Toh 136The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Four Boys’ Absorption”

Summary

The Four Boys’ Absorption
narrates the Buddha Śākyamuni’s passing away (or
parinirvāṇa) in the Yamakaśāla Grove near Kuśinagara.
Ānanda has a portentous dream that is confirmed by the Buddha to be an
indication that he will soon die. Widespread panic spreads
through the various realms of this world system, and as gods and
other beings converge on the forest grove near Kuśinagara,
tragic scenes of mourning ensue. Then, when the Buddha lies
down, the narrative suddenly shifts to recount how four bodhisattvas
from distant buddha fields in the four directions
are reborn as four infants in prominent households in the major cities of the
Gangetic Plain, announce their intention to see the
Buddha Śākyamuni, and with expansive
entourages proceed to the forest grove in the country of the Mallas
where the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa will take place. Their
appearance is marked by various miracles, whereupon the
Buddha explains their arrival and consoles his grieving
followers with teachings on the limitless numbers of
buddhas. He confers responsibility
on his attendant Ānanda and his son Rāhula, and then
manifests a variety of spectacular miracles.
Toward the end of the sūtra, while still
appearing to lie upon the lion couch, the Buddha visits the
various hells and some god realms, where he sets countless beings on the path to
awakening. The text culminates in his final passing.

Acknowledgements

This text was translated by the Dharmachakra Translation
Committee under the supervision of Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche. In
a class at Kathmandu University’s Centre for Buddhist
Studies’ MA program in Translation, Textual Interpretation,
and Philology, the text was translated by Ellen Johannesen,
Yaroslav Litovchenko, George Carvalho, Stefan Mang, Monica
Thunder, and Nicholas Schmidt under the guidance of Ryan
Damron. The translation was then completed by Nicholas
Schmidt and checked against the Tibetan by Benjamin
Collet-Cassart.

The translation was completed under the patronage and
supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
George FitzHerbert edited the translation and the
introduction, and Laura Goetz copyedited the text. Martina
Cotter was in charge of the digital publication process.

The translation of this text has been made possible
through the generous sponsorship of Li Yu Hua, Zhu Yuan Guo,
Rachel Zhou, and Grace Zhu.

Introduction

The Four Boys’
Absorption is a Mahāyāna discourse that relates
events surrounding the Buddha Śākyamuni’s passing away
at the Yamakaśāla Grove near Kuśinagara in the
country of the Mallas. It is much less well known
than the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtras
(Toh 119
and 120)
or the classic account in the Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya
literature,
and is unique in adding to the unfolding of those events the
story of four young bodhisattvas who appear in the world
at the same time and travel to the scene to witness the
Buddha’s passing.

The sūtra begins with Ānanda relating a
disturbing and portentous dream, which the Buddha confirms
as signifying that his parinirvāṇa is indeed imminent. Tremendous
lamentation and grieving ensues, not just among the
humans present but also among the gods, nāgas, and
other beings, who depart their various abodes to
converge on the grove and see the Buddha for one
last time.

The narrative then shifts away from scenes of
intense mourning in the grove of śāla trees to four
bodhisattvas who pass away in distant buddha fields
in the four directions and are reborn in Jambudvīpa
as the sons of prominent figures in four major
cities of the Gangetic Plain. One appears in
Rājagṛha as the son of King Ajātaśatru of Magadha,
two as the sons of merchants in Śrāvastī and
Vārāṇasī, and one as the son of a general in
Vaiśālī. Each of the infants is able to speak as
soon as they are born and announce their intention
to hear the teachings of the Buddha Śākyamuni. They
also deliver sermons on a variety of topics, in the
case of Ajātaśatru’s son chastising the king for the
terrible crime of having killed his own father. When
the bodhisattva infants discover that the Buddha
Śākyamuni is soon to pass away, they insist on going
to him, and they set off with huge entourages toward
Kuśinagara. Their spectacular arrival at the grove
of śāla trees is accompanied by various miracles,
whereupon the Buddha explains their arrival to his
assembled followers, illustrating his knowledge of
world systems far beyond our own, and he explains
the liberating power of countless other buddhas.

Throughout this text, Ānanda is the primary
interlocutor and protagonist, whose grief at the
impending loss of his teacher cannot be assuaged.
Ānanda’s grief affords Śākyamuni and several śrāvaka
and bodhisattva disciples (including the four boys
of the title) the opportunity to deliver teachings,
mostly in verse, on the transitory and illusory
nature of compounded phenomena. Besides this general
theme of impermanence, a further theme in the text
is the importance of developing roots of virtue
before a living buddha, and also receiving a
prophecy from him, in order to achieve awakening. In
this regard, the Buddha consoles his followers with
teachings that emphasize the infinite multiplicity
of buddhas, whom he sees in all directions.

The “absorption” mentioned in the title of this
sutra is not explicitly referred to or defined in
the text itself. The term
absorption (Skt. samādhi,
Tib. ting nge
’dzin) normally refers to a peaceful
meditative state wherein the senses are collected
into a concentrated state of mind, but it can also
at times signify a list of concepts and terms that
together function as a literary unit. As Andrew Skilton has noted,
absorption in the Mahāyāna context is also
frequently associated with the magical powers
obtained through familiarization with various
meditative states. The “absorption” of the four boys,
then, is perhaps best understood here as a general
descriptor related to the four boys, whose miracles
serve as evidence of their advanced spiritual
realization, which the Buddha extols at length.

No Sanskrit version or fragment of the text is
to our knowledge extant, either independently or in
the form of confirmable quotations. The text was
translated into Chinese twice: the first translation
was completed in 269 ce
by Dharmarakṣa (Taishō 378), and the
second (Taishō 379), a partial retranslation, was
completed several centuries later during the Sui
Dynasty (581–618 ce) in
Gandhāra, possibly from the Gandhārī language, by
Jñānagupta. As Hajime Nakamura has observed, The Four Boys’ Absorption
appears to predate the more influential Mahāyāna
Mahāparinirvāṇasūtras (Toh 119 and 120), implying that it
appeared in textual form no later than around 200
ce.

According to the colophon to the Tibetan
translation, the sūtra was translated into Tibetan
by the Indian scholars Jinamitra and Prajñāvarman
together with the Tibetan translator Bandé Yeshé Dé
and others, indicating that the translation was made
from Sanskrit during the height of Tibetan imperial
sponsorship of Buddhism in the late eighth and or
early ninth century. This dating is confirmed by the
text’s inclusion in both the early ninth-century
Phangthangma and Denkarma imperial
catalogs.

The text, with its emotive narrative of the
parinirvāṇa and its eloquent teachings, has many
interesting and idiosyncratic features, such as an
unusual enumeration of eight buddhas of the past
(nine including Śākyamuni). However,
its influence on later tradition has been limited,
and it does not appear to have been widely remarked
upon in either the Tibetan scholarly tradition or
modern western scholarship.

This translation, to our knowledge the first
English translation to be published, was prepared
from the Tibetan as found in the Degé Kangyur, in
consultation with the variants noted in the
Comparative Edition (Tib. dpe bsdur ma) and the Stok Palace
Kangyur. Where variant readings have been preferred
over the Degé edition, or where variants offer
plausible alternatives, this has been recorded in
the notes. The Chinese translations have not, as
yet, been consulted.

The Translation

The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra

The Four Boys’ Absorption

Homage to all
buddhas and bodhisattvas.

Thus did I hear at one time. At the time of his
parinirvāṇa, the Blessed One was resting between a
pair of śāla trees in the Yamakaśāla Grove near
Kuśinagara, in the country of the Mallas. At this
time, Venerable Ānanda went to see the Blessed One.
When he came into his presence, he joined his palms
together and then stood there looking at the Blessed
One with his eyes wide open. The Blessed One asked
Venerable Ānanda, “Son of Gautama, why are you
looking at the Thus-Gone One with your eyes wide
open?”

Venerable Ānanda replied, “Blessed One, I had a
terrifying dream last night, a premonition of the
Thus-Gone One’s parinirvāṇa, so terrifying that it
made the hairs of my body stand on end. Blessed One,
ever since this dream I have been worried
that the Blessed One may soon pass into parinirvāṇa,
and because of this I have been miserable, unhappy, and pained by sorrow.”

The Blessed One also asked this to
Venerable Ānanda in verse:

“Answer this question,

Here in this grove of śāla trees:

What was this dream of yours,

With its premonition about the world
protector?”

Venerable Ānanda replied to the Blessed One in
verse:

“This was my dream last night—

It was terrifying, it scared me,

It made my hairs stand on end.

Best of men, please listen.

“In this world grew a tree

Constantly bearing flowers and fruit,

A tree to gladden the heart,

Replete with all excellent qualities,

“An excellent tree

Casting its cooling shade on the world,

Delighting beings,

Dispelling their illnesses and sorrows.

“Wondrous, infinite in qualities,

Reaching as high as the summit of existence—

To behold it purifies the eye;

To hear of it purifies the ear.

“From it came a voice, pure and sure,

Delighting all
beings,

Soft and meaningful,

Noble and virtuous.

“From it shone rays of light

As numerous as the sands of the river Gaṅgā.

So that as many realms

Were illuminated by this great tree.

“Those humans in the worlds of the ten
directions,

Endless, boundless in number,

Who were touched by this light

Benefited beings.

“Scent from this tree

Spread throughout the worlds of the ten
directions,

And those who sensed it

Were not reborn in lower realms.

“They were not reborn in the hells,

Nor as brutish animals,

Nor among pretas and asuras.

They had only favorable rebirths.

“Then this great tree

That brought delight to all beings

Broke in pieces in the Malla country

And fell amidst a grove of śāla trees.

“When they saw the great tree break,

Thousands of creatures,

Unimaginable, limitless in number,

Wept and lamented.

“No longer would its sound be heard;

Its scent had stopped spreading.

Without any warning of illness,

I, too, immediately collapsed.

“Seer, please explain to me

This dream I had last night,

So terrifying

That it made my hairs stand on end.”

At that moment, the gods of the pure abodes;
Brahmā, lord of the Sahā world; Māra’s son
Sārthavāha; Śakra, lord of the gods; and the Four
Great Kings all saw, in their respective realms,
signs portending the parinirvāṇa of the Blessed One.
Each escorted by retinues of more than
eighty billion gods, they went to where the Blessed
One was. When they arrived, they bowed their heads
to the feet of the Blessed One, and in unison they
cried out in despair—moaning, sobbing, and
lamenting—and spoke these verses to Venerable
Ānanda:

“Ah! What intense, unbearable suffering!

In this delightful grove of śāla trees, on this
very day,

Our protector will pass into nirvāṇa.

Ānanda, do you not know—

“The lamp for those who live in the dark,

Our refuge and our last resort,

Without grasping at peace,

Will pass into nirvāṇa today.”

The Blessed One then spoke these verses to
Venerable Ānanda and all the assembled gods:

“It is just as you have seen:

Today, in this grove of śāla trees,

I shall pass into nirvāṇa.

Do not suffer. Be steady.

“That marvelous, mighty tree,

Once lustrous beyond imagination,

Radiant and fragrant,

Has broken amidst this grove of śāla trees.

“The teacher, like that tree,

Will today, in this grove of śāla trees,

Pass without grasping into nirvāṇa,

Like fire extinguished by water.

“Upatiṣya and Kolita,

Perfect in knowledge and in miraculous
power—

These great
men will also pass beyond.

Ānanda, do you not know—

“All composite things are impermanent;

By nature they form and disintegrate.

The teacher has thoroughly understood this

And explained it to his monks.

“Ānanda, come closer!

Go and tell my disciples—

The great elder Aniruddha,

Who has perfected divine sight,

“The great elder Kātyāyana,

The great elders Pūrṇa and Subhūti,

The great Kauṣṭhila,

Gavāmpati, Nandika,

“Śroṇa, and Amogharāja,

Wearer of tattered robes,

Nanda and Rāhula,

And my other disciples,

“The elders still in training, those beyond
training,

And all other ordinary people—

That I shall pass into nirvāṇa.

Quickly, call everyone!

“Those in training and ordinary people

Who are upset by what has not been experienced
before

Should not be pierced with pain and suffering

After I have passed into nirvāṇa.

“Do not grieve. Composite things

Are impermanent and dream-like.

This true nature of phenomena

Should bring them relief.”

Thus he spoke, and Venerable Ānanda again
addressed the Blessed One in verse:

“Protector! Awakened One!

When I heard you will pass into nirvāṇa,

I fainted and hurt myself.

I am utterly crestfallen—

“Both my body and mind are distressed,

My mind is not composed,

I am unsettled by attachment.

Seer, what will become of me?

“You are my refuge and last resort.

You are the guide for this world.

How can I tell the elders

That today you are here but soon will be
gone?

“How can such sorrow be told

By one bearing such sorrow and pain?

How can the elders listen to this,

Our great fear?

“When those in training and ordinary monks

Are pierced by grief, completely run through,

How can they survive?

Best of men, please stay for an eon!

“How can I go, best of men,

Among the four communities

And announce that the teacher will pass away?

Great sage, please remain for an eon!

“The great lamp of this world

Is quickly fading,

And all the worlds will soon

Fall into darkness.

“Best of men, please, do not send me,

So crestfallen, to speak to the monks!

I beg you, entrust this to someone else

Who is not so crestfallen!”

The Blessed One then spoke these verses for the
sake of Venerable Ānanda:

“Hearing that the Buddha will pass away
today,

Millions upon millions of gods

Have left their palaces,

Grieving and lamenting.

“After I have passed,

Do not let monks be upset at not having seen
me—

This is the service I request.

Go, and summon all the monks!”

At that time, Venerable Aniruddha was at the
summit of Sumeru teaching the Dharma to the gods of
the Heaven of the Thirty-Three. Venerable Aniruddha,
who possessed pure divine sight that far surpassed
that of a human, could see that the gods, renowned
as the mightiest of the mighty, were disappearing
from their palaces. He could hear, too, the gods’
powerful cries of lament, and he watched as his own
audience thinned. Venerable Aniruddha focused his
mind, and with his divine sight he looked closely at
the world. The gods and their entourages were in a
state of anxiety, giving up on their sense pleasures
and departing somewhere in great haste. Venerable
Aniruddha saw those who had reached farther and
farther away from the summit of the king of
mountains—some who were one hundred leagues distant,
some two hundred leagues, some three hundred
leagues, some four hundred leagues, and some five
hundred leagues away—and some who had fallen into
the ocean, though such beings could not be harmed
nor injured, let alone killed.

Like those at the summit of Sumeru, all those
beings living on Sumeru, the king of mountains—gods,
nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas,
kinnaras, and mahoragas—were struck with grief when
they heard of the Blessed One’s parinirvāṇa.
“Blessed Śākyamuni,” they cried, “king among lords
of the Śākyas, who reached perfection countless
millions of eons ago, whose roots of virtue are
utterly pure, will today, in the country of the
Mallas, before a pair of śāla trees, pass without
grasping, into parinirvāṇa. Today, the eye of this
world with its gods, shall close!” they cried, and
they journeyed toward Kuśinagara, traveling with
such haste that the peaks of Sumeru, the king of
mountains, shook and trembled; traveling with such
haste that Sumeru, the king of mountains, along with
its oceans, quaked and roiled so violently that
those at the summit of Sumeru, the king of
mountains, fell into the ocean.

“The leader of worlds,

Who bestows joy on
those worlds,

Who is worthy of beings’ offerings,

The sage, will pass into nirvāṇa today.

“The source of wisdom, conqueror of darkness and
gloom,

Father and mother to all living creatures,

Our refuge and our last resort,

The sage, will pass into nirvāṇa today.

“The remover of pain, free from wrongdoing and
affliction,

The sublime sustainer, the great physician

Who removes the thorns of nonvirtuous
behavior,

The sage, will pass into nirvāṇa today.

“Seeing beings overpowered by attachment and
aversion,

Crushed by ignorance, caught up in old age and
death,

Stuck, and following mistaken paths,

He developed compassion for the world and taught
the Dharma.

“He to whom appeared the hordes of Māra, fierce
in form,

In various guises and brandishing adamantine
weapons,

Some flaunting many frightful features,

Others wielding rocks and boulders—

“Though beholding such diverse terrifying
forms,

He remained unmoved, unperturbed.

The protector of the world, who defeated those
hordes of Māra,

Will pass today into nirvāṇa, in the grove of
śāla trees.

“He who by merely extending his right arm

Can make this summit of Sumeru and its celestial
cities tremble,

The guide and seer who has mastered all
phenomena,

Will pass today into nirvāṇa, in the grove of
śāla trees.

“He whose words resound boundlessly in the ten
directions,

Who has crossed to the far shore of
knowledge,

The teacher, the heart of every being,

Will pass today into nirvāṇa, in the grove of
śāla trees.

“He who strikes fear in mighty hordes

Has discovered the unshakeable, the absence of
sorrow, the uncompounded.

The sage, setting the wheel in motion for the
benefit of living beings,

Clearly set forth the four truths.

“He whose miraculous powers are
inconceivable,

Who can lay out many realms on the tip of a
hair,

Whose body is beyond any notion of physical
form,

The protector, will pass into nirvāṇa today.

“The teacher has gone to the Malla kingdom.

He has taken up residence in a nearby grove

And immersed himself in the calm of
concentration.

He will pass into nirvāṇa, like a fire going out
when the wood has been used up.”

At the very moment Venerable Aniruddha finished
speaking these verses, through the Buddha’s power,
all the monks and nuns and male and female lay
devotees in the world, the four communities who
revered the Blessed One—except for Mahākāśyapa and
his entourage, and 224 monks —exclaimed, “This is our last chance to see
the Blessed One!” and departed for that grove of
śāla trees in the country of the Mallas.

Also at the very moment Venerable Aniruddha
finished speaking these verses, all beings
throughout this great trichiliocosm, the prescient
gods and goddesses; the nāgas, elderly nāgas, and
nāginīs; the yakṣas, the yakṣīs, and their young;
the piśācas, old
piśācas, and young piśācas, male and female; beings
as numerous as the stars—asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras,
mahoragas, humans, and nonhumans—all with their eyes
filled with tears, in grief, sobbed and lamented,
crying out over and over again. Suffering and
distraught, pierced by grief, they threw their arms
in the air and sobbed.

Some wrung their hands as they wept. Some bumped
their heads together, gazing into each other’s faces
as they wept. Some, mouths agape, emitted wretched
roars of anguish and, losing their senses, their
faces pale, their arms and legs flailing, wept. Some
just gazed at one another as they wept. Some banged
their heads. Some struck their heads with both
hands, hurting themselves physically. Some rolled
their eyes and heaved with sobs, howling and crying
out in pain, their knees shaking, as if the palms of
their hands had been scorched. “Alas, Buddha! Alas,
Buddha!” they cried, woeful and destitute, tears
streaming down their faces. Rubbing their eyes with
the palms of their hands and clawing at their faces,
they howled in anguish. Stricken by grief, they
cried out in pain.

Many millions of other beings let out great
cries as they read aloud while choked with tears.
Some, with their palms pressed together, moaned as
they read aloud in tears. Some, scorched by the fire
of grief, held their heads in their right hands as
they moaned. Others, physically ravaged, likewise
held their heads in their left hands as they
groaned. Some beat their arms, their faces
pallid, drained of
color, and miserable with grief as they cried out.

Then the gods, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas,
asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, mahoragas, and their
entourages, grieving and lamenting, proceeded to
where the Blessed one was and, entering the presence
of the Blessed One, threw themselves on the ground
like trees being felled. Some bowed to the Blessed
One’s two feet. Some let out great roars of anguish.
Some rolled on the ground while crying out in pain.
Some, on entering the presence of the Blessed One,
threw their arms in the air and exclaimed, “Alas,
Buddha! Alas, Buddha! Alas, protector! Alas,
compassionate one, who loves and protects all
beings! Alas, refuge and last resort of the three
realms, who watches over all beings! Alas, supporter
of the unsupported! This world will be barren, all
beings will be blind! The rare and precious Buddha
will be no more!”

Joining hands, they lovingly grieved together as
if mourning the death of their mother. They grieved
as if mourning the death of their father, the death
of their brother, or the death of their son, crying
out over and over, “Alas, protector! Alas, virtuous
friend, your speech is so gentle to hear, with the
strength of a lion, of an elephant, of the greatest
bull! Alas, nectar-like teacher!”

Some leapt into the air, struck themselves, and,
falling back to the ground, rolled back and forth on
the ground, crying out pitifully from the core of
their beings.

Venerable Ānanda then fainted and crashed to the
ground like a felled tree. Regaining consciousness,
he placed both his hands on the ground in front of
the Blessed One and, gazing into his face, spoke
these verses:

“To see beings in such misery,

Weeping and lamenting,

Pierced through with grief,

Is to relive my dream again.

“Like travelers assailed by
robbers

In some remote and empty place,

When they see in front of them

A great heap of fire,

“They look everywhere for an escape.

Overcome with fear,

They run in all directions

But find no refuge and no assistance.

“The pain I see in so many beings,

On hearing of the Buddha’s passing, is like
that—

The suffering of beings without refuge,

Pierced through with grief.

“How can we look upon the Buddha

As just any important person who has passed?

Let others pass away,

But, Blessed One, please stay for an eon!

“How can we look upon the perfect Buddha,

Passing into nirvāṇa in the Malla kingdom,

Like a once blazing fire

That goes out once its fuel is used up?

“From today, Awakened One, I shall never see you
again

At the Bamboo Grove.

Nor, guide, shall I ever see you again

Teaching the Dharma at Jetavana Grove.

“How can I enter Vaiśālī,

The great city of the Licchavis,

And tell those Licchavis

‘The best of men has passed’?

“How, in Kapilavastu,

The great city of the Śākyas,

Can I, in my misery, announce

‘The greatest of persons has passed’?

“How, in Magadha,

In Ajātaśatru’s great city,

Can I utter the words,

‘The great sage is in perfect peace’?

“When many thousands of beings

Shed tears again and again,

How can I respond,

‘The lion of the Śākyas has passed’?

“When the lion of the Śākyas has passed,

Best of men, how will I console

All the monks, the nuns,

And the householders?

“Supreme being, what am I to say

When elders ask me,

‘Ānanda! Where has His Eminence,

The object of our offerings, the perfect Buddha,
gone?’

“Sage, what if gods and nāgas ask me,

‘Has he entered a deep concentration,

Or has he gone for a walk?’

How will I muster the courage to tell them?

“For whom have I, again and again,

Arranged the lion couch?

Hero, from this moment onward,

For whom will I arrange the lion throne?

“Who, like a lion,

Will fearlessly profess the Dharma to the
assemblies?

From whom will I hear the Dharma

Of the profound state, so hard to comprehend?

“Greatest of persons, if you pass on,

At whose feet will I offer water?

Whose clothes and Dharma robes will I bring?

Whose alms bowl will I bear?

“Best of men, in the midst of the saṅgha,

Who will praise me, saying,

‘Ānanda! Ocean of learning!’?

Henceforth, who will be there for me?

“Wise one, infinite in eloquence,

Whose gentle speech brings delight

And the greatest happiness,

To whom will I really listen?

“After all the crying and lamenting

Of all the victor’s heirs who uphold the
teachings,

It was I who fainted and fell to the ground

At the feet of the great sage.”

The Blessed One then said to Venerable Ānanda,
“Ānanda, son of Gautama, have I not taught you from
the very beginning that everything dear and pleasing
is in no way permanent? Son of Gautama, all
composite things are deceptive, like dreams,
illusions, mirages, or drops of dew. All composite
things are impermanent, son of Gautama, so do not
grieve over what happens. Do not cry and wail. Son
of Gautama, in the final hours of this night, the
Thus-Gone One will pass into final and complete
nirvāṇa, and with this parinirvāṇa that defeats all
imputations, this parinirvāṇa that equals the
unequaled, he will pass completely beyond
suffering. So, Son of Gautama, go and set
out the Thus-Gone One’s lion couch between a pair of
śāla trees, with its head to the east so that he
shall face north, with his back to the south while
lying on his right side.”

“Great sage, this is the last time

I set out your lion couch.

Eminence, in the future,

Your lion couch will not be set up again.

“Best of men, protector of the world,

Once you have passed into nirvāṇa,

How will I be able to look into the midst

Of this empty beautiful grove of śāla trees?

“The gods who have lived naturally so long

In this grove of śāla trees—

When they no longer see their guide,

How will they stay?

“Alas! Composite things are impermanent,

Like illusions and dreams.

So, too, is the teacher, the hero—

He will pass away right here.”

Then Venerable Aniruddha spoke to Venerable
Ānanda in verse:

“The Buddha has already taught

That all composite things are impermanent.

There is no point lamenting

What is not under anyone’s control.

“Wailing again and again,

Even sobbing,

Will not make this truth easier to accept.

So, learned one, do not suffer!”

Venerable Ānanda replied to Venerable Aniruddha
in verse:

“The best of men will pass into nirvāṇa.

Since you are also suffering,

Aniruddha, how can you say this

So boldly?”

Aniruddha replied:

“When I see beings suffering and destitute,

Tormented by grief,

My eyes, too, well up with tears—

The tears come in waves.

“When, with my divine sight,

I see so many beings weeping,

I, too, weep uncontrollably

On their behalf.

“But there is no benefit whatsoever

To be found in wailing.

So I say to you, Ānanda—

Reflect upon the Dharma, and do not grieve!”

Then the Blessed One rose from his seat and,
escorted by an entourage of many trillions of gods,
humans, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, kinnaras,
mahoragas, asuras, and garuḍas, went to that pair of
śāla trees, and when he arrived, he lay down upon
the lion couch, on the right side of his body. As
soon as the Blessed One had lain down upon the lion
couch, the gods made all kinds of divine flowers
rain from the sky, scattered many celestial powders,
and played hundreds of thousands of heavenly
instruments. Humans, too, saying this was the last
time they would look upon the blessed Thus-Gone One,
made offerings of flowers, fragrant powders,
perfumes, ointments, and music from the human
world.

As soon as the Blessed One had lain down on his
right side upon the lion couch, between the pair of
śāla trees, at that moment, right then, at that very
instant, a hundred million buddha fields away to the
east, in the world called Precious and Melodious,
the buddha field of the thus-gone, worthy, perfect
buddha Siṃhanādeśvara, a bodhisattva great being
called Sucintitārtha passed away and was reborn in
the city of Rājagṛha, miraculously appearing in the
lap of Vaidehī’s son, King Ajātaśatru of Magadha, as
his son. As soon as he was born, he spoke up, and he
spoke with purpose:

“From the presence of Siṃhanāda,

I have come here with a purpose.

Is the lion of the Śākyas, the best of men,

The perfect Buddha, still here?”

A god replied in verse to the bodhisattva great
being Sucintitārtha:

“O great speaker!

Our refuge, the lion of the Śākyas,

Will today, between two śāla trees,

Pass without grasping into nirvāṇa.”

The bodhisattva great being Sucintitārtha
replied to the god:

“The Dharma of the lion of the Śākyas

Is very hard to find.

From billions of buddha fields away,

I have come here to listen to it.

“Now I hear he will pass into nirvāṇa today,

In a grove of śāla trees.

It was pointless then, for me to come here

To this buddha field!

“The very day I arrive,

The sage will pass away,

So I must grieve

Along with the world and its gods.

“If I do not see the Buddha,

My journey here will have been pointless.

It shall not be so—I must not leave this a mere
aspiration.

I must go before the Buddha!”

And so, there and then,

He addressed the royal lord of Magadha.

Speaking gently, calmly,

And cheerfully, he said:

“King, listen to me now.

He is a rare, sublime being,

So have no hesitation!

Go before the Thus-Gone One!

“Over millions upon millions of eons,

Only very rarely does a victor appear.

If you meet with such a conjunction of
circumstances,

Learned one, you should not be despondent!

“For that would be the attitude of an unschooled
child.

What do you think, great king?

It is not I, great king, who am the child—

It is you, lord of men, who are a child.

“Under the sway of desire,

You have committed a heinous crime

That will propel you to the lower realms—

This is the foolishness of a child!

“The evil deed you committed

Is a terrible crime of immediate retribution

For which you will plummet into the terrible
hells

Of unbearable and unceasing torment.

“Have faith in the Buddha!

For through it you will attain liberation.

Lord of men, such conditions will then lead you

To the attainment of perfect awakening.

“You have relied on evil companions;

Devadatta is deeply harmful.

Under his influence

You killed your own father.

“Your father practiced the Dharma;

He was the Buddha’s heir, his heart son.

In your arrogance

You murdered this wise man.

“If you cannot see the perfect Buddha

Before he passes into nirvāṇa,

Then at least make extensive offerings

To his sacred remains.

“I did not come to this realm

For its sense pleasures;

I came here to see the Buddha.

Great king, have patience.

“While in the presence of the Buddha
Siṃhanāda,

I heard that the lion of the Śākyas,

The great sage,

Will pass away today.

“It is in order to see him

That I am here in this realm,

So let us go, accompanied by

All the royal kinsmen and their people.”

King Ajātaśatru then replied to the child in
verse:

“The road from here to the Malla kingdom is
long;

One cannot possibly go by foot, only by
carriage.

Child, you will stay here tonight,

And we will travel in comfort with a large
army.”

The child then replied to King Ajātaśatru:

“Lord of men, I am not lazy like you!

I have inconceivable miraculous powers.

If I so wish, I could travel unhindered

Throughout the many eastern realms.

“Between here and the world from which I have
come,

There are so many buddha fields,

Boundless and immeasurable,

So reaching the Malla kingdom will be all
right!”

“Anyone who does no wrong, who is free of
affliction

And longs to see the mighty one, supreme in
speech, the lord of men,

Come now, and follow me!

We will see Śākyamuni before he passes away!”

As soon as the child departed the city of
Rājagṛha, at that moment,
right then, at that very instant, in addition to
gods and humans, seventy-two thousand creatures of
all kinds gathered around as the child, escorted by
an entourage of billions upon billions of gods who
pay homage at the feet of the Blessed One, proceeded
to where the Blessed One was.

As soon as the Blessed One had lain down on his
right side upon the lion couch, between a pair of
śāla trees, at that moment, right then, at that very
instant, five trillion buddha fields away to the
south in the world called Ratnavyūha, the buddha
field of the thus-gone, worthy, perfect buddha
Beautiful Heap of Jewels, a bodhisattva great being
called Thoroughly at Peace passed away and was
reborn in this buddha field of Jambudvīpa, in the
great city of Śrāvastī, in the household of the
eminent merchant called Leonine. The moment he was
born, he spoke up, and he spoke with purpose:

“Over so many eons,

Again and again, he severed his limbs.

He gave away his own eyes, his own flesh,

Even his own head.

“In his wish to attain buddhahood,

He gave away queens, princes, and princesses.

He gave away all his possessions, again and
again,

For ten billion eons.

“He who gave so expansively

Over so many billions of eons

For the sake of liberating beings—

Is that seer still here?”

The eminent merchant Leonine replied to the
child in verse:

“How is it you speak such excellent words

As soon as you are born?

Are you a god, or else a nāga?

Are you a yakṣa, or a rākṣasa?

“My relatives have taken fright,

Running here and there in fear,

But, child, the voice of a buddha

Does not make me flee.”

Then the child said to the merchant:

“I am not just a god, nor a nāga,

Not just a yakṣa or a rākṣasa.

For they are ordinary worldly beings!

Why, merchant, do you not know?

“Called ‘god of gods,’

I am god, nāga, yakṣa,

Kinnara, and mahoraga!

I am bound by my promise, like a bull.”

The merchant Leonine then said to the child in
verse:

“Wise one, I have heard

The words you have spoken,

But I have doubts about what they mean.

I would speak further of it to you, child.

“Tell me, child:

How is it you are god and nāga?

How are you yakṣa and kinnara?

How are you god of gods?”

The child replied to the merchant Leonine in
verse:

“In the south

Lives the lord of speech

Beautiful Heap of Jewels.

It is from there that I have come.

“But a hundred times I have been Śakra;

I have reigned.

A hundred times I have been Brahmā;

I have been a universal monarch.

“If I had to describe those births in detail,

Millions upon millions of eons would pass,

And still it would not be over.

And, learned one, I must go.”

“However, great merchant, you should henceforth
rely on the following teaching. Rely on it with
confidence and contemplate it many times over. Great
merchant, what is this teaching? Great merchant, the
blessed, thus-gone, worthy, perfect Buddha Beautiful
Heap of Jewels has said, ‘When bodhisattva great
beings have three qualities, they will be
irreversible on the path to unsurpassed, completely
perfect awakening, and they will swiftly awaken to
complete, unsurpassed buddhahood.’ What are the
three? They are being immersed in the limitless
mind, being immersed in profound wisdom, and
cultivating the sāravatī
absorption.
Eminent merchant, if bodhisattva great beings have
these three qualities, they will be irreversible on
the path to unsurpassed, completely perfect
awakening and they will
swiftly awaken to unsurpassed, completely perfect
awakening.”

Then the child spoke these verses:

“Apart from pure illustrious buddhas,

Who understand all things caused and
uncaused,

The profound wisdom, so difficult to realize,

Creates doubt for
all types of beings, including gods.

“Since awakening is groundless, all there is is
not.

Genuine wisdom is beyond attachment.

It is by becoming familiar with the wisdom that
has abandoned all forms of attachment

And is devoid of pain that one becomes a
buddha.

“In the limitless mind, the mind does not exist;

To be immersed in such a mind is complete
peace.

This mind is called mind
because even when turned away from all things,

It remains thoroughly immersed in them.

“That which can be cut or broken does not
endure.

This absorption, indivisible from the qualities
taught by the well-gone ones,

In which all entities are like the vault of the
sky,

Is indestructible.

“Those who meditate on the ephemerality of all
entities,

Understanding their empty nature in this way,

Will loosen the web of afflictions

And become buddhas who have conquered worldly
desire.

“Everything is understood, yet there is no
understanding.

Everything is cultivated, yet there is no
cultivation.

Everything is realized, yet there is no
realization.

Everything is explained, yet there is nothing
there at all.

“The profound Dharma lacks any notion of
Dharma.

Though beings are liberated, there is no notion
of beings.

In peaceful disengagement, there is no notion of
peace.

Though awakening is realized, there is no notion
of awakening.

“The courageous who abandon the thorns of
views

Surpass all unreliable beings.

They understand the entire process of death and
rebirth,

And by renouncing it they reach buddhahood.”

As soon as the child had spoken these verses,
right then, at that very instant, the eminent
merchant Leonine, his entire entourage, and two thousand
other beings developed the mind set on unsurpassed,
completely perfect awakening, and with their minds
thus fully committed, they reached the acceptance of
the unborn nature of phenomena. Eighty million gods
also generated the mind set on unsurpassed,
completely perfect awakening and became certain of
irreversibility on the path to unsurpassed,
completely perfect awakening. And forty
quadrillion living beings were
able to see phenomena with Dharma eyes, free of
dust, pure, undefiled, and immaculate.

The child then spoke these verses:

“The reason I came here

Was to enter the presence of the lion of the
Śākyas,

Who has freed millions upon millions of
beings

From the terrors of saṃsāra.

“Many millions among them,

With the mind set on unsurpassed awakening,

A re now well established

At the level of acceptance.

“My own parents, siblings, and relatives

Are also settled in acceptance,

And all eighty million gods

Have embarked upon awakening.

“In the teachings of the Buddha,

I have found a great heap of precious jewels

Inestimable and beyond imagination,

So I am far from want.”

Then the child Thoroughly at Peace summoned his
parents, siblings, and relatives, and escorted by
his parents, siblings, relatives, kinsmen, and an
entourage of many hundreds of thousands of beings
who pay homage at the feet of the Blessed One, he
left the great city of Śrāvastī and journeyed to the
Yamakaśāla Grove in the country of the Mallas.

As soon as the Blessed One had lain down on his
right side upon the lion couch, at that very moment,
right then, at that very instant, eight trillion
buddha fields away to the west, in the
world called Joy, the buddha field of the thus-gone,
worthy, perfect buddha Lord of Joy, a bodhisattva
great being called Without Reference passed away and
was reborn here in this buddha field of Jambudvīpa,
in the great city of Vārāṇasī, in the household of
the eminent merchant called Excellent Flower. As
soon as the child was born, he spoke up, and he
spoke with purpose:

“The Buddha, our guide,

The teacher of the Dharma of unwavering
selflessness,

Will pass into nirvāṇa today

Amidst a grove of śāla trees.

“If all phenomena are beyond reference
points,

The unlearned who make reference points

Will not be freed from suffering—

Their suffering will only increase.

“All phenomena are ephemeral;

There is no place where they abide.

Neither that which is already exhausted nor that
which is yet to be exhausted

Is to be found.

“Emptiness is never destroyed;

Emptiness does not disintegrate.

It neither has conditions,

Nor is it without conditions.

“He who revealed peace, so hard to see,

Through this profound doctrine—

The lion of the Śākyas, the best of men,

The perfect Buddha—is he still here?

“The great lion, the elephant

Who has become pure,

Whose vision has become flawless,

Will today pass away between the śāla trees.

“He who, like a full moon,

Gave teachings for so long

Before the community of monks

Henceforth shall be seen no more.

“He who glorified the monastic assembly

Like a wealth deity atop a mountain peak,

The protector, the eloquent teacher,

Henceforth shall visit the city no more.

“Before gods and humans,

The roar of the protector’s unsurpassed
doctrine,

The melodious speech that brings delight,

Henceforth shall be heard no more.”

As soon as the bodhisattva great being Without
Reference had uttered these verses, a hundred
thousand people in the great city Vārāṇasī
exclaimed, “How is it that this child can remember
his past lives as soon as he is born? The eloquence of
insight, the fearlessness of insight, and the
extraordinary insight with which he has spoken these
verses, with their various expressions—with such
power of understanding and such fearlessness— is
truly amazing! We, too, must surely strive to fully
achieve such insight!”

The child said to them, “All of you, who have
set your minds on unsurpassed, completely perfect
awakening, come this way! We have gathered together,
now let us travel together to see, pay homage, and
serve the Blessed One, the thus-gone, worthy,
perfect Buddha.”

Then the bodhisattva great being Without
Reference, escorted by an entourage of two hundred
thousand creatures, left the great city of Vārāṇasī
and journeyed to where the Blessed One was, to pay
homage at the feet of the Blessed One.

“He who liberates

Millions of afflicted beings,

Who delights the Śākya clan—

The perfect Buddha—is he still here?

“He who through exertion has crossed to the far
shore,

Who has mastered wisdom, activity, and
equipoise,

That infinite ocean of knowledge—

The perfect Buddha—is he still here?

“He whose mind is at peace, who has found
acceptance,

The Thus-Gone remover of painful thorns

Who teaches the Dharma to beings

But does not do so with conceit—

The perfect Buddha—is he still here?

“He who does not abide in the three worlds

But in his wisdom comprehends

The desire, form, and formless realms in their
entirety—

The one who sees—is he still here?”

“Since perfect buddhas live for an eon,

Or perhaps even more,

You will see the perfect buddha again,

So enjoy yourself, child!

“This is a royal household,

So enjoy the greatest of luxuries.

From the moment you wake,

Let lutes and drums, large and small,
resound!”

Then the child, though he understood that this
was none other than the Thus-Gone One, for the sake
of generating roots of virtue in those other beings
who perceived him as a god, spoke these verses:

“Those under the sway of desires

Are foolish and deluded.

They know neither the perfect Buddha

Nor the Buddha’s teachings.

“Since the objects of desire are without
essence,

I have no desire to indulge them.

Desire is like the edge of a razor—

Who can trust their desires?

“Dogs, pigs, and foxes,

Oxen, asses, and mules,

Rely on their desires,

But they do not become buddhas, nor their disciples.

“The crippled, the lame, and the blind,

Idiots, hunchbacks, and dwarves,

Rely on their desires,

But they do not become buddhas, nor their disciples.

“Bees, beetles, and butterflies,

Peacocks and cuckoos, too,

Rely on their desires,

So I would be no different from them.

“Victor, desire is like

A raging inferno

That engulfs the entire world,

Into which the blind do fall.

“Desires are ephemeral and painful,

So who can rely on them?

Those who follow their desires

Do not understand the Dharma.

“The buddhas know me

As one with no interest in desire.

I know that this being in the form of a god

Who tests me is a buddha.

“I heard the gods of Sumeru talking

About the Buddha, the protector.

‘In the last watch of the night,’ they said,

‘The Buddha will pass away.’

“All those who wish to behold the sage,

He who has exhausted all fetters, come along!

Alas! The teacher is passing into nirvāṇa!

Let us go and see the Buddha.

“Those who are able to see and hear

The protector, the lion of the Śākyas,

As he passes into nirvāṇa

Will reap tremendous virtue.

“ ‘Such virtue cannot be accrued

Over a billion eons.’

This, Resting in the Branches of Awakening,

Is what the well-gone, the best of men has
said.

“Those who find joy in
the teachings—

Gods, yakṣas, and humans—

Come quickly with me now,

To see the renowned and perfect Buddha!”

Then the bodhisattva great being Flower of
Clairvoyance, escorted by an entourage of many
hundreds of thousands of beings who pay homage at
the feet of the Blessed One, left the great city of
Vaiśālī and journeyed to where the Blessed One was.

“Why, Blessed One,

Have beautiful and well-prepared lion couches

Sprung up in the four directions

Around the omniscient one?”

The Blessed One replied to Ānanda, “Ānanda, the
boys who have arrived from the four directions—whose
faces are like the moon, whose radiance surpasses
the sun in suffusing the four continents with
light—shine with brilliance in form and majesty.
They possess the light of insight, they are
diligent, they have realized profound wisdom, they
are glorious, intelligent, and well behaved, they
are conscientious, modest, realized, discerning,
mindful, stable, and insightful, they are skilled in
expounding virtuous teachings, and
they have fostered roots of virtue with many
hundreds of buddhas. They have heard, while in the
presence of other blessed buddhas, in other buddha
fields, that tonight in the last watch of the night,
in the country of the Mallas, between a pair of śāla
trees, I, the thus-gone, worthy, perfect Buddha,
will pass into complete nirvāṇa that is beyond all
limits, the parinirvāṇa that is beyond conception,
the parinirvāṇa that is unlike anything in all
worlds, the parinirvāṇa that outshines anything in
all worlds, the parinirvāṇa that brings benefit and
wellness to all worlds, the parinirvāṇa that is hard
to comprehend in all worlds, the parinirvāṇa that
quells imputations in all worlds. They have heard
that I will pass into parinirvāṇa, so they have
taken rebirth here, in this world.

“Ānanda, the child who came from the east has a
good complexion and is bright and handsome. He
shines with light and blazes with glory. He is
accompanied by many hundreds of thousands of beings
and is venerated by a hundred thousand gods. Ānanda,
this child who was showered with divine flowers as
he came into the presence of the Thus-Gone One was
previously a king in the buddha field of the
thus-gone, worthy, perfect buddha Siṃhanādeśvara. He
was a universal monarch, venerated by gods and
humans, who ruled over a thousand worlds. During his
reign, he taught gods and humans of the desire realm
and propagated the Dharma. When teaching the Dharma
to many hundreds of thousands of beings, he caused
their roots of virtue to mature, and he was skilled
in clairvoyance. He was a master of
the Dharma, penetrating in realization and with an
eloquence that was infinitely noble, fluent,
diverse, fearless, and meaningful. Expert in his
knowledge of the Dharma and possessed of perfect
wisdom, he served continuously as Dharma king for
one hundred eighty million years,
without the need for weapons and without harming
anyone. Not driven by desire, and not hankering for
power, he ruled for the benefit of all beings who
were open to liberation. He tamed and trained them
so that they were tamed and trained. For one hundred
eighty million years, he established eighteen
hundred billion beings at the level of
irreversibility on the path to awakening. He firmly
established both those with the qualities of
bodhisattvas and those noble sons who had for the
first time generated the mind set on awakening at
the level of irreversibility from the certain
attainment of unsurpassed, completely perfect
awakening.

“On another occasion, he shaved his head and
facial hair, donned saffron robes, and left his home
to live the life of a homeless renunciate. Having
thus gone forth, he lived the life of a dedicated,
celibate renunciate for eight hundred ten
million
years, never even lying on a bed, let alone
succumbing to dullness or sleep. For the duration of
those eight hundred ten million years, he never had
a single desirous thought, a single malicious
thought, or a single harmful thought. During that
whole time, he had no notion of attractiveness or
repulsiveness, no notion of being in a monastery or
not being in a monastery, and without having a
single other unvirtuous thought, he remained focused
on just two endeavors. What were the two? To perfect
the physical eye with regard to the imperfection of
the eye, and to realize the basic reality of the
Dharma teachings with no attachment whatsoever.

“Moreover, for the duration of those eight
hundred ten million years, he never entertained the
notion of earth, the notion of
water, the notion of fire, the notion of wind, the
notion of space, the notion of consciousness, the
notion of woman, the notion of man, the notion of
hunger, the notion of thirst, the notion of
villages, the notion of wilderness, the notion of
cities, the notion of market towns, the notion of
disharmony, the notion of harmony, the notion of
isolation, the notion of meditation, the notion of
self, the notion of other, the notion of form, the
notion of formlessness, the notion of end, the
notion of middle, the notion of beginning, the
notion of ceasing, the notion of less, or the notion
of more. Nor did he entertain any other notions.
Apart from the teachings of the Bodhisattva
Collection, no conceptual notions occurred to him at
all.

During that time, the bodhisattva ripened
eighty billion beings for unsurpassed, completely
perfect awakening, all of whom, by generating the
mind set on awakening for the first time, became
certain to reach unsurpassed, completely perfect
awakening and who, in order to see, revere, and
serve blessed buddhas residing in various other
buddha fields, were able to travel instantaneously
between worlds and buddha fields even when they were
not next to one another.

“And all the blessed buddhas residing in all
those buddha fields are thus: Just as I, the
Thus-Gone One called Śākyamuni, am alone, all of
them are alone in arising in those worlds beset by
the five degenerations. And all those blessed
buddhas will at the same moment, the same instant,
pass into the great
parinirvāṇa, having manifestly lain down on their
right sides, upon a lion couch. Tonight, in the last
watch of the night, between a pair of śāla trees in
the country of the Mallas, all those blessed buddhas
will pass into parinirvāṇa.

“Ānanda, with my unimpeded eye of flesh, I know
that which is not understood by all disciples and
solitary buddhas. I know that which is beyond their
scope and that which they cannot fathom—what I know
is limitless. Ānanda, in order for those who listen
to this prophetic teaching—whether they are monks,
nuns, laymen, or laywomen—to attain the wisdom of
buddhahood and perfect omniscient wisdom, they must
develop faith in the omniscience of my eye of flesh.
If they can develop this for a single instant, the
very moment such a mind is generated they will
attain great stores of merit, and these will then
greatly increase to become boundless and innumerable
stores of merit.

“Ānanda, even for noble sons and daughters who
have directly served, respected, honored, venerated,
and supplicated eighty billion buddhas with all
kinds of pleasing articles for eighteen billion
years, if they have not generated the mind set on
awakening and have not made this aspiration, they
will not gain as much merit as those aforementioned
noble sons, nor will their stores of merit increase
in the same way.

“Ānanda, with this teaching of mine, this child
will benefit beings day and night in ways that
Śāriputra, Maudgalyāyana, and my other disciples have
not benefited beings with this teaching of mine.
Ānanda, even if you were to live for an eon, doing
nothing other than teaching the Dharma day and night
to beings with total commitment, even
if you were to do that, you would not be able to
convey this teaching as much as this child does, nor
convey it as well.

“Ānanda, did you see the child arriving from
the south, like the sun rising in autumn, like the
immense disk of the full moon rising, striking his
staff made of various precious substances upon the
great earth? As it strikes the earth his staff makes
such a sound as if it were made from precious
Magadhan materials, or from gold
or silver. It is perfectly made, beautifully
polished, completely smooth, spotless, without dents
or smudges, perfectly clean, free of dust and
grease, made as an object with many uses, of the
highest quality, replete with the five points, free
of the ten points, and devoid of the twelve
faults. Its physical form examined
a thousand times, its gold and silver are
faultless, very pure, and from a good source. Very
fine, it was fashioned with a hundred types of
special gold. Straight and solid, it was skillfully
smelted by a thousand craftsmen expert in the eight
qualities. Free of all
defects, its sound is such that it could quell any
suffering. Ānanda, these are mere examples, mere
illustrations, to show what the sound was like when
the child struck the earth with his staff made from
various precious substances.

“Ānanda, this child called Thoroughly at Peace
is a bodhisattva great being who
has come from the south, from the world called
Ratnavyūha in the buddha field of the thus-gone,
worthy, perfect buddha called Beautiful Heap of
Jewels. Ānanda, what do you think? Why is that world
called Ratnavyūha? Ānanda, in that world there is no
mention of beings being mistaken or being correct.
Ānanda, every being there is fearless and sure to
reach completely perfect awakening. Ānanda, that
buddha field is a realm of bodhisattvas only, where
there is no mention of being a man or a woman.
Ānanda, all beings there are celibate, clean,
without bad odor, and pure in thought. They do not
engage in sexual intercourse; indeed there is no
concept of sex in that world.

“No nonvirtuous thoughts occur to beings in
that buddha field, and there is no notion of food
apart from the two types of sustenance. What are the
two? The sustenance of meditative equipoise achieved
through wisdom, and the sustenance that comes
through perfectly explaining the Buddha’s Dharma.
Ānanda, in that buddha field there are no teachings
of the two categories and the three vehicles, only the
body of teachings on omniscient wisdom and the vast
discourses of the Bodhisattva Collection. Ānanda, it
is because of those discourses that this realm is
called Ratnavyūha.

“Ānanda, if I were to describe the special
qualities of each bodhisattva great being there in
that world and the praises suitable to each, the
aspiration prayer composed for that buddha field
would not be complete even after a thousand eons.
So, Ānanda, I can do no more than speak the name of
that realm from which the bodhisattva great being
Thoroughly at Peace has come.

“Ānanda, the bodhisattva great being Thoroughly
at Peace has come here to see me pass into
parinirvāṇa, to instill disenchantment in many
beings, to make the name and the qualities of that
world well known, and to sing the praises of that
thus-gone one. He has come to this buddha field to
proclaim the greatness and the pure qualities of
those exceptional beings who follow the bodhisattva
vehicle, so that countless beings in this buddha
field will uphold the sublime Dharma, so that
bodhisattvas in the future will be thoroughly happy,
and to instill complete faith.

“Ānanda, in the past, when the thus-gone
Dīpaṅkara appeared in the world, this child was born
as the universal monarch named Ajātaśatru, and he
trained in the practice of a bodhisattva. Ānanda, at
that time, the universal monarch Ajātaśatru taught
the Dharma to many millions of beings, causing their
roots of virtue to mature. In a single morning, even
before the sun rose, he had established three
hundred sixty million beings at the level of
irreversibility on the path to unsurpassed,
completely perfect awakening, so
that they were faultless and reached acceptance of
the unborn nature of phenomena. After the thus-gone,
worthy, perfect Buddha Dīpaṅkara’s parinirvāṇa, the
faithful Ajātaśatru renounced his home and went
forth to live a life of homelessness. For a full
thousand years after he went forth as a renunciate,
he turned the wheel of the Dharma in accordance with
the Blessed Dīpaṅkara’s teachings. He benefited
countless beings. On the final day, as the sun was
setting, he ripened sixty million beings in the
state of unsurpassed, completely perfect awakening.
When the sun set that day, seventy billion beings
had reached the level of the exhaustion of
defilements, not to mention those disciples
established at the level of seeing and the level of
cultivation.

“Ānanda, if, with awakened wisdom, I were to
speak of the many praises of the bodhisattva great
being Thoroughly at Peace and the benefits this
child has brought to each and every being, I would
not reach the end even after many thousands of eons.

“Ānanda, arrange before me a seat for the noble
son Thoroughly at Peace, and it will bring you great
merit, Ānanda. To those who hear the name of the
bodhisattva great being Thoroughly at Peace, he is a
buddha.

“Ānanda, I prophesy that, aside from those with
the particular aspirations of bodhisattva great
beings, anyone who upon receiving this extensive and
authoritative Dharma instruction that is rich in
qualities develops even for an instant the faithful
intention to look upon and venerate and serve the
blessed, thus-gone, worthy, perfect Buddha Beautiful
Heap of Jewels and listen to his sublime Dharma
will, because, Ānanda, this is a common teaching,
certainly be reborn in that buddha field and look
upon that blessed one and listen to his sublime
Dharma and see the bodhisattva great beings of that
buddha field. . Ānanda, those
beings who have directly heard with their faculty of
hearing this extensive and authoritative Dharma
instruction that is rich in qualities will be very
fortunate; they will be immensely fortunate. It goes
without saying that anyone who has heard it will
have faith.

“So, Ānanda, occasions such as these, occasions
for Dharma teachings such as this, must be guarded
well and remembered faithfully. Why? Because,
Ānanda, discourses like this have never before been
heard by the people of Jambudvīpa, nor by those
displaying the form of bodhisattvas, nor by those
who renounce the sublime Dharma, though you should
not set eyes on those who renounce the Dharma.

“Yes indeed, Blessed One.”

“Ānanda, did you see the child coming here from
the west to tame beings, reveling in his magical
power, making this great earth shake on both sides,
making it shake a lot, making it tremble and tremble
a lot, and making it shudder and shudder a
lot—making the earth quake so terrifyingly that
everyone’s hair stood on end in alarm?”

“Yes indeed, Blessed One.”

“Yes indeed, Blessed One.”

“Ānanda, these sounds come from the pores of
this child. Ānanda, these sounds have brought
benefit to the sixty-eight billion beings who heard
them. The minds of many beings of the chiliocosm
have been liberated from defilements with no more
grasping, and, Ānanda, ten million bodhisattvas,
hearing the sound ‘awakened’ alone, entered with
certainty the level of irreversibility on the path
to unsurpassed, completely perfect awakening, and
among the beings of this buddha field, too, with its
gods and humans, a hundred thousand billion gods and
humans were settled with certainty at the level of
irreversibility on the path to unsurpassed,
completely perfect awakening.

“Ānanda, in order to see me, the Thus-Gone One,
passing into nirvāṇa, this noble son has come to
this buddha field from the west, from the world
called Joy in the buddha field of the thus-gone,
worthy, perfect buddha Lord of Joy. Ānanda, since
this noble son arrived here in this buddha field, he
has benefited countless beings, he has performed
awakened activities, and he has turned the wheel of
Dharma. Ānanda, over the span of countless eons up
to now, sounds have been emerging from the pores of
this noble son: the word ‘emptiness,’ the word
‘unreal,’ the word ‘peace,’ and the word ‘awakened.’ Each of
these sounds has brought benefit to countless
beings.”

The Blessed One replied, “Ānanda, in a former
time, a thus-gone, worthy, perfect buddha named
Flawless Eye—a blessed buddha, perfect in wisdom and
conduct, a well-gone one, a knower of the world, a
guide who tames beings, an unsurpassed teacher of
gods and humans—appeared in the world. This noble
son attended his discourses as a monk called
Delighting in Wisdom. In the presence of that
thus-gone one, he heard words of wisdom, words
difficult to understand, words that reveal
meaning. He learned that all phenomena are without
arising and without ceasing, that all phenomena are
unreal, that all phenomena are by nature at peace,
and that all buddhas attain the same awakening.
After he heard this, for seven days, without any
slackening of effort, he tirelessly thought of
nothing else, and he physically inculcated those
four statements, keeping them firm in his mind,
considering them attentively, reciting them, and
examining them well. Seeing their truth, he attained
great realization.

“Ānanda, at that time, the karma of the
preacher-monk Delighting in Wisdom came to fruition,
and because of his physical inculcation, extensive
learning, and six years of sincerely teaching the
Dharma, thereafter, and for countless eons up until
now, sounds have been magically emitting from his
pores, and the four Dharma words that resound from
his body and bring benefit to many beings are these:
‘empty,’ ‘unreal,’ ‘peace,’ and ‘awakened.’
Ānanda, this is why for countless eons until now
these four Dharma words have come to emerge from
this child’s pores.

“Ānanda, those beings of Jambudvīpa who merely
hear the name of the bodhisattva great being Without
Reference will be very fortunate, immensely
fortunate—not to mention those who hear his Dharma
teachings. Ānanda, those gods and humans, both male
and female, who upon hearing the name of the
bodhisattva great being Without Reference develop
faith will, as soon as they hear it, gain
inconceivably numerous good qualities—not to mention
those who actually see him with their physical eyes.
Why? Because, Ānanda, the bodhisattva great being
Without Reference has attained the boundless good
qualities of the bodhisattva stages.

“Ānanda, the bodhisattva great being Without
Reference has come here because he wishes to see me,
the Thus-Gone One, passing into parinirvāṇa. So,
Ānanda, set out a seat before the Thus-Gone One for
the bodhisattva great being Without Reference to sit
upon. By doing so, you will experience benefit and
happiness for a long time, and you will swiftly gain
the higher perceptions. Ānanda, as the karmic
fruition of the act of setting out his seat, you
will easily remain in absorption, and the instant
you generate to the mind set on awakening, you will
attain the realization of the noble state of
arhatship, with the quality of being uninterested in
material things.

“Ānanda, if you were not settled with certainty
at the level of a hearer, I would prophesy that you
would also acquire the qualities of a buddha, based
on the roots of virtue of the branches of
unsurpassed, completely perfect awakening. Why?
Because, Ānanda, any monk or nun, any lay devotee,
male or female, any god, nāga, yakṣa, gandharva,
asura, garuḍa, kinnara, mahoraga, human, or
nonhuman, or any other type of being who hears this
prophetic teaching on peace will develop great
faith.

“Ānanda, those who wish to hear this prophetic
teaching on peace should arrange Dharma seats for
thus-gone ones or their disciples,
wherever they may be, to expound this teaching that
explains peace. Ānanda, as soon as such a seat is
set out for them, they will become those who assume
the ten wondrous seats. What are the ten? They are
(1) the seat of the universal monarch; (2) the seat
of Śakra; (3) the seat of Brahmā; (4) the seat of
Prajāpati; (5) the seat upon which a long succession
of thus-gone ones have taught; (6) the lion throne
upon which the empowered bodhisattva great being
takes the seat of awakening, having gone before the
Bodhi tree; (7) the unsurpassable seat of a buddha
who has realized omniscient wisdom; (8) the
unsurpassable wheel-turning throne upon which the
wheel of Dharma is turned; (9) the lion throne of
unsurpassable miracles, constructed by ten billion
gods when a thus-gone one displays miracles, that
transcends and outshines all worlds; and (10) the
final seat of a thus-gone one, upon which, at the
time of passing into parinirvāṇa, a thus-gone,
worthy, and completely perfect buddha, having fully
pacified all formations, sits in vajra-like
absorption and instills serene confidence in gods,
nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, kinnaras, mahoragas,
asuras, garuḍas, humans, and nonhumans.

“Ānanda, know that they will assume those ten
lion thrones. Ānanda, when a
thus-gone one or the disciple of a thus-gone one is to expound
this prophetic teaching on peace, any noble son or
noble daughter who, with respect and pure intention
toward the Dharma teacher, makes preparations for
the teaching with joy,
faith, and respect will also come to assume those
ten lion thrones. Ānanda, press your palms together
in the direction of the noble son Without Reference,
and it will bring you meaning, welfare, and
happiness, through which you will come to have great
merit and swiftly gain the higher perceptions.”

“Without Reference, heroic elephant,

Mighty being, gentle and imperturbable,

You shine with the light of great insight;

I bow to you with folded hands.

“Source of wisdom and diligence,

Imperturbable in your massed insight,

To this peerless support,

I bow today with folded hands.”

The Blessed One then said in verse to Venerable
Ānanda:

“Son of Gautama, I shall now tell

The karmic result

Of pressing your palms together

In veneration for Without Reference.

“Ānanda, once I have passed into parinirvāṇa,
as the karmic result of pressing your palms
together, you will act as a teacher of disciples in
villages, cities, and market towns, in the
countryside, and in kings’ palaces, and in all your
activities—whether you are entering, leaving,
standing, walking, lying down, or sitting—both
beings with sentience and inanimate things in this
world— men and women,
goddesses, carakas, parivrājakas, ascetics,
brahmins, kings, ministers, royal ministers and the
resident staff of royal ministers,
merchants, city folk and country folk, householders,
and every other type of person—will bow in your
direction. Likewise, animals of every
station—elephants, horses, deer, cows, and
birds—will be filled with faith upon seeing you.
And, likewise, grass and shrubs, medicinal plants,
canopy trees, flowering trees, and fruit trees will
bend in your direction. Likewise, even houses and
towering palaces, storied mansions, and fine houses,
even parapets, windows, and dismounting steps, will
bow in your direction, overcome by the splendor of
your merit.

“Ānanda, just as whenever a thus-gone, worthy,
completely perfect buddha attains complete
liberation, free of all obscuration—when he awakens
to complete, unsurpassed buddhahood—all the grass,
shrubs, medicinal plants, canopy trees, flowering
trees, and fruit trees in the vicinity of the seat
of awakening do as has just been described, and like
humans and nonhumans alike will bow in the direction
of the thus-gone one, in the same way, Ānanda,
because of the root of virtue of having bowed with
folded hands to the noble son Without Reference,
humans, nonhumans, and all types of plants will bow
in your direction, wherever you are, bowing low,
really bowing down.

“Ānanda, any noble sons or daughters present
now who have heard this teaching as the Thus-Gone
One passes into parinirvāṇa, who
press their palms together with sincerity and
faithfully consider it certain, will fully receive
karmic results like those I have just described.

“Ānanda, although those beings who hear this
Dharma teaching in this way or hear the sūtra even
once or twice may be few, any who hear it will
develop faith and sincere devotion, will consider it
certain, will have correct ideas about it, and will
be without hesitation, not to mention being free of
doubt. I see all those noble sons and noble
daughters with my awakened vision and know them with
my awakened wisdom. They have not venerated just a
single buddha, nor have they generated roots of
virtue toward a single buddha. All noble sons and
noble daughters, like those actually gathered around
me here and now who have come to witness my passing
into parinirvāṇa, Ānanda, will also later come to
the seat of awakening of the thus-gone, worthy,
perfect Buddha Maitreya, and they will sincerely
worship and venerate him from the time of his
unsurpassed, completely perfect awakening in
complete buddhahood until his passing into
parinirvāṇa. So will they also witness the great
parinirvāṇa of the thus-gone, worthy, perfect Buddha
Maitreya.

“These four boys will also come before that
thus-gone one, see him, and listen to the Dharma he
teaches—just as they are doing in my presence now.
At that time, too, Dharma words will resound loudly,
for all to hear, from the pores of the bodhisattva
great being Without Reference,
to the delight of those that hear them.

“So Ānanda, you should bow with folded hands
again and again to those who expound sūtras of
definitive meaning such as this, and you should have
faith. Why? Because, Ānanda, as the karmic result of
this, you will come to be venerated by all beings.
The whole world with its gods will bow before you,
and when you pass into parinirvāṇa, gods and humans
alike will worship your body.”

The Blessed One then asked Venerable Aniruddha,
“Aniruddha, did you see four hundred million gods
bowing with folded hands in the midst of the sky
when they heard this Dharma discourse?”

“Yes indeed, Blessed One.”

“Aniruddha, by the roots of virtue gained by
pressing their palms together with faith in the
Dharma and bowing their bodies low with faith, they
will not fall into bad rebirth for countless eons
but will be reborn in the company of gods and
humans. When reborn as humans, each of them will
reign as a universal monarch with domains as
numerous as the grains of sand in the river Gaṅgā,
and all will pay respects to the buddha who has
appeared in their world. They will then perfect the
roots of virtue and fully awaken to unsurpassed and
perfect awakening. All will be thus: they will be
none other than thus-gone ones, fit to be called by
the name Worthy of Bowing by all thus-gone, worthy,
perfectly buddhas that appear.”

At this time, the Malla called Joyful, the Malla
called Invincible, the Mallas Mighty,
Resplendent, Victorious God, Ascending on Shoulders,
Intelligent, Fearless, Riches, Truth, and Mighty Eye of
the North, and the Malla called All-Enduring, with an entourage of
about five hundred, joined those assembled and
worshiped the Thus-Gone One. They bowed with folded
hands toward the Blessed One and wept. Lamenting,
their eyes full of tears, they supplicated the
Blessed One: “Blessed One, to venerate the Blessed
One, the bodhisattva Without Reference, the
assembled bodhisattvas, the great saṅgha of the
Blessed One’s great disciples, and this Dharma
teaching, we bow with folded hands. Blessed One, we
dedicate all our roots of virtue to the attainment
of unsurpassed, completely perfect awakening.”

Venerable Ānanda saw this, and he entreated the
Blessed One in verse:

“For what reason do you smile,

Thus illuminating the world?

Please dispel my doubts

And those of other beings!”

The Blessed One replied, “Ānanda, did you see
those Malla sons who with sincere reverence bowed
with folded hands to me, to the bodhisattva great
being Without Reference, and to
the teachings of this discourse and generated the
mind set on complete, unsurpassed awakening?”

“I saw them, Blessed One,” replied Ānanda.

The Blessed One then spoke these verses:

“Those Malla sons have come here

With joy and
delight

And bowed with folded hands—

Did you not see, Ānanda?

“All these wise ones

Have made offerings to me,

And they joyfully speak

Of attaining supreme awakening.

“With faith in the Dharma,

In the insightful Without Reference,

And in the community of disciples,

They have pressed their palms together.

“Through this act of joining their hands

And bowing their bodies,

They will not fall into lower realms

For countless millions of eons,

“And it is certain that in the future

They will reach perfect awakening.

Were I to describe their abundance

For a billion eons,

“The activities of their sublime conduct

Could not be enumerated.

Even over millions of eons,

The task would not easily be completed.

“Ānanda, the last watch of this night will be
the last time you see me, the Awakened One.

“Ānanda, did you see that great shaft of golden
light that came from the north? Did you see how its
brilliance illuminated the entire north, all at
once, with its golden color—all the grass, bushes,
and shrubs, the vegetation, trees, and medicinal
plants, the forests, mountains, and plains, the
mansions, houses, palaces, and manors, the humans
and nonhumans, the sky, and
the entire space?”

“Yes indeed, Blessed One,” he replied.

“Ānanda, did you see the seven storied mansions
made from Jambu River gold that arrived from the
north? And did you see a beautiful, splendid, and
magnificent child sitting cross-legged in the middle
storied mansion?”

“Yes indeed, Blessed One,” he replied.

“Ānanda, this child is called Flower of
Clairvoyance. Sixty-four trillion buddha fields
north of here, in the buddha field of the thus-gone,
worthy, perfect buddha called Resting in the
Branches of Awakening, he died in Puṣpavatī and was
reborn here, in this world. Ānanda, the sounds of
the words of the branches of awakening come from
that world. There, the sounds of the words of the
branches of awakening resound from every blade of
grass, from every bush, shrub, tree, medicinal
plant, and forest. Those sounds ripen the virtuous
qualities of beings. Ānanda, the Thus-Gone One
Branches of Awakening has been sustained there for
sixty-four thousand eons since his attainment of
perfect buddhahood in unsurpassed, completely
perfect awakening. With that thus-gone one there are
no hearers, only bodhisattvas.

“Ānanda, it is like this: when, to give an
analogy, a crown-anointed king of a royal line has
many sons, his ministers are also his sons, his
ministerial advisors are also his sons, his closest
attendants are also his sons, and vassal kings are also
his sons. Likewise, the sons of that blessed one are
bodhisattvas, the ministers are
also bodhisattvas, the ministerial advisors are also
bodhisattvas, the closest attendants are
bodhisattvas, and everyone in his service is a
bodhisattva. So his Saṅgha consists of nothing but
bodhisattvas. So, Ānanda, that world is rich,
prosperous, and happy, with good crops and full of
joyous creatures and many people, and the
bodhisattvas assembled there have the exalted higher
perceptions. Only bodhisattvas—with the boundless
qualities of bodhisattvas—live there, in accordance
with their age, settling in deep absorption,
ascending by stages to the summit of insight,
correctly accumulating wisdom, earnestly developing
the mind set on awakening, and striving to realize
omniscient wisdom. Ānanda, such is the world from
which this noble son, the bodhisattva Flower of
Clairvoyance, came to take birth in this world of
Jambudvīpa, in Vaiśālī—from a world filled with
nothing but bodhisattva great beings.

“Ānanda, the miracles displayed by this noble
son as he came here to bow at my, the Thus-Gone
One’s, feet and to witness my, the Thus-Gone One’s,
passing into great parinirvāṇa, this great
apparition, Ānanda, comes from the power of that
thus-gone, worthy, completely perfect buddha.
Ānanda, the seven storied mansions made of Jambu
River gold emanated by that blessed one illustrate
the seven branches of awakening.

“Ānanda, this child is accompanied in
Jambudvīpa by many trillions of beings who have
cultivated roots of virtue. As soon as this child
was born in Jambudvīpa, gods and humans were joyful,
and as they experienced the greatest elation, some among them
exhausted their defilements, while others were
established at the level of training. Some who had
never before generated it generated the mind set on
unsurpassed, completely perfect awakening, and some,
as soon as they generated the mind set on awakening,
gained acceptance of irreversibility.

“Ānanda, the central storied mansion emitting
light, in which this child was sitting cross-legged,
was emanated by that thus-gone one, and the other
six lavish storied mansions came from that. Ānanda,
in this way, that thus-gone one and the bodhisattva
great being Flower of Clairvoyance were able to
suffuse this entire world system with light. By
correctly upholding the Dharma, look at the power
they have to benefit countless beings!”

All the boys then gathered together and
rejoiced, surrounded by many hundreds of thousands
of beings as they touched the feet of the Blessed
One, immediately causing a rain of many kinds of
flowers to fall.

The Blessed One then said to Venerable Ānanda,
“Due to the bodhisattva great being Flower of
Clairvoyance’s magical emanation of storied mansions
made of Jambu River gold, millions upon billions of
beings have been tamed into the state of arhatship;
millions upon billions of beings have been tamed to
the level of training; a billion beings have gained
faith in the Three Jewels and have committed to the
five basic precepts; seventy million one hundred
gods have been firmly established in awakening with
certainty in their irreversibility on the path to
unsurpassed, completely perfect awakening; seventy
million gods have been firmly established in
acceptance of the unborn nature of phenomena; and
countless millions upon billions of beings have seen
Maitreya’s assembly and later, when fully matured,
will see and meet Maitreya.

“Ānanda, whatever a thus-gone one can do for
the benefit of beings and whatever a thus-gone one’s
heart sons, the bodhisattva great beings, can do for
the benefit of beings has already been done by me
and by these ones. Whatever I can do for the benefit
of beings, I have already done.”

Venerable Ānanda then entreated the Blessed
One, “Blessed One, for the love of beings, please
stay for an eon, or for more than an eon! Why?
Because if the blessed, thus-gone, worthy, perfect
Buddha were to remain in this world, we would
continue to see sublime beings like these. If
virtuous beings such as these come to Jambudvīpa and
we look upon such sublime beings, we will have the
opportunity to serve them. Discourses like this one
will proliferate in the world, extensive discourses
of the Buddha’s Dharma such as this will be heard,
and we will witness various miraculous
manifestations such as those displayed by these
blessed ones and noble sons. If the Thus-Gone One
passes into parinirvāṇa, we will surely lose three
great things. What three? Looking upon the Buddha,
hearing his sublime Dharma, and looking upon and
serving a sublime being such as this, inclined
toward the vast. These will be lost. That is
why!”

The bodhisattva great being Sucintitārtha then
spoke to Venerable Ānanda in verse:

“You do not seem to have understood the point

Of composite things being impermanent!

Since everything composite is impermanent,

Do not grieve, Ānanda!

“Examination shows that there are only composite
things—

You have not even understood that!

Phenomena are empty, Ānanda,

So why do you grieve?

“Examination shows that knowledge is empty

And that awakening is empty of all knowledge.

If the buddha cannot be found,

Why do you grieve, Ānanda?

“Since things are like the sky,

Or like reflections on water,

They are unanalyzable, nonconceptual—

So do not conceptualize, wise one!

“Like the delightful conjurations of a skilled
magician—

Carriages pulled by horses and elephants,

Hosts of creatures, and all manner of plants,

Flowers, and fruits—

“So, too, are all composite things,

Like these illusions, without essence.

The Buddha and his disciples are no
different;

Such is the way things are.”

Venerable Ānanda then replied in verse to the
noble son Sucintitārtha:

“It is just as you have said:

All phenomena lack characteristics.

But today is the last time

I will hear the best of teachings.

“How can I enter Śrāvastī?

What should I say when I am asked,

‘Ānanda, where will the perfect Buddha
reside?

From where will the seer arrive?’

“How can I look upon the perfumed chamber

When the supreme one is not there?

How can I maintain good discipline

When I look upon an empty throne?”

Then the noble son Thoroughly at Peace spoke to
Venerable Ānanda in verse:

“Even after ten million years,

The truth will be extremely hard to find.

So investigate carefully, Ānanda,

Since the field of phenomena is difficult to see.

“Just as you can peel layers

From the trunk of a plantain tree

And find no core within,

Such is the nature of phenomena.

“Just as bubbles briefly form

When rain falls on water—

They are born and then they cease—

Such is the material reality of this life.

“Just as when you look for an essence

Within a swelling mass of foam

No essence is found,

So is it with everything in this life.

“Just as an image reflected in a mirror

Lacks an essential nature,

So is it with the three realms,

So do not cry, learned one!”

Venerable Ānanda then replied to the noble son
Thoroughly at Peace in verse:

“Learned one, it is not that I

Do not understand what you say,

For in the discourses, the mighty sage has
taught

That the entire triple world is unreal.

“But it is the weeping of ten million gods,

Crying, weeping, and choked with tears,

Coming before me

That has caused me pain.

“The seer abandons me!

When the perfect Buddha leaves,

Where will I go?

Who will protect me?

“Alas! The Buddha is so rare.

To whom will I make offerings?

From whom will I hear the sublime Dharma,

The teachings on profound peace, so hard to
find?”

The bodhisattva great being Without Reference
then spoke in verse to Venerable Ānanda:

“Get up, honorable Ānanda!

Since there is nothing that comes,

There is also nothing that goes,

So do not be upset; consider the true nature!

“The way a buddha is born

Is like his awakening;

The way he turns the wheel

Is like his passing into nirvāṇa.

“A buddha is never born,

Nor does a buddha ever cease.

This is the nature of all phenomena,

So why are you crying, Ānanda?

“Listen to these four words

That issue from my pores:

‘Emptiness,’ ‘unreal,’

‘Peace,’
‘awakened.’ ”

Venerable Ānanda replied to the noble son
Without Reference in verse:

“Well-disciplined ones such as yourself

Will soon be going to other realms.

There, too, you will see a perfect buddha

Who teaches with nectar-like words.

“There you will hear the profound Dharma

Taught by an awakened one,

And there you will also see bodhisattvas,

The supreme saṅgha of the buddhas.

“But, learned one,

How can I stay here,

Escorted by many millions of lamenting gods, and
say

‘The world protector has passed away’?

“Many thousands of lay devotees

Are weeping desperately.

When they come to me,

How shall I answer them?

“Hosts of gods have come here—

From the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, the Heaven
without Conflict,

The Heaven of Joy, The Heaven of Good
Emanation,

The Heaven of Mastery over Others’ Emanations,
the Brahmā realms and so on.

“If the greatest of the Śākyas passes,

How will I raise myself up

And, in front of them,

Dare to preach the sublime Dharma?

“If the noble one, the supreme one, passes,

When the gods ask me,

‘Ānanda, where is the guide?’

How should I reply?

“ ‘The guide is in profound concentration,’

‘He abides in a state of great merit,’

‘He is immersed in meditation’?

Or should I say he is out walking, or that he is
here?”

The noble son Flower of Clairvoyance then spoke
to Venerable Ānanda in verse:

“Three months from now,

You will see me again.

I make this promise to you,

So let it go, Ānanda, and do not cry!

“On your behalf, I will request

Thousands of other buddhas

To expound the supreme Dharma

Taught by the crown ornament of the Śākyas.

“The perfect buddhas will watch over you with
compassion;

They shall come before you.

And you will serve those supreme humans well,

So do not cry at this, Ānanda!

“Whenever a teacher such as this

Passes from the world,

It is reasonable for the world with its gods

To mourn him greatly.

“Yet as I have heard the Buddha say,

All composite things, sustained over millions of
eons,

Are eventually destroyed;

I heard this directly from the teacher.”

Venerable Ānanda then sat behind the Thus-Gone
One and let out a piteous cry three times.

“Who will grant sight

To those who are blind?

The protector of all beings,

Our teacher, will pass into nirvāṇa today!”

“When he hears

That the guide has passed away,

The great king, son of Vaidehī,

Will be deeply distraught.

“The Malla men and women,

The Malla children, too, will be unable to bear
it;

On hearing ‘the best of men is passing,’

All shall weep pitifully.

“To see their teacher for the last time,

They have hastened here.

Bowing low with folded hands,

They pay homage with their bows.

“For five leagues all around,

The area is filled with gods and yakṣas,

So humans can find no space

Anywhere, all around.

“As an offering to the sublime sage,

A rain of fragrant flowers falls,

Piling high, hiding their knees,

And there falls a rain of powders too.

“Then Nanda and Upananda,

With six hundred million nāgas,

Came to see the teacher for the last time,

To witness his parinirvāṇa.

“The great nāgas Varuṇa,

Manasvin, Sāgara,

Huluka, and Mucilinda,

Escorted by billions of nāgas—

“As they came to see the teacher for the last
time,

Gathering clouds of fragrant mist

That veiled the sky

Descended like rain.

“As an offering to the protector of the world,

Both gods and nāgas

Have showered rains of divine flowers

And pure, fragrant water.

“The nāga king Anavatapta,

With six hundred million,

Released a rain of jewels

As he arrived before the leader of men.

“The great nāga Elāpatra,

Crying a great mountain of tears,

Has come to make offerings,

For the last time, to the protector of the
world.

“Throngs of female nāgas,

Hundreds of billions of them,

Filling clouds with their voices,

Have arrived before the teacher,

“Releasing a great rain

Of pure, scented water

As a final offering

To the protector of the world.

“Hosts of yakṣas,

Thousands of billions of them,

Recalling the Buddha’s qualities,

Have also come to watch.

“The Four Great Kings, too,

Crying and choked with tears,

Have arrived before the Buddha

To see their teacher one last time.

“Śakra, too, lord of gods,

Escorted by thirty-three thousand

From the Heaven of the Thirty-Three,

Has arrived before the perfect Buddha,

“Showering rains

Of mandāra flowers

And powders of divine sandalwood

As an offering to the sublime sage.

“The brahmās Bhṛgu and Śikhin,

Both escorted by brahmās,

Have also come, sobbing,

To see their teacher one last time.

“Many billions of majestic gods

From the pure abodes,

Saying, ‘The Victor will pass away today,’

And sobbing, have also come.

“Many billions of gods,

Lamenting in all manner of ways,

Have beseeched him in his great concentration:

‘Best of men, please stay for an eon!’

“A wise son of Māra

Known as Sārthavāha

Has also come in great agitation,

Saying ‘the best of men will pass into
nirvāṇa.’

“He, too, has bowed to his feet,

Begging him with these words:

‘Light of the Śākyas, for love of the world,

Please stay for an eon!’

“If the perfect Buddha stays,

It will be of inconceivable benefit

To the lords of both gods and humans.

Great sage, please stay for an eon!”

“Have you all lost your minds,

To cry and wail like this—

You are all ignorant fools;

This is how monkeys behave!

“You whine piteously

Like mindless pigs

Woken from sleep

By the slashing of blades.

“Those who in the past have been overcome by
carelessness

Have not been able to hear Dharma teachings.

You are all like them!

This is what I have to say:

“Today, the lamp of wisdom

Will disappear from this world;

Alas, the victor will pass,

So do good deeds!”

The Blessed One then said to Venerable
Aniruddha, Venerable Pūrṇamaitrāyaṇīputra, Venerable
Subhūti, Venerable Amogharāja, the elder
Kāśyapakumāra, and the elder Mahākauṣṭhila, “Monks,
place your right hands in the hand of the Thus-Gone
One.”

“Yes of course, Blessed One,” they replied, and
they did as the Blessed One told them.

A hundred thousand monks then each raised their
hands to the Blessed One’s hand. Taking all those
monks by the hand with his left hand, and with his
right taking Ānanda and Rāhula by the hand, he said
to the monks and elders, “Good Ānanda and glorious
Rāhula are hereby entrusted and invested,” and with
his hand he pressed the hands of those monks.

At that moment, right then, at that very
instant, five hundred blessed buddhas, while
remaining in their own pure buddha fields, extended
their right arms and bowed low toward the Blessed
One. The Blessed One, taking Ānanda, Rāhula, and the
elders by the hand, raised his other hand in
greeting to those thus-gone ones, and the Blessed
One spoke these verses:

“Rāhula is my own son,

Ānanda is my attendant;

I have fully invested

These two great sages.

“Tonight will be my last night

Here in this world.

Neither gods, nāgas, nor humans

Will henceforth see me again.

“Apart from those protectors of the world,

Whose love is inconceivable,

Who will protect all the others

And be their refuge and last resort?

“If, for the sake of single being,

I stay many thousands of eons,

As many eons as there are

Grains of sand in the river Gaṅgā,

“If I watch out for world systems

Inconceivably limitless in number,

Why would I not have seen

Any beings living here?

“I have benefited those beings

Who respect this Dharma;

Those others, of weak intellect,

Could not be tamed by ten million buddhas.”

Then those five hundred blessed buddhas spoke
in verse:

“You have done so much to help beings:

You have performed all the deeds of a buddha,

You have displayed miracles,

And you have sounded the great Dharma drum.

“Protector, lion of the Śākyas,

Like a cloud passing over the vast earth

You have nourished millions of beings

And removed their pain.”

“With your awakened splendor,

May you seers watch over us for eons!

May you guides remain with us for eons!

We beseech you, great heroes!

“If perfect buddhas, the best of humans,

Remain with great insight,

Inconceivable good will accrue

For many millions of beings.

“The hosts of gods will increase,

Asuras will decrease,

And hearers and bodhisattvas

Will be inconceivable in number.”

The five hundred blessed buddhas then replied
to Venerable Ānanda and Venerable Rāhula, “Noble
sons, enough weeping! Enough lamenting! Do not
grieve, stop lamenting! This is the nature of
composite things. There is an end. There is
departure. There is no permanence for the composite
things that arise. This is the way of phenomena, and
so the thus-gone ones have relinquished all that is
composite. They have no control over those
things—they do not even think of having control over
them. Noble sons, either you will come to our buddha
fields or the thus-gone ones will extend their arms,
and their illuminating light will bring you here. So
even if you stay here, you will be taught directly
from the lips of the thus-gone ones, and the sublime
Dharma will be set forth for you. So do not grieve!”

Then at that moment, the Blessed One entered
into absorption, and as he rested with his mind in
equipoise, billions upon billions of light rays
radiated from the big toe of his right foot, from
the thumb of his right hand, and likewise from both
on the left; from all the limbs of his body, from
his minor appendages, from the wheel marks that
adorned the soles of his two feet, from the
copper-colored fingernails of his smooth, webbed
fingers, from the fine lines of his long, broad
hands, and likewise from all his
major marks; and from the maṇḍala of his navel, from
the vicinity of his private parts, from his face,
and from between his eyebrows. At the tip of each
ray of light were billions upon billions of lotuses.
At the center of each lotus were billions upon
billions of lion thrones, and upon each lion throne
sat a thus-gone one, teaching the Dharma in the form
of a buddha. And each of the emanated thus-gone ones
were taming many billions of beings so as to exhaust
their defilements, and some were tamed to the level
of freedom from desire.

Then from the crown of the Blessed One’s head
radiated a trillion rays of light, each with
billions upon billions of lotuses at their tip. At
the center of each lotus appeared billions upon
billions of lion thrones, and upon each lion throne
sat a thus-gone one, teaching the Dharma in the form
of a buddha. The thus-gone ones did not speak other
than to thoroughly teach the Dharma discourses of
the Bodhisattva Collection, dhāraṇīs,
vajrapadas, the purity of the three
spheres, and the powers and
fearlessnesses of a buddha. And each of those
emanated thus-gone ones, by teaching the Dharma,
firmly established many billions of beings who had
purified themselves at the level of irreversibility
on the path to unsurpassed, completely perfect
awakening.

Then the Blessed One, while magically
displaying himself lying down on the Thus-Gone One’s
right side upon a lion couch, between a pair of śāla
trees in the country of the Mallas, went to where
beings were dwelling in the Great Reviving Hell and
radiated light from each of his bodies. As soon as
he emitted this light, all those hell beings
dwelling in the Great Reviving Hell were
illuminated. Then the Blessed One, while
illuminating the hell beings dwelling in the Great
Reviving Hell with this light, spoke these
verses:

“Beings here are killed and revived

Over and over again.

With this as their most basic experience,

They suffer tremendous agonies.

“When the world protector, the maker of
light,

Appeared in this world,

He taught the sublime Dharma

That is uncorrupted and unceasing.

“It brings an end to suffering,

Is inexhaustible and beyond grasping,

And, when fully understood,

Ensures an end to all bad rebirth.”

“We have discovered the noble Dharma,

Inexhaustible, free from grasping,

Unceasing, and uncorrupted;

Now we are soothed, our pain transcended.

“With understanding, he discovered the way things
are.

Knowing beings’ abilities,

He teaches causes and conditions.

He has a deep love for beings.

“The omniscient one removes our pain.

He nourishes us, he gives us the cure.

The perfect Buddha has tamed us.

He has shown us how to transcend suffering.

“Our eyes, our lamp,

Will very soon pass away.

Who then will liberate millions of beings

From the torment of being continuously
revived?

“He is the great physician who removes all
pain,

The sustainer of all that lives,

Who nourishes beings

And ensures an end to bad rebirth.”

The Blessed One then took a place at the edge
of the Great Black Line Hell and radiated a great
light that lit up the beings living there, releasing
many thousands and sending them to the higher
realms. In the same way, he released many thousands
of beings from the Great Crushing Hell, the Wailing
Hell, the Great Wailing Hell, the Hell of Heat, and
the Hell of Intense Heat. He sent them to the higher
realms and established them on the path that
transcends suffering. At that moment, right then, at
that very instant, many billions of beings living in
the hell realms died and were reborn among the gods
in the Heaven of Joy, and as soon as they were born
there, those gods could perfectly recall the
teachings they had previously received and attained
the level of nonreturning. Then, when those gods who
had received the teachings had understood them and
deeply inculcated them, they spoke these verses:

“Just as when traveling through a remote and
empty place

A fearless caravan leader

Can keep many beings

Free from the danger of bandits,

“So does the unsurpassable caravan leader,

The blessed Buddha,

Free millions of beings

From the prison of cyclic existence.

“Awakening great compassion,

He has freed us from our suffering.

Unsurpassable caravan leader, maker of light,

Awakened One, we take refuge in you!

“We also take refuge

In the Dharma, which has touched us deeply,

And in the noble Saṅgha, the supreme assembly

Inconceivably rich in good qualities.”

“Those who have fully understood

That phenomena are empty, signless,

Unborn, and unconstructed

Are free from fears of the lower realms.”

When those words, unimpeded in the three times
and rich in a hundred thousand qualities, reached
their ears, eight trillion beings in the Great Hell
of Unceasing Torture died and were reborn equal in
fortune to the gods in the Heaven of Mastery over
Others’ Emanations.

The Blessed One then went to the Brahmā realms
and spoke these verses:

“Those who do not experience suffering

Are supremely happy.

All names, conventional designations,

And conceptions are invalid.

“Those who can firmly abandon them

Will be free from suffering.

For them, even all conceptions

Of the formless realm will be invalid.

“Suffering increases exponentially

When one dies over and over again,

Taking a new rebirth each time;

What happiness is there in the three realms?

“Those who understand the empty to be empty

Do not conceive of even the empty.

Those who do not perceive emptiness

Are those who know emptiness.

“Those who understand this point of doctrine

Will not find a self,

For there is no self to be found—

So where can suffering arise?

“Those who teach the selflessness of
phenomena

And that they are empty, free of grasping,

And devoid of characteristics

Are sons born from the hearts of the
buddhas.”

Then, those gods who had reached the state of
arhatship uttered this verse:

“Tamer of beings, helmsman, best of humans,

Maker of light, great illuminator,

We will pass beyond,

Just as we see you passing into nirvāṇa.”

The Blessed One then thought, “This night, I,
the thus-gone, worthy, completely perfect Buddha,
will pass into parinirvāṇa during the last watch of
the night. Since this will be my last teaching, I
will bring joy to beings
with a great miracle that only the Thus-Gone One can
manifest. It will make them happy, it will quell
their suffering, so that all beings will merge
unobstructedly with the nature of the Thus-Gone One.
I will show them how the Buddha passes into
parinirvāṇa.”

The Blessed One then lay on his right side.
With the fearlessness of a lion and the gaze of an
elephant, he looked out over all beings in the ten
directions and pierced the earth with the big toe of
his right foot. At this strike, the earth let out a
huge roar and shook in six different ways.
Inconceivable quantities of light filled worlds in
the ten directions, illuminating them all without
obstruction. Rays of light flooded from the Blessed
One’s body, and rays as numerous as the grains of
sand in the river Gaṅgā poured from every pore. Each
of those rays of light in turn emitted further rays
of light as numerous as the grains of sand in the
river Gaṅgā, and each of those rays of light in turn
illuminated as many buddha fields as there are
grains of sand in the river Gaṅgā. The rays of light
did not merge with one another but shone
continuously from every pore, completely
illuminating every world system. With the Blessed
One’s manifestation of such a miraculous display,
all those beings became endowed with the eye of
awakening and realized the detailed vision of
awakening by means of the Buddha’s power and
blessings. Everyone could clearly see all the buddha
fields illuminated by the light of the Blessed
One.

“Yes, Blessed One,” replied the monks.

“Yes, Blessed One,” replied the monks.

He continued:

“Those who clearly understand the Dharma,

As inexhaustible, free of
grasping,

Unceasing, and uncorrupted,

Will not experience bad rebirth.”

The Blessed One then illuminated the
beings dwelling in the eight great hells with a very
gentle, delightful, and pleasant golden-colored
light, born from love and compassion, that pacified their
suffering, pleased their eyes, enchanted their
hearts and eyes, soothed them, and filled their
bodies with ease. The waves of light rays that
radiated from the pores of his skin thoroughly
quelled the burning torments of those in the great
hells and instilled happiness in them. The Blessed
One drenched the bodies of those beings with this
light, soothing them physically and mentally, making
them fit again, and then, with speech endowed with
many hundreds of thousands of good qualities, he
spoke these verses:

“I bring happiness to the world;

I put an end to suffering.

I have shown complete peace

To those who are physically weary.

“What I have taught is the Dharma that is hard to
find,

The Dharma of peace and happiness;

Those who understand it

Will not experience bad rebirth.

“Those who have found it,

Who have taken refuge in the Buddha,

Will henceforth not endure suffering

For thousands of eons.”

As soon as the Blessed One had spoken these
verses, at that moment, right then, at that very
instant, a great number of monks and an immeasurable
number of blessed buddhas simultaneously, right
then, at that very instant, having lain down on
their right sides upon lion couches, also got up
again, and all of them also displayed miracles like
these.

The four communities then asked the Blessed
One, “Blessed One, why did all those blessed buddhas
display such miracles just now? Why, just like the
Blessed One, did they all display such miracles at
the very moment, the very instant of passing into
parinirvāṇa?”

The Blessed One replied, “It is so, monks: all those blessed
buddhas leaving their final existence today will
pass into parinirvāṇa. All those thus-gone ones are
none other than he who bears the name Śākyamuni. All
of them have lain down on their right sides upon a
lion couch between two śāla trees within the country
of the Mallas. All of them will pass into
parinirvāṇa today, during the last watch of the
night.”

The Blessed One continued, “Monks, do you see
to the east all the countless, immeasurable blessed
buddhas about to awaken to unsurpassed, completely
perfect awakening? Monks, in the south, the west,
and the north, in the intermediate directions, and
below and above, do you see countless, immeasurable
blessed buddhas about to awaken to unsurpassed,
completely perfect awakening?”

The Blessed One continued, “Monks, it is like
this; consider this analogy: if you were to fill the
space from the ocean that surrounds the four great
continents of this world to the upper limit of the
Brahmā realms with the tiniest particles, do you
think it would be possible to measure those
particles, to count them, to approximate them, or to
precisely quantify them?”

“No Blessed One,” they replied.

He continued, “Monks, it is so: if, to give an
analogy, a world such as this with its four great
continents were entirely filled with tiny particles,
that is how many blessed buddhas I see to the east
when I look with my ordinary eye of flesh. It is like, for
example, seeing something up close, just a yoke
away, without conceptual thought, not seen from afar
but directly, with unimpaired eyes. So too in the
south, in the west, in the north, in the
intermediate directions, and below and above.

“Indeed monks, it is so: to the east I see
blessed buddhas as numerous as the tiny particles it
would take to completely fill a hundred thousand
worlds from the oceans that surround the four great
continents to the upper limits of the Brahmā
realms—those who are about to sit and those who are
seated at the seat of awakening, all of whom are
none other than blessed buddhas who bear the name
Śākyamuni. Likewise, I see as many blessed buddhas
who bear the name Dīpaṅkara, who bear the name
Sarvābhibhū, who bear the name Padmottama, who bear
the name Atyuccagāmin, who bear the name Yaśottara,
who bear the name Krakucchanda, who bear the name
Kanakamuni, and who bear the name Kāśyapa.

“Likewise, I also see blessed buddhas known by
a variety of other names, active in this world with
the Dharma that is vast, diverse, and supreme. I see
blessed buddhas known by different names living and
thriving now. I see blessed buddhas with such names
who are yet to pass into parinirvāṇa, who are still
living, turning the wheel of Dharma. They all
clearly appear to my unobscured, unimpeded, and
unattached ordinary eye of flesh. This is how the
Thus-Gone One knows. But the Thus-Gone One knows
more, much more than that—what he knows is
inconceivable, inconceivably greater than that. It
is superior, far superior to that; it is
unfathomable, unfathomably greater than that.

“With my ordinary eye of flesh, I see that the
number of thus-gone ones is immeasurable, infinite,
unfathomable, and uncountable, not to mention the
qualities of those buddhas.

“Monks, it is so: for comparison, consider
householders or renunciates who for an entire eon
have venerated, served, honored, worshiped, revered,
supplicated, and made inconceivable quantities of
various offerings to perfect buddhas as numerous as
all the beings in this buddha field who have reached
unsurpassed, completely perfect awakening and
developed the ten powers and the fearlessnesses.
Compared to them, a noble son or noble daughter who
develops faith, even for an instant, in this Dharma
teaching as discerned and taught by all the buddhas,
and who with a mind free of doubt develops the right
understanding of it will, as soon as this is
developed, produce a much greater amount of merit
and will come closer to the many buddha qualities.
Even if all the beings of this great trichiliocosm
spent an eon revering those who have attained
omniscience, they would not generate as much merit.
Any bodhisattva great being who cultivates devoted
interest in this wisdom will not only come closer to
the blessed buddhas, but they will also come closer
to unsurpassed, completely perfect awakening.”

Then wicked Māra became dispirited and
distressed. Weeping and choked with tears, he
complained to the Blessed One, “Blessed One, I do
not want beings to ever escape my grasp. Thus-gone,
worthy, perfect Buddha, you wish to pass into
parinirvāṇa for their sake. You never diminish, so
you have a lifespan that lets you remain for eons,
yet before dawn, before sunlight spreads across the
land, you will have established countless beings in
nirvāṇa. Blessed Thus-Gone One, you will empty my
domain!”

The Blessed One replied to wicked Māra, “Wicked
one, those who do not fully strive for virtuous
qualities and those who do not cultivate faith in
the domain of the Thus-Gone One will be your
companions, and you, too, will be their companion.
You will have many to keep you company, so do not
weep! Wicked one, stop wailing!”

The Blessed One then reached down to the
ground, and picking up some dust with the tip of his
fingernail, he asked wicked Māra, “Wicked one, what
do you think? Is there more dust on the tip of my
fingernail or covering this vast earth?”

The Blessed One then said to wicked Māra,
“Wicked one, as in this analogy, the sentient beings
whose afflictions I have exhausted and established
individually in unsurpassable parinirvāṇa are far
fewer than the particles of dust on the tip of my
fingernail, and as in this analogy, wicked one,
beings far more numerous than the particles of dust
covering this vast earth have gone to your domain.
So, since the realms of beings are limitless, you
should be happy, wicked one! Indeed, wicked one, how
long such beings remain depends on what they
themselves do; there is nothing even you can do
about it. So, wicked one, since there are countless
realms of beings like this, do what you will with
them! The Thus-Gone One will pass into parinirvāṇa
during the last watch of this night.”

The Blessed One then asked the monks, “Monks,
do you see the blessed buddhas?”

“Yes indeed, Blessed One,” they replied.

The Blessed One said, “Even more than this, you
will see that they are utterly limitless. Do you
also see the world systems of the blessed buddhas
and their wondrous buddha fields? Do you see the
great arrays of the bodhisattvas and the excellences
of the hearers?”

“Yes indeed, Blessed One. Yes indeed, Well-Gone
One,” they replied.

The Blessed One continued, “Monks, the knowledge of
the Thus-Gone One extends even beyond that; his
knowledge is utterly infinite. Monks, the abundance
of thus-gone ones and the abundance of buddha fields
I see in world systems in the ten directions are so
numerous that even if I were to spend an eon, a
hundred eons, a thousand eons, a hundred thousand
eons, ten million eons, a billion eons, or more
describing them thoroughly and in great detail and
with analogies, the task would still be incomplete.
Monks, what I have to teach you, my disciples, I have
already taught. I have held nothing back. I have
taught you the entirety of the Dharma in all its
aspects, inside and out. There is not even the tip
of a blade of grass worth of teachings you have yet
to receive, so now it is up to you to be diligent! I
have taught you the Dharma of nirvāṇa, I have shown
you the path that leads beyond suffering, I have
produced roots of virtue that are extremely hard for
beings to produce, and I have achieved unsurpassed,
completely perfect awakening. Now you must all do
likewise and under no circumstances let the
teachings be spoiled!”

The Blessed One then performed a miracle such
that by the performance of this miracle the Dharma
being taught by blessed buddhas in world systems in
the ten directions could be heard by the beings in
this buddha field. Those beings as numerous as the
grains of sand in the river Gaṅgā who fully
understood the Dharma taught by those blessed
buddhas were firmly established in the three
vehicles; ten trillion were firmly established in
the state of unsurpassed, completely perfect
awakening; ten billion beings were established in
solitary awakening; and an even greater
number reached the state in which defilements are
exhausted. The teachings likewise benefited
immeasurable, uncountable, infinite, and
inconceivable billions of other beings.

The Blessed One then said to the monks, “Monks,
I will now pass into parinirvāṇa. Henceforth, you must
do whatever you can to protect the teachings of the
Buddha. Monks, in order to take care of yourselves and benefit others, you must train in this way.”

Colophon

Notes

Kangyur editions

C
Choné

D
Degé

L

London (Shelkar)

N
Narthang

J

Lithang

H
Zhol/Lhasa

Bibliography

Tibetan

Sources

Chinese

Sources

Western Language

Sources

powers

Siṃhanāda