Dwelling in Forest and Solitude
The eighth vast buddha-work catalogs an enormous range of postures — forest hermitage, samādhi, an invisible body, borrowed forms from every class of being, speech and silence both — ending on a claim that undercuts the whole list: the buddha's own sphere of experience is not a sphere of experience at all. The ninth turns from posture to a series of specific teachings, from impermanence to the samādhi of mindfulness of the buddha.
Every Posture Is Buddha-Work
Silence and speech, visibility and concealment, a single buddha and countless buddhas, a single practice and measureless practices — this list refuses to settle on any one form buddha-work must take, and closes by denying that the buddha's own sphere of experience is even a sphere of experience.
「佛子！一切諸佛或住阿蘭若處而作佛事；或住寂靜處而作佛事；或住空閑處而作佛事；或住佛住處而作佛事；或住三昧而作佛事；或獨處園林而作佛事；或隱身不現而作佛事；或住甚深智而作佛事；或住諸佛無比境界而作佛事；或住不可見種種身行，隨諸眾生心樂欲解，方便教化無有休息，而作佛事；或以天身求一切智而作佛事；或以龍身、夜叉身、乾闥婆身、阿脩羅身、迦樓羅身、緊那羅身、摩睺羅伽、人、非人等身，求一切智而作佛事；或以聲聞身、獨覺身、菩薩身，求一切智而作佛事；或時說法，或時寂默，而作佛事；或說一佛，或說多佛，而作佛事；或說諸菩薩一切行、一切願，為一行願而作佛事；或說諸菩薩一行、一願，為無量行願而作佛事；或說佛境界即世間境界而作佛事；或說世間境界即佛境界而作佛事；或說佛境界即非境界而作佛事；或住一日，或住一夜，或住半月，或住一月，或住一年，乃至住不可說劫，為諸眾生而作佛事。是為第八廣大佛事。
"Sons of the Buddha! Every buddha sometimes abides in a forest hermitage to carry out buddha-work; sometimes abides in a place of tranquility to carry out buddha-work; sometimes abides in an empty and unoccupied place to carry out buddha-work; sometimes abides in a buddha's own abode to carry out buddha-work; sometimes abides in samādhi to carry out buddha-work; sometimes dwells alone in a garden grove to carry out buddha-work; sometimes conceals their body and does not appear, to carry out buddha-work; sometimes abides in profound wisdom to carry out buddha-work; sometimes abides in the buddhas' matchless sphere of experience to carry out buddha-work; sometimes abides in every manner of unseeable bodily conduct, teaching and transforming according to each sentient being's own delight and desired understanding, without ever resting, to carry out buddha-work; sometimes, in the body of a deva, seeks all-knowing wisdom to carry out buddha-work; sometimes, in the body of a nāga, a yakṣa, a gandharva, an asura, a garuḍa, a kiṃnara, a mahoraga, a human, or a non-human, seeks all-knowing wisdom to carry out buddha-work; sometimes, in the body of a śrāvaka, a pratyekabuddha, or a bodhisattva, seeks all-knowing wisdom to carry out buddha-work; sometimes teaches the dharma, sometimes remains in silence, to carry out buddha-work; sometimes speaks of a single buddha, sometimes of many buddhas, to carry out buddha-work; sometimes teaches every bodhisattva's every practice and every vow as a single practice and vow, to carry out buddha-work; sometimes teaches a bodhisattva's single practice and single vow as measureless practices and vows, to carry out buddha-work; sometimes teaches that the buddha's own sphere of experience is exactly the world's sphere of experience, to carry out buddha-work; sometimes teaches that the world's sphere of experience is exactly the buddha's own sphere of experience, to carry out buddha-work; sometimes teaches that the buddha's own sphere of experience is not a sphere of experience at all, to carry out buddha-work; sometimes abiding a single day, sometimes a single night, sometimes half a month, sometimes a month, sometimes a year, even up to abiding for unspeakable kalpas, for the sake of sentient beings, carrying out buddha-work. This is the eighth vast buddha-work.
或說佛境界即世間境界而作佛事；或說世間境界即佛境界而作佛事；或說佛境界即非境界而作佛事 — sometimes teaches that the buddha's own sphere of experience is exactly the world's sphere of experience; sometimes teaches that the world's sphere of experience is exactly the buddha's own sphere of experience; sometimes teaches that the buddha's own sphere of experience is not a sphere of experience at all. Three consecutive clauses assert a claim, its reverse, and then the negation of the category itself — each one still labeled buddha-work. The list does not resolve the contradiction; it simply adds a third teaching that dissolves the terms of the first two.
Sixteen Teachings, One Purpose
The ninth vast buddha-work turns from posture to specific content — impermanence, the end of every lifespan, offerings without end, and the samādhi of mindfulness of the buddha — each one still framed as a way of carrying out the same single work.
「佛子！一切諸佛是生清淨善根之藏，令諸眾生於佛法中生淨信解，諸根調伏，永離世間；令諸菩薩於菩提道，具智慧明，不由他悟。或現涅槃而作佛事；或現世間皆悉無常而作佛事；或說佛身而作佛事；或說所作皆悉已辦而作佛事；或說功德圓滿無缺而作佛事；或說永斷諸有根本而作佛事；或令眾生，厭離世間，隨順佛心，而作佛事；或說壽命終歸於盡而作佛事；或說世間無一可樂而作佛事；或為宣說盡未來際供養諸佛而作佛事；或說諸佛轉淨法輪，令其得聞生大歡喜，而作佛事；或為宣說諸佛境界，令其發心而修諸行，而作佛事；或為宣說念佛三昧，令其發心常樂見佛，而作佛事；或為宣說諸根清淨，勤求佛道，心無懈退，而作佛事；或詣一切諸佛國土，觀諸境界種種因緣而作佛事；或攝一切諸眾生身皆為佛身，令諸懈怠放逸眾生悉住如來清淨禁戒，而作佛事。是為第九廣大佛事。
Every buddha is a treasury giving rise to pure wholesome roots, causing sentient beings to give rise to pure faith and understanding within the buddha-dharma, their faculties tamed, forever departing from the world; causing every bodhisattva, on the path of bodhi, to be endowed with the clarity of wisdom, awakening not through another. Sometimes they manifest nirvāṇa to carry out buddha-work; sometimes they teach that the entire world is impermanent, to carry out buddha-work; sometimes they teach of the buddha-body, to carry out buddha-work; sometimes they teach that everything to be done has already been accomplished, to carry out buddha-work; sometimes they teach that merit is perfectly complete without any lack, to carry out buddha-work; sometimes they teach the forever cutting off of the root of every existence, to carry out buddha-work; sometimes they cause sentient beings to feel revulsion toward the world and follow the buddha's own mind, carrying out buddha-work; sometimes they teach that a lifespan comes at last to its end, to carry out buddha-work; sometimes they teach that there is not a single thing in the world worth delighting in, to carry out buddha-work; sometimes they proclaim making offerings to the buddhas to the very end of future time, to carry out buddha-work; sometimes they teach that the buddhas turn the pure dharma-wheel, causing those who hear it to give rise to great joy, carrying out buddha-work; sometimes they proclaim the buddhas' own sphere of experience, causing beings to arouse the resolve and cultivate every practice, carrying out buddha-work; sometimes they proclaim the samādhi of mindfulness of the buddha, causing beings to arouse the resolve and constantly delight in seeing a buddha, carrying out buddha-work; sometimes they proclaim the purity of every faculty, diligently seeking the buddha's path with a mind that never grows weary or retreats, carrying out buddha-work; sometimes they journey to every buddha-land, observing every sphere and every manner of cause and condition, carrying out buddha-work; sometimes they gather in the bodies of every sentient being as though they were all a buddha's own body, causing sentient beings who are lax and heedless to all abide in the tathāgata's own pure precepts, carrying out buddha-work. This is the ninth vast buddha-work.
Part 597 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-three, 佛不思議法品, in fascicle forty-seven. Part 598 completes the ten kinds of vast buddha-work with a buddha's final entry into nirvāṇa and the grief of those left behind.