Eightfold Path, Nine Sequential Absorptions
The eight and nine of this ascending path bring in two of the tradition's most classical formulas — the noble eightfold path and the nine sequential absorptions — with the ninth entry returning to the pattern seen earlier in this chapter: each absorption paired with the ordinary activity it never displaces, from teaching the dharma while free of desire to never resting from bodhisattva practice even within the absorption that extinguishes every perception.
Nine Absorptions, None of Them a Retreat
The nine sequential absorptions here are not presented as states a bodhisattva withdraws into; each is immediately paired with a "yet" clause naming what continues alongside it — teaching the dharma while free of desire, delighting at the sight of every buddha even having abandoned joy, never resting from bodhisattva practice even within the absorption that extinguishes every perception and sensation.
隨順菩提八聖道是菩薩道。所謂：行正見道，遠離一切諸邪見故；起正思惟，捨妄分別，心常隨順一切智故；常行正語，離語四過，順聖言故；恒修正業，教化眾生令調伏故；安住正命，頭陀知足，威儀審正，隨順菩提行四聖種，一切過失皆永離故；起正精進，勤修一切菩薩苦行，入佛十力無罣礙故；心常正念，悉能憶持一切言音，除滅世間散動心故；心常正定，善入菩薩不思議解脫門，於一三昧中出生一切諸三昧故。
"The eightfold noble path in accordance with awakening is a bodhisattva's path. Namely: practicing the path of right view, because it stays far from every wrong view; arousing right thought, because it abandons false discrimination, its mind forever according with all-knowing wisdom; constantly practicing right speech, because it is free of the four faults of speech, according with noble speech; forever cultivating right action, because it teaches and tames sentient beings; abiding in right livelihood, because, practicing austerities and knowing contentment, with careful and correct bearing, according with awakening through the four noble lineages, it forever stays free of every fault; arousing right effort, because it diligently cultivates every bodhisattva austerity, entering the buddha's own ten powers without any hindrance; the mind forever holding right mindfulness, because it is able to remember and uphold every word spoken, extinguishing the scattered, agitated mind of the world; and the mind forever abiding in right concentration, because it skillfully enters a bodhisattva's own inconceivable gate of liberation, bringing forth every samādhi from within a single samādhi.
入九次第定是菩薩道。所謂；離欲恚害，而以一切語業說法無礙；滅除覺觀，而以一切智覺觀教化眾生；捨離喜愛，而見一切佛，心大歡喜；離世間樂，而隨順出世菩薩道樂；從此不動，入無色定，而亦不捨欲、色受生；雖住滅一切想受定，而亦不息菩薩行故。
Entering the nine sequential absorptions is a bodhisattva's path. Namely: free of desire, hatred, and harm, and yet teaching the dharma without any obstruction through every deed of speech; extinguishing coarse and subtle thought, and yet teaching and transforming sentient beings through the coarse and subtle thought of all-knowing wisdom; abandoning joy and delight, and yet seeing every buddha, their mind greatly rejoicing; free of worldly pleasure, and yet according with the pleasure of the world-transcending bodhisattva path; unmoved from this, entering the formless absorptions, and yet never abandoning birth within the realm of desire and form; and though abiding in the absorption that extinguishes every perception and sensation, never once resting from bodhisattva practice.
雖住滅一切想受定，而亦不息菩薩行故 — though abiding in the absorption that extinguishes every perception and sensation, never once resting from bodhisattva practice. This is the deepest of the nine classical absorptions, traditionally the cessation of perception and feeling itself — and even here, at what would seem the furthest possible withdrawal, the text insists bodhisattva practice continues without a pause.
Part 752 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-eight, 離世間品, in fascicle fifty-seven. Part 753 continues the ten-part path with its tenth and final member, the tathāgata's own ten powers.