Buddha-Work Done in a Dream
The seventh concentration ends with an account of what buddha-work actually consists of, and the list is startlingly various — a voice, a shape, a memory, an earthquake, an appearance in someone's sleep, and finally a death, shown to people who have grown tired.
Ten Fulfilments
The sequence is a course of instruction in ten steps: seeing, believing, hearing, knowing there are such worlds, seeing the transformations, recalling one's own deeds, steadying the mind, entering purity, rousing the resolve, and completing the buddhas' wisdom.
佛子！菩薩摩訶薩得此十種最清淨威德身已，能令眾生得十種圓滿。何等為十？一者能令眾生得見於佛，二者能令眾生深信於佛，三者能令眾生聽聞於法，四者能令眾生知有佛世界，五者能令眾生見佛神變，六者能令眾生念所集業，七者能令眾生定心圓滿，八者能令眾生入佛清淨，九者能令眾生發菩提心，十者能令眾生圓滿佛智。
Child of the Buddha! When a bodhisattva mahāsattva has obtained these ten bodies of purest awesome virtue, they can cause beings to obtain ten fulfilments. What are the ten? First, they can cause beings to get to see a buddha. Second, they can cause beings to have deep faith in a buddha. Third, they can cause beings to hear the Dharma. Fourth, they can cause beings to know that there are buddha-worlds. Fifth, they can cause beings to see a buddha's transformations. Sixth, they can cause beings to call to mind the karma they have gathered. Seventh, they can cause beings' concentrated minds to be fulfilled. Eighth, they can cause beings to enter the buddhas' purity. Ninth, they can cause beings to rouse the mind of awakening. Tenth, they can cause beings to fulfil the buddhas' wisdom.
六者能令眾生念所集業 — they can cause beings to call to mind the karma they have gathered. Placed between seeing a buddha's transformations and steadying the mind, and it is the only item that turns a person back on themselves. Whatever else these bodies of awesome virtue do, one of their effects is to make someone remember what they have done.
Twelve Ways of Doing a Buddha's Work
Each is a means paired with a purpose, and the last two are about time — teaching without missing the moment, remaining alive, and then not remaining.
佛子！菩薩摩訶薩令眾生得十種圓滿已，復為眾生作十種佛事。何等為十？所謂：以音聲作佛事，為成熟眾生故；以色形作佛事，為調伏眾生故；以憶念作佛事，為清淨眾生故；以震動世界作佛事，為令眾生離惡趣故；以方便覺悟作佛事，為令眾生不失念故；以夢中現相作佛事，為令眾生恒正念故。
Child of the Buddha! When a bodhisattva mahāsattva has caused beings to obtain the ten fulfilments, they further do ten kinds of buddha-work for beings. What are the ten? Namely: they do the buddhas' work by voice, in order to ripen beings; they do the buddhas' work by form and shape, in order to tame beings; they do the buddhas' work by being called to mind, in order to purify beings; they do the buddhas' work by shaking worlds, in order that beings may leave the evil destinies; they do the buddhas' work by awakening people through skillful means, in order that beings may not lose mindfulness; and they do the buddhas' work by appearing in dreams, in order that beings may be constantly rightly mindful.
以放大光明作佛事，為普攝取諸眾生故；以修菩薩行作佛事，為令眾生住勝願故；以成正等覺作佛事，為令眾生知幻法故；以轉妙法輪作佛事，為眾說法不失時故；以現住壽命作佛事，為調伏一切眾生故；以示般涅槃作佛事，知諸眾生起疲厭故。佛子！是為菩薩摩訶薩第七了知一切世界佛莊嚴大三昧善巧智。
They do the buddhas' work by sending forth great radiance, in order to gather in all beings universally; they do the buddhas' work by cultivating the bodhisattva's practice, in order that beings may abide in surpassing vows; they do the buddhas' work by accomplishing perfect awakening, in order that beings may know the dharma of conjuring; they do the buddhas' work by turning the wondrous Dharma-wheel, in order to expound the Dharma for the multitude without missing the time; they do the buddhas' work by displaying a continuing life-span, in order to tame all beings; and they do the buddhas' work by displaying parinirvāṇa, knowing that beings have grown weary. Child of the Buddha! This is the bodhisattva mahāsattva's skillful knowledge in the seventh great samādhi, comprehending the buddha-adornments of all worlds.
以夢中現相作佛事 — they do the buddhas' work by appearing in dreams. It is listed between shaking a world and sending forth radiance, with no change of tone, and the purpose given is the modest one of keeping people rightly mindful. The chapter has used dreaming twice already as a simile; here it is a place of work.
以示般涅槃作佛事，知諸眾生起疲厭故 — they do the buddhas' work by displaying parinirvāṇa, knowing that beings have grown weary. The last of the twelve, and the reason is not doctrinal but psychological: people tire, and a teacher who never left would become part of the furniture. A death, on this account, is something done for an audience.
Part 513 Complete — Fascicle 41 Complete
The seventh of the ten great samādhis is finished, and with it fascicle forty-one. Part 514 opens fascicle forty-two and 十定品第二十七之三 with the eighth, the samādhi of the differentiated bodies of all beings — beginning with ten kinds of non-attachment, to lands, directions, kalpas, assemblies, dharmas, bodhisattvas, vows, samādhis, buddhas and grounds — and then the strangest account of entering and rising in the whole chapter.