From Knees and Waist, Speech and Silence
Where his own feet gave rise to material relief, Sea-Banner's knees and waist give rise to two different modes of teaching entirely — kṣatriyas and brāhmaṇas working alongside those they help, and quiet sages, robed in grass and bark, proclaiming dharma through the open sky.
Loving Speech and Shared Work
From Sea-Banner's own knees emerge kṣatriyas and brāhmaṇas who help not from above but alongside — gathering beings in through loving speech and by sharing directly in their work, giving the poor enough, healing the sick, and calming the fearful.
從其兩膝，出無數百千億剎帝利、婆羅門眾，皆悉聰慧，種種色相、種種形貌、種種衣服上妙莊嚴，普遍十方一切世界，愛語、同事攝諸眾生。所謂：貧者令足，病者令愈，危者令安，怖者令止，有憂苦者咸使快樂；復以方便而勸導之，皆令捨惡，安住善法。
From his two knees, there emerged countless hundreds of thousands of millions of kṣatriyas and brāhmaṇas, every one of them wise and intelligent, adorned with every kind of physical form, every kind of appearance, and every kind of fine and wondrous garment, universally pervading every world throughout the ten directions, gathering in every sentient being through loving speech and shared work. Namely: causing the poor to have enough, causing the sick to be healed, causing the endangered to be secure, causing the fearful to be calmed, and causing everyone with grief and suffering to attain happiness; and further, through skillful means, guiding and instructing them, causing every one of them to abandon evil and abide securely in wholesome dharmas.
愛語、同事攝諸眾生 — gathering in every sentient being through loving speech and shared work. Of the traditional four means by which a bodhisattva draws beings toward the dharma, this passage names exactly two — not giving, and not simply beneficial action, but speech and shared labor specifically, the two forms of engagement that require standing beside someone rather than above them.
Sages Robed in Grass and Bark
From Sea-Banner's own waist come sages of an entirely different character — silent in bearing, dressed in the plainest materials the natural world offers, yet proclaiming the dharma through open sky in a voice borrowed directly from the buddha's own.
從其腰間，出等眾生數無量仙人，或服草衣或樹皮衣，皆執澡瓶，威儀寂靜，周旋往返十方世界，於虛空中，以佛妙音，稱讚如來，演說諸法；或說清淨梵行之道，令其修習，調伏諸根；或說諸法皆無自性，使其觀察，發生智慧；或說世間言論軌則，或復開示一切智智出要方便，令隨次第各修其業。
From his own waist, there emerged measureless sages, equal in number to sentient beings themselves, some wearing garments of grass, some wearing garments of tree bark, all of them holding water-vessels, their deportment quiet and still, circling back and forth throughout the worlds of the ten directions, and within empty space, with the buddha's own wondrous voice, extolling the tathāgata and proclaiming every dharma; some spoke of the path of pure conduct, causing sentient beings to cultivate and practice it, taming every faculty; some spoke of how every dharma is without any intrinsic nature, causing sentient beings to observe this and give rise to wisdom; some spoke of the rules and conventions of worldly discourse, and some further revealed the essential skillful means for departing toward the wisdom of all-knowing wisdom, causing each one, in due sequence, to cultivate their own proper task.
或說世間言論軌則，或復開示一切智智出要方便 — some spoke of the rules and conventions of worldly discourse, and some further revealed the essential skillful means for departing toward the wisdom of all-knowing wisdom. Among sages who otherwise teach emptiness and pure conduct, this pairing is unexpected: ordinary worldly grammar and etiquette sit right beside the highest teaching on liberation, as though both belonged to the same curriculum.
Part 930 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-three. Part 931 turns to what emerges next from Sea-Banner's own ribs — inconceivable nāgas and nāga-maidens, raining clouds of offerings said to be inconceivable fourteen times over.