諸種子， 如梵天不動。
而非不淳熟， 如彼大日輪，
非不破諸闇， 如彼如意寶，
而非不希有， 猶如彼聲響，
非不因緣成， 猶如彼虛空。
非不為一切， 眾生作依止，
猶如彼大地， 而非不住持，
一切種種物， 以依彼大地，
荷負諸世間， 種種諸物故。
It is not that there is no sound for people to hear — like the heavenly, wondrous Dharma-drum;
it is not that no work of the Dharma is done — like that great cloud's rain.
It is not that no benefit is worked, and yet it is also not that nothing is produced —
like the seeds of every kind that sprout, while Brahmā himself does not move.
And yet it is not that ripening does not occur — like that great solar disk;
it is not that every darkness is not dispelled — like that wish-fulfilling jewel;
and yet it is not that it is without rarity — like that echoing sound;
it is not that it is not accomplished through causes and conditions — like that empty space.
It is not that it does not serve as the support for every sentient being — like that great earth;
and it is not that it does not sustain every kind of thing —
because, in dependence on that great earth, it bears up every kind of thing within the world.
The refrain "it is not that... does not..." running through every simile is a deliberate double negative, and the treatise's choice to phrase things this way rather than simply asserting the positive is worth noticing: it forecloses two mistakes at once — thinking the buddha does nothing at all, and thinking the buddha does something in the ordinary, effortful sense. Brahmā's seeds "sprout while Brahmā himself does not move" captures the pattern most sharply: an entire harvest of real, differentiated effects can unfold from a source that has, from its own side, done nothing whatsoever to bring any one of them about.
Part 31 Complete — Chapter Ten Concluded
依諸佛菩提， 出世間妙法，
成就諸白業， 諸禪四無量，
及以四空定， 諸如來自然，
常住諸世間， 有如是諸業，
一時非前後， 作如是妙業。
In dependence on the buddhas' bodhi, the transcendent, wondrous Dharma,
accomplishing every wholesome karma, the meditative absorptions, the four immeasurables,
and the four formless concentrations — the tathāgatas spontaneously,
ever abiding within every world, have such activity as this,
all at once, not sequentially, performing such wondrous activity as this.
This closes Chapter Ten, 自然不休息佛業品第十 ("The Buddha's Spontaneous, Unceasing Activity") — its closing line, that this activity occurs "all at once, not sequentially," is the treatise's final answer to its own objection: buddha-activity is not a series of separate acts strung out over time, requiring renewed intention at each moment, but a single, ever-present, unbroken benefiting of the world. Part 32 opens the treatise's eleventh and final chapter, 挍量信功德品第十一 ("The Merit of Comparative Faith"), turning at last to the practical question of what it means, and what merit accrues, to have faith in everything this treatise has taught.
Continue to Part 32 — The Merit of Faith →