Every Royal City and Marketplace
The seventh vast buddha-work leaves the bodhi tree behind and enters the cities of the world — not only human capitals, but the courts of heavenly kings and the eight classes of nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras, mahoragas, and brahmās — teaching in each place whatever that audience is ready to hear.
Nine Kinds of Kings, One Teaching Adapted to Each
This single vast buddha-work names nine kinds of royal courts — human, heavenly, and the eight classes of nāgas and their kin — and then lists a dozen different teachings a buddha might give in any one of them, none privileged over the rest.
「佛子！一切諸佛入於一切王都城邑，為諸眾生而作佛事，所謂；人王都邑、天王都邑，龍王、夜叉王、乾闥婆王、阿脩羅王、迦樓羅王、緊那羅王、摩睺羅伽王都邑，梵王都邑；如是等處，或說一乘，或說二乘，或說三乘，或說無量諸乘，或說世界差別，或說世界成壞，或說淨修福德，或說懺除業障，或說歎佛境界，或說讚佛平等，或說眾生難調難伏皆悉調伏，或說如來一言演說無量契經，如是廣說種種法門，是為第七廣大佛事。
"Sons of the Buddha! Every buddha enters every royal city and town of every human king, and carries out buddha-work for the sake of the beings there — namely: the cities of human kings, the cities of heavenly kings, and the cities of nāga kings, yakṣa kings, gandharva kings, asura kings, garuḍa kings, kiṃnara kings, and mahoraga kings, as well as the cities of brahmā kings. In such places, they sometimes teach the single vehicle, sometimes the two vehicles, sometimes the three vehicles, sometimes measureless vehicles; sometimes they teach the distinctions among worlds, sometimes the forming and decaying of worlds; sometimes they teach the pure cultivation of merit, sometimes the confession and removal of karmic obstructions; sometimes they praise the buddha's own sphere of experience, sometimes they extol the buddha's equality; sometimes they teach that beings hard to tame and hard to subdue are all entirely tamed; sometimes they teach that from a single word of the tathāgata, measureless sūtras are expounded — in this way broadly teaching every manner of dharma-gateway — this is the seventh vast buddha-work.
龍王、夜叉王、乾闥婆王、阿脩羅王、迦樓羅王、緊那羅王、摩睺羅伽王都邑 — the cities of nāga kings, yakṣa kings, gandharva kings, asura kings, garuḍa kings, kiṃnara kings, and mahoraga kings. These seven, together with the deva and human kings named alongside them, are the eight classes of beings that recur throughout the sūtra's assemblies. Here they are given something the assembly scenes rarely show directly: each one has its own city, its own court, and its own occasion for a buddha to arrive and teach.
Part 596 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-three, 佛不思議法品, in fascicle forty-seven. Part 597 continues the ten kinds of vast buddha-work, with a buddha dwelling in the forest and in solitude to carry out buddha-work there.