Every Setting Where a Bodhisattva May Appear
These bodhisattvas do not confine themselves to palaces and sites of awakening; they take the form of physicians, merchants, musicians, and craftsmen, moving through every village and city while somehow never departing from this very grove.
Ordinary Trades, Ten Named Forms
Rather than kings or ascetics alone, this list names ten entirely ordinary occupations — physician, merchant, musician, craftsman — a roster of everyday human life that quietly anticipates the kind of teacher a young pilgrim will later meet in every walk of life throughout this sūtra's own famous journey still to come.
佛子！此逝多林一切菩薩，為欲成熟諸眾生故，或時現處種種嚴飾諸宮殿中，或時示現住自樓閣寶師子座，道場眾會所共圍遶，周遍十方皆令得見，然亦不離此逝多林如來之所。佛子！此諸菩薩，或時示現無量化身雲，或現其身獨一無侶。所謂：或現沙門身，或現婆羅門身，或現苦行身，或現充盛身，或現醫王身，或現商主身，或現淨命身，或現妓樂身，或現奉事諸天身，或現工巧技術身。往詣一切村營城邑、王都聚落、諸眾生所，隨其所應，以種種形相、種種威儀、種種音聲、種種言論、種種住處，於一切世間猶如帝網行菩薩行。
Buddha's children! Every bodhisattva within this Jeta Grove, wishing to bring every sentient being to maturity, at times manifests dwelling within every kind of ornamented palace, and at times manifests abiding within their own pavilion upon a jeweled lion-seat, surrounded together by the assembly at the site of awakening, appearing everywhere throughout the ten directions so that all may see, and yet never departing from this very place of the tathāgata within the Jeta Grove. Buddha's children! These bodhisattvas, at times, manifest measureless clouds of transformation-bodies, and at times manifest their own body alone, without any companion. Namely: at times manifesting the body of a śramaṇa; at times manifesting the body of a brāhmaṇa; at times manifesting the body of an ascetic; at times manifesting a body of abundant vigor; at times manifesting the body of a king of physicians; at times manifesting the body of a chief merchant; at times manifesting the body of one whose livelihood is pure; at times manifesting the body of a musical performer; at times manifesting a body serving every deva; and at times manifesting a body skilled in craft and technique. Traveling to every village, camp, city, and town, every royal capital and settlement, wherever sentient beings dwell, exactly as fits each one, through every kind of form, every kind of dignified manner, every kind of sound, every kind of speech, and every kind of abode, they carry out the bodhisattva's own practice throughout the entire world, just like Indra's own net.
或現醫王身，或現商主身……或現工巧技術身 — at times manifesting the body of a king of physicians, at times manifesting the body of a chief merchant, at times manifesting a body skilled in craft and technique. Set beside śramaṇas and brāhmaṇas, these entirely ordinary trades quietly establish something this fascicle will soon act on directly: that a teacher worth learning from may be found in any occupation at all, not only among the visibly sacred.
Part 886 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-one. Part 887 turns to Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva himself, who now emerges from his own pavilion together with a vast retinue of spirit-kings, preparing to depart the Jeta Grove and travel south.