Vast Buddha-Work Completes, Entering Nirvāṇa
The tenth and final vast buddha-work closes the list begun in Part 593 by returning to grief itself: sentient beings weeping at the buddha's parinirvāṇa, a body shattered into countless relics, stūpas raised in every palace of every class of being, and a field of merit that continues working long after the buddha who founded it is gone.
A Body Shattered Into Relics
The grief of the world at a buddha's parinirvāṇa is itself named as buddha-work, and the relics that follow — teeth, nails, hair, enshrined in stūpas across the palaces of every class of being — are said to keep working on behalf of beings long after the body they came from is gone.
「佛子！一切諸佛入涅槃時，無量眾生悲號涕泣，生大憂惱，遞相瞻顧而作是言：『如來世尊有大慈悲，哀愍饒益一切世間，與諸眾生為救為歸。如來出現難可值遇，無上福田於今永滅。』即以如是，令諸眾生悲號戀慕，而作佛事。復為化度一切天人、龍神、夜叉、乾闥婆、阿脩羅、迦樓羅、緊那羅、摩睺羅伽、人、非人等故，隨其樂欲，自碎其身以為舍利，無量無數不可思議，令諸眾生起淨信心，恭敬尊重，歡喜供養，修諸功德，具足圓滿。復起於塔，種種嚴飾，於諸天宮、龍宮、夜叉宮，乾闥婆、阿脩羅、迦樓羅、緊那羅、摩睺羅伽、人、非人等諸宮殿中，以為供養。牙齒、爪髮咸以起塔，令其見者皆悉念佛、念法、念僧，信樂不回，誠敬尊重，在在處處布施供養、修諸功德；以是福故，或生天上，或處人間，種族尊榮，財產備足，所有眷屬悉皆清淨，不入惡趣，常生善道，恒得見佛，具眾白法，於三有中速得出離，各隨所願獲自乘果，於如來所知恩報恩，永與世間作所歸依。佛子！諸佛世尊雖般涅槃，仍與眾生作不思議清淨福田、無盡功德最上福田，令諸眾生善根具足、福德圓滿。是為第十廣大佛事。「佛子！此諸佛事無量廣大、不可思議，一切世間諸天及人及去來今聲聞、獨覺皆不能知，唯除如來威神所加。
"Sons of the Buddha! When every buddha enters parinirvāṇa, measureless sentient beings weep and wail in sorrow, giving rise to great grief and distress, looking at one another and saying: 'The Tathāgata, the World-Honored One, possessed great loving-kindness and compassion, taking pity on and benefiting the entire world, serving as a refuge and a rescue for every sentient being. A tathāgata's appearance in the world is difficult indeed to encounter, and this unsurpassed field of merit is now extinguished forever.' Precisely through this, causing sentient beings to weep and long for them, they carry out buddha-work. Further, in order to bring across and liberate every deva, human, nāga spirit, yakṣa, gandharva, asura, garuḍa, kiṃnara, mahoraga, human, and non-human, according to what each of them delights in, they shatter their own body into relics, measureless, countless, inconceivable, causing sentient beings to give rise to a mind of pure faith, reverence and respect, joyful offering, cultivating every merit, entirely brought to fulfillment. They further raise stūpas, adorned in every manner, within the palaces of every heaven, every nāga palace, every yakṣa palace, and the palaces of gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras, mahoragas, humans, and non-humans, as objects of offering. Their teeth, nails, and hair are all likewise enshrined in stūpas, causing whoever sees them to be mindful of the buddha, mindful of the dharma, and mindful of the saṅgha, their faith and delight never turning back, sincere in reverence and respect, everywhere giving offerings and cultivating every merit; through this merit, they are born either among the gods or in the human realm, their lineage honored and glorious, their wealth complete and sufficient, every member of their family entirely pure, never falling into an evil destiny, constantly born on a wholesome path, always able to see a buddha, endowed with every white dharma, swiftly attaining liberation from the three realms of existence, each according to their own vow obtaining the fruit of their own vehicle, knowing the tathāgata's kindness and repaying that kindness, forever becoming, for the world, a place of refuge. Sons of the Buddha! Though the buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, enter parinirvāṇa, they still remain for sentient beings an inconceivable, pure field of merit, the foremost field of inexhaustible merit, causing sentient beings' wholesome roots to be entirely complete and their merit to be perfectly fulfilled. This is the tenth vast buddha-work. Sons of the Buddha! These buddha-works are measureless, vast, and inconceivable — no god or human in the entire world, nor any śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha of the past, future, or present, is able to know them, except through what the tathāgata's majestic spiritual power bestows.
諸佛世尊雖般涅槃，仍與眾生作不思議清淨福田 — though the buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, enter parinirvāṇa, they still remain for sentient beings an inconceivable, pure field of merit. This closes the list on the same claim Part 577's chapter on buddha-land lifespans and the merit-by-name-recitation clause of Part 584 both already made: a buddha's absence is not a diminishment of what they can do for beings. Grief itself, and the relics grief produces devotion toward, are folded into buddha-work rather than treated as its end.
Part 598 Complete — Ten Vast Buddha-Works Complete
This completes the ten kinds of vast buddha-work opened in Part 593, and continues chapter thirty-three, 佛不思議法品, in fascicle forty-seven. Part 599 opens a new list, ten kinds of non-dual practice a buddha holds in perfect mastery.