Every Art of the World
This is the most concrete passage in the Ten Grounds so far, and one of the most surprising in the sūtra. Having established that the bodhisattva teaches beings ten ways, the text says what they learn in order to do it — and the list is not spiritual. It is writing, arithmetic, medicine, music, town planning, where the ore is, and how to read the sky.
Ten Ways of Teaching
The four means of gathering come first, as a set. What follows extends them into six more, and the extension runs from the most ordinary — simply showing up in a body — to the most extraordinary.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩如是勤修行時，以布施教化眾生，以愛語、利行、同事教化眾生，示現色身教化眾生，演說諸法教化眾生，開示菩薩行教化眾生，顯示如來大威力教化眾生，示生死過患教化眾生，稱讚如來智慧利益教化眾生，現大神通力教化眾生，以種種方便行教化眾生。
"Child of the Buddha! When a bodhisattva mahāsattva cultivates diligently in this way, they teach and transform beings by giving; teach and transform beings by kind speech, by beneficial conduct, and by working alongside them; teach and transform beings by manifesting a physical body; teach and transform beings by expounding the dharmas; teach and transform beings by revealing the bodhisattva practice; teach and transform beings by displaying the Tathāgata's great awesome power; teach and transform beings by showing the perils and faults of birth and death; teach and transform beings by praising the benefit of a tathāgata's wisdom; teach and transform beings by manifesting great spiritual power; and teach and transform beings by every kind of skillful practice.
佛子！此菩薩摩訶薩能如是勤方便教化眾生，心恒相續，趣佛智慧；所作善根，無有退轉，常勤修學殊勝行法。
Child of the Buddha! This bodhisattva mahāsattva, able thus to teach and transform beings by diligent skillful means, keeps their mind continuous and directed toward a buddha's wisdom; the wholesome roots they make do not turn back, and they constantly and diligently cultivate and study the supreme practices of the Dharma.
Learned Without Exception
The list runs to nine clusters and covers most of what a literate civilization knew. Each is stated as competence rather than acquaintance — thoroughly penetrated, never once in error, everything in its fitting place — and the qualification comes only at the end.
「佛子！此菩薩摩訶薩為利益眾生故，世間技藝靡不該習。所謂：文字、算數、圖書、印璽；地、水、火、風，種種諸論，咸所通達；又善方藥，療治諸病——顛狂、乾消、鬼魅、蠱毒，悉能除斷；文筆、讚詠、歌舞、妓樂、戲笑、談說，悉善其事；國城、村邑、宮宅、園苑、泉流、陂池、草樹、花藥，凡所布列，咸得其宜；
"Child of the Buddha! This bodhisattva mahāsattva, for the benefit of beings, learns without exception the arts and crafts of the world. That is to say: writing and arithmetic, drawing and the cutting of seals; and the various treatises upon earth, water, fire, and wind — all of these they penetrate thoroughly. They are skilled as well in medicines and remedies, curing every illness — madness, wasting, possession by spirits, and poisoning — all of which they are able to remove and cut off. In composition and in versifying, in singing and dancing, in music, in jest and in conversation, they are skilled in every one of these matters. Of realms and cities, villages and towns, palaces and dwellings, gardens and parks, springs and streams, ponds and pools, grasses and trees, flowers and medicinal herbs — in the arrangement of all of them, they get everything fitting.
金銀、摩尼、真珠、瑠璃、螺貝、璧玉、珊瑚等藏，悉知其處，出以示人；日月星宿、鳥鳴地震、夜夢吉凶，身相休咎，咸善觀察，一無錯謬；持戒入禪，神通無量，四無色等及餘一切世間之事，但於眾生不為損惱，為利益故咸悉開示，漸令安住無上佛法。
Of the hoards of gold and silver, of maṇi, pearl, lapis lazuli, conch, jade, and coral, they know where each of them lies, and bring them out to show to others. Of the sun, the moon and the constellations, of birdcalls and earthquakes, of what is auspicious and inauspicious in dreams at night, and of the marks of the body for good or ill, they contemplate all of these well and are never once in error. Keeping the precepts and entering meditative absorption, spiritual powers measureless, the four formless states, and every other matter of the world besides — so long as it does no injury and gives no trouble to beings, they reveal all of it for their benefit, gradually bringing them to abide securely in the unsurpassed buddha-dharma.
「佛子！菩薩住是難勝地，以願力故，得見多佛。所謂：見多百佛，見多千佛，見多百千佛，乃至見多百千億那由他佛。悉恭敬尊重，承事供養，衣服、飲食、臥具、湯藥，一切資生悉以奉施，亦以供養一切眾僧，以此善根迴向阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。於諸佛所，恭敬聽法，聞已受持，隨力修行。
"Child of the Buddha! A bodhisattva abiding on this Ground Difficult to Conquer, by the power of vows, comes to see many buddhas. That is to say: they see many hundreds of buddhas, see many thousands of buddhas, see many hundreds of thousands of buddhas, on up to seeing many hundreds of thousands of millions of nayutas of buddhas. All of them they revere and honor, attend upon and make offerings to — robes, food and drink, bedding, and medicinal broths, every requisite of life presented as a gift — and they make offerings to the whole Saṅgha as well, dedicating these wholesome roots to unsurpassed, perfect awakening. In the presence of those buddhas they listen reverently to the Dharma, and having heard it they receive and uphold it, practicing it according to their strength.
世間技藝靡不該習 — the arts and crafts of the world, learned without exception. This is the fifth ground's most practical claim and its least expected. A path that has spent four grounds establishing that the conditioned world is impermanent, counterfeit, and to be turned away from now requires its practitioner to become genuinely competent in that world's crafts — not to tolerate them, but to master them, down to knowing where the ore lies and how to lay out a garden.
The reason is given twice, at the top and at the bottom: 為利益眾生故, for the benefit of beings. The list is not a broadening of interests. It is an inventory of the things people actually need help with, and the bodhisattva who has undertaken to meet beings 隨其所習 — according to what they are accustomed to — has to be able to speak in whatever a given person's life is made of.
Note the single qualification, and where it falls: 但於眾生不為損惱, so long as it does no injury and gives no trouble to beings. It is the only filter placed on the entire list, and it is not about whether a subject is worldly or sacred. Astronomy, dream-reading, and the cutting of seals are all admissible; the test is only whether the knowledge harms anyone. And the aim stated at the end is 漸令安住無上佛法 — gradually. Nobody is being converted by the arithmetic. They are being met there, and moved slowly.
Part 436 Complete
This continues Sudurjayā, the fifth of the Ten Grounds. Chapter 26 continues in Part 437 as the bodhisattva goes forth within the Dharma of those buddhas, obtains dhāraṇī and becomes a Dharma-teacher who has heard and retains — and the sūtra gives this ground its own two similes: true gold polished with clam shell, growing brighter still; and the palaces of the sun, moon and stars, held up by the force of wind so that nothing can bring them down.