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.
道罷…也如此說 recurs almost verbatim at every stage of the chapter. Here it is reinforced by 一遍, 'one time through', as though the speech were a recitation being repeated 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 'by no imagining able to recognise' — 莫想 is stronger than a simple negative; not merely they did not, but there was no way they could.
The Bodhisattva said: "Let go your hands for now, stand down on either side, and let me look again."
The command is procedural — separate the exhibits, then re-examine. It is the method of someone who believes closer looking will settle it.
Sure enough they let go, and stood firm on either side.
果然 marks compliance: the two obey identically, which is itself another failed discriminator.
This side said: "I am the true one."
這邊 / 那邊 — this side and that side. The narration has given up on names and fallen back to pure spatial deixis.
That side said: "He is the false one."
Kept as its own segment rather than joined to the preceding: the two utterances are separate sentences, and the parallelism reads best when the page preserves the division.
The Bodhisattva's method is simply to look harder, and the passage records its failure in four words: 莫想能認. Not that she failed to recognise them, but that recognition was not available to be had. This is the first of the chapter's authorities to be defeated, and the highest-ranking one so far encountered.
The closing exchange is the chapter in miniature. Two claims, perfectly symmetrical, each unfalsifiable: 我是真的 and 他是假的 are the same assertion made from the two ends. The narration underlines the symmetry by abandoning names altogether — 這邊 and 那邊, this side and that side — so that even the sentence that reports 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 distinguishable by conduct: one struck, one declined to strike back. Here both obey the Bodhisattva's order to separate, both stand where they are told, and both make the identical claim. The behavioural test that worked once has been exhausted, and nothing has replaced it.