[In Chapter 3, A Parable,] Venerable Śāriputra spoke these verses:

The golden color, thirty-two [special marks], powers, and emancipations are all together in a single Dharma, yet I have gained none of these. The eighty excellent [marks], the eighteen special attributes, and other qualities such as these, I have also missed.

The Commentary says: What is the meaning of these verses? Venerable Śāriputra has reproached himself, saying: “I have not seen the buddhas; I have not gone to the buddhas; I have not heard the buddhas teach the Dharma. I have neither worshiped nor venerated the buddhas. I have done nothing to benefit living beings, and I have retreated from a Dharma that I have not yet obtained.” Venerable Śāriputra has reproached himself in this way.

“I have not seen the buddhas” shows that he has not seen the marks of the great being of all the buddhas, the tathāgatas, because he has not produced the thought of veneration or worship. “To go to the buddhas” means to be shown their power of giving guidance to living beings. “To see them emit a ray of golden light” means to be shown the one body and different bodies of the buddhas and to obtain countless merits. “To hear the buddhas teach the Dharma” means to be shown how they are able to benefit all living beings. “Powers” means that [tathāgatas] utilize their ten powers to eliminate the doubts of skeptics.

To revere [the buddhas] means [to venerate] the power they have in giving guidance to living beings. “Eighteen special attributes” means that [the tathāgatas] are completely rid of all the obstructions. “To venerate [the buddhas]” means to venerate the countless virtues they have produced because emancipation is obtained through the tathāgatas’ teaching. Since there is insubstantiality of the individual and insubstantiality of phenomena, everything is equal. Therefore, Venerable Śāriputra reproached himself, saying, “I have not yet obtained such a Dharma as this, and have retreated even before obtaining it.”