莫想能認 The Bodhisattva Cannot Tell
道罷，那行者也如此說一遍。眾諸天與菩薩都看良久，莫想能認。菩薩道：「且放了手，兩邊站下，等我再看。」果然撒手，兩邊站定。這邊說：「我是真的。」那邊說：「他是假的。」道罢，那行者也如此说一遍。众诸天与菩萨都看良久，莫想能认。菩萨道：「且放了手，两边站下，等我再看。」果然撒手，两边站定。这边说：「我是真的。」那边说：「他是假的。」
逐句解 Line by line
When he had done speaking, that Pilgrim said the very same thing over again.
The echo again, and this time with 一遍 hung on the end — one time through, as though the speech were a recitation being played back rather than an argument being answered.
The host of devas and the Bodhisattva looked a good while together, and could not by any imagining tell them apart.
莫想能認 is stronger than a plain no. Not that they failed to tell them apart, but that there was no way to; you could not even imagine how it might be done.
The Bodhisattva said: "Let go your hands for now, stand down on either side, and let me look again."
Separate the exhibits, then look again. It is the method of somebody who believes a harder stare will settle it.
Sure enough they let go, and stood firm on either side.
果然 marks that they did as they were told — identically, which is one more thing that fails to tell them apart.
This side said: "I am the true one."
Two claims, one from each end of the line, and they are the same claim. This one says he is the real one.
That side said: "He is the false one."
And that one says the other is the fake. The two sentences are kept apart on the page because the symmetry is the point, and joining them would blunt it.
The Bodhisattva's method is to look harder, and the passage records its failure in four characters: 莫想能認. Not that she failed to recognise them, but that recognition was not on offer. This is the first of the chapter's authorities to be beaten, and so far the highest-ranking one they have reached.
The closing exchange is the whole chapter in miniature. Two claims, perfectly symmetrical, neither of them checkable: 我是真的 and 他是假的 are the same assertion made from the two ends. The narration underlines the symmetry by giving up on names altogether — 這邊 and 那邊, this side and that side — so that even the sentence reporting the dispute has no way of taking a position on it.
It is worth noticing what has been lost. In the previous chapter the two were separable by conduct: one struck, the other declined to strike back. Here both obey the order to stand apart, both stand where they are put, and both make the identical claim. The behavioural test that worked once has been used up, and nothing has replaced it.