From His Belly, Kiṃnaras and Gandharvas Sing
Where earlier beings taught through speech or offering, the kiṃnaras and gandharvas emerging from Sea-Banner's own belly teach through music entirely — seven praises sung in celestial melody, followed by seven further dharma-gates proclaimed in speech once the singing gives way to plain instruction.
Seven Praises Sung, Seven Gates Spoken
The music begins with praise — of every dharma's own true nature, of every buddha, of the mind of enlightenment itself — and only after seven such songs does the passage shift from singing to plain speech, proclaiming seven further gates that reach all the way to a buddha's own parinirvāṇa.
從其腹，出無數百千億緊那羅王，各有無數緊那羅女前後圍遶；又出無數百千億乾闥婆王，各有無數乾闥婆女前後圍遶。各奏無數百千天樂，歌詠讚歎諸法實性，歌詠讚歎一切諸佛，歌詠讚歎發菩提心，歌詠讚歎修菩薩行，歌詠讚歎一切諸佛成正覺門，歌詠讚歎一切諸佛轉法輪門，歌詠讚歎一切諸佛現神變門，開示演說一切諸佛般涅槃門，開示演說守護一切諸佛教門，開示演說令一切眾生皆歡喜門，開示演說嚴淨一切諸佛剎門，開示演說顯示一切微妙法門，開示演說捨離一切諸障礙門，開示演說發生一切諸善根門。如是周遍十方法界。
From his own belly, there emerged countless hundreds of thousands of millions of kiṃnara kings, each surrounded before and behind by countless kiṃnara maidens; and there further emerged countless hundreds of thousands of millions of gandharva kings, each surrounded before and behind by countless gandharva maidens. Each of them played countless hundreds of thousands of heavenly instruments, singing in praise of the true nature of every dharma, singing in praise of every buddha, singing in praise of giving rise to the mind of enlightenment, singing in praise of cultivating the bodhisattva's own practice, singing in praise of the gate of every buddha's own accomplishment of true enlightenment, singing in praise of the gate of every buddha's own turning of the dharma-wheel, singing in praise of the gate of every buddha's own manifestation of spiritual transformation, revealing and proclaiming the gate of every buddha's own parinirvāṇa, revealing and proclaiming the gate of guarding every buddha's own teaching, revealing and proclaiming the gate of causing every sentient being to rejoice, revealing and proclaiming the gate of adorning and purifying every buddha-land, revealing and proclaiming the gate of manifesting every subtle and wondrous dharma, revealing and proclaiming the gate of abandoning and departing from every obstruction, and revealing and proclaiming the gate of giving rise to every root of goodness. All of this pervades the dharma-realm throughout the ten directions.
歌詠讚歎……開示演說 — singing in praise … revealing and proclaiming. The passage pivots exactly once, from seven items sung as praise to seven items spoken as instruction — as though the same music that first celebrates a buddha's own accomplishment eventually has to set down its melody and simply explain what comes next, including that buddha's own passing into parinirvāṇa.
Part 933 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-three. Part 934 turns to what emerges from Sea-Banner's own face — wheel-turning kings pouring out treasure to end poverty and theft — before the account turns at last to his own eyes.