Buddha-Work for Sentient Beings, and the Most-Supreme Dharmas
Ten instruments a buddha uses to carry out buddha-work for sentient beings, ending on the strangest of the ten — silence itself — and then ten qualities the chapter names outright as most supreme, from an unbreakable vow to a compassion that treats faith and slander exactly alike.
Ten Ways of Carrying Out Buddha-Work
This list moves through body, voice, the elements themselves, names, and lands, before ending on the least expected instrument of all: silence and the absence of any word.
「佛子！諸佛世尊有十種為眾生作佛事。何等為十？所謂：一切諸佛示現色身為眾生作佛事；一切諸佛出妙音聲為眾生作佛事；一切諸佛有所受為眾生作佛事；一切諸佛無所受為眾生作佛事；一切諸佛以地、水、火、風為眾生作佛事；一切諸佛神力自在示現一切所緣境界為眾生作佛事；一切諸佛種種名號為眾生作佛事；一切諸佛以佛剎境界為眾生作佛事；一切諸佛嚴淨佛剎為眾生作佛事；一切諸佛寂寞無言為眾生作佛事。是為十。
"Sons of the Buddha! The buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, have ten ways of carrying out buddha-work for the sake of sentient beings. What are these ten? They are: every buddha manifests a physical body to carry out buddha-work for the sake of sentient beings; every buddha emits a wondrous voice to carry out buddha-work for the sake of sentient beings; every buddha, through what is received, carries out buddha-work for the sake of sentient beings; every buddha, through what is not received, carries out buddha-work for the sake of sentient beings; every buddha, through earth, water, fire, and wind, carries out buddha-work for the sake of sentient beings; every buddha, through spiritual power freely manifesting every object of perception, carries out buddha-work for the sake of sentient beings; every buddha, through every manner of name, carries out buddha-work for the sake of sentient beings; every buddha, through the sphere of a buddha-land, carries out buddha-work for the sake of sentient beings; every buddha, by adorning and purifying a buddha-land, carries out buddha-work for the sake of sentient beings; and every buddha, through silence and wordlessness, carries out buddha-work for the sake of sentient beings. These are the ten.
一切諸佛寂寞無言為眾生作佛事 — every buddha, through silence and wordlessness, carries out buddha-work for the sake of sentient beings. Nine items in this list describe something a buddha does — manifesting, emitting, receiving, using the elements, naming, adorning. The tenth describes something a buddha withholds, and counts the withholding as an equally valid instrument. A teaching delivered by saying nothing closes a list that began with a body and a voice.
Ten Most-Supreme Dharmas
The chapter names this list outright as supreme — an unbreakable vow, tireless practice through every future kalpa, and a compassion that observes those who have faith and those who slander with exactly the same regard.
「佛子！諸佛世尊有十種最勝法。何等為十？所謂：一切諸佛大願堅固不可沮壞，所言必作，言無有二；一切諸佛為欲圓滿一切功德，盡未來劫修菩薩行不生懈倦；一切諸佛為欲調伏一眾生故，往不可說不可說世界，如是而為一切眾生而無斷絕；一切諸佛於信、於毀二種眾生，大悲普觀，平等無異；一切諸佛從初發心乃至成佛，終不退失菩提之心；一切諸佛積集無量諸善功德，皆以迴向一切智性，於諸世間終無染著；一切諸佛於諸佛所修學三業，唯行佛行，非二乘行，皆為迴向一切智性，成於無上正等菩提；一切諸佛放大光明，其光平等照一切處，及照一切諸佛之法，令諸菩薩心得清淨，滿一切智；一切諸佛捨離世樂，不貪不染，而普願世間離苦得樂，無諸戲論；一切諸佛愍諸眾生受種種苦，守護佛種，行佛境界，出離生死，逮十力地。是為十。
"Sons of the Buddha! The buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, have ten kinds of most-supreme dharma. What are these ten? They are: every buddha's great vow is firm and cannot be destroyed — what is spoken is certainly carried out, with never a second word; every buddha, wishing to bring every merit to completion, cultivates bodhisattva practice to the very end of future kalpas without ever growing weary or slack; every buddha, wishing to tame even a single sentient being, journeys to unspeakable, unspeakable worlds, and does this for every sentient being without any interruption; every buddha, toward the two kinds of beings — those who have faith and those who slander — observes them universally with great compassion, equally and without distinction; every buddha, from their very first arousing of the resolve until becoming a buddha, never once retreats from or loses the mind of bodhi; every buddha, accumulating measureless wholesome merit, dedicates all of it entirely to the nature of all-knowing wisdom, and is never once tainted by any world; every buddha, in cultivating the three actions in the presence of the buddhas, practices only a buddha's conduct, never the conduct of the two vehicles, dedicating all of it to the nature of all-knowing wisdom and to accomplishing unsurpassed, perfect enlightenment; every buddha emits great light, and that light illuminates every place equally, illuminating also the dharma of every buddha, causing every bodhisattva's mind to become pure and filled with all-knowing wisdom; every buddha renounces worldly pleasure, neither craving it nor being tainted by it, while universally vowing that the world be freed from suffering and gain happiness, free of every idle discourse; and every buddha, taking pity on every sentient being who undergoes every manner of suffering, guards the buddha-lineage, practices the buddha's own sphere of experience, departs from birth and death, and attains the ground of the ten powers. These are the ten.
於信、於毀二種眾生，大悲普觀，平等無異 — toward the two kinds of beings, those who have faith and those who slander, observing them universally with great compassion, equally and without distinction. Of everything named supreme in this list — an unbreakable vow, tireless practice, light that reaches everywhere — this is the one item that names a specific hard case and states the outcome directly: a buddha's compassion for someone who slanders the buddha is not diminished at all next to their compassion for someone who has faith.
Part 586 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-three, 佛不思議法品, in fascicle forty-six. Part 587 continues the sequence of tens, with ten kinds of unobstructed abiding.