大寶積經

Vajrapani, the Mighty Vajra-Wielder, said to Bodhisattva Tranquil Resolve: “The bodhisattva went beneath the Bodhi tree to attain the Buddha path. Before the Tathagata, the Perfectly True One, had turned the Dharma wheel and opened the path for sentient beings, he had already liberated immeasurably more beings than the number liberated from the time of his initial aspiration for the path until he sat beneath the Bodhi tree.

When the Tathagata, the Perfectly True One, had just attained Buddhahood, Brahma King Wondrous Consciousness, accompanied by sixty-eight myriads of kotis of millions of hundreds of thousands of Brahma gods, came to the Buddha. They bowed their heads at his feet, circumambulated him seven times to the right, stood reverently before him, and said:

‘May the Great Compassionate One turn the Dharma wheel and proclaim the teaching of the path. Many sentient beings worthy of liberation will be able to understand, accept, and practice the Dharma when they hear the Buddha teach it.’

O Tranquil Resolve! Just as Brahma King Wondrous Consciousness earnestly entreated the Blessed One to turn the Dharma wheel, so too did one billion Brahma gods, one billion Sakra Devanam Indras, and one billion hundreds of thousands of millions of bodhisattvas entreat the Blessed One to turn the Dharma wheel.

When the Blessed One was about to turn the Dharma wheel, Brahma King Wondrous Consciousness went to the Deer Park at Varanasi and prepared a magnificent jeweled lion throne, 3,280 miles high.

The one billion Brahma gods, one billion Sakra Devanam Indras, and one billion hundreds of thousands of millions of bodhisattvas likewise prepared lion thrones for the Blessed One, all equal in height and breadth. Each thought: ‘The Tathagata will sit upon my lion throne to turn the Dharma wheel.’

The Tathagata went to the Deer Park at Varanasi and sat upon a lion throne.

All the Brahma gods, Sakras, and bodhisattvas thought that the Tathagata was sitting solely upon their own lion throne.

As soon as the Tathagata was seated, the limitless Buddha lands throughout the ten directions quaked in six ways.

The Tathagata entered the samadhi of the Boundless Realm.

At once, the entire great trichiliocosm became as level as the palm of a hand. All sentient beings in the hells, among animals and hungry ghosts, in the heavens, and among humankind became peaceful and secure. Free from lust, anger, and delusion, their illness of the three poisons was dispelled. Their minds became pure, and they loved one another as fathers, mothers, children, brothers, and sisters.

Countless bodhisattvas came from limitless Buddha lands throughout the ten directions to hear the Buddha teach the Dharma.

Throughout the great trichiliocosm, boundless devas, nagas, gandharvas, asuras, garudas, kimnaras, mahoragas, humans, and nonhumans all came before the Buddha, wishing to hear the scriptures and the Dharma.

The assembly filled the entire great trichiliocosm, leaving no space even the breadth of a hair. All the listeners were single-mindedly thirsting for the Dharma of the path.

Seeing that the great assembly had fully gathered, the Blessed One turned the Dharma wheel. For the sramanas, brahmins, devas, Mara kings, Great Brahma kings, and laypeople, he proclaimed the true Dharma in accordance with the time, their capacities, and the minds of sentient beings, enabling them all to understand, awaken to, and practice the Dharma of the path:

The faculty of the eye is impermanent. Clearly knowing the faculty of the eye to be impermanent accords with the discipline and teaching. The faculty of the eye is painful and has no self. It is like an illusion, a magical apparition, a mirage, the moon’s reflection, a dream, a shadow, or an echo. By following this discipline and teaching, one undertakes the practice of emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness. The faculty of the eye is originally empty, quiescent, and serene, arising in dependence upon conditions.

The faculties of the ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind are likewise. All are impermanent. Upon hearing impermanence taught, one understands them to be suffering, devoid of self, quiescent and serene, empty, signless, and wishless. Because they are not fully understood, they arise in dependence upon conditions.

The five skandhas are impermanent. Although five kinds are spoken of, they are all impermanent. Upon hearing that the five skandhas are impermanent, one understands that they are empty.

The six sense objects and the four great elements are likewise.

The four foundations of mindfulness, four right efforts, four bases of spiritual power, five faculties, five powers, seven factors of awakening, and Noble Eightfold Path: upon hearing of these thirty-seven aids to the path, one understands impermanence and emptiness and thereby follows the discipline and teaching.

Those who delight in the sravaka path do not delight in the pratyekabuddha path. Those who delight in the pratyekabuddha path do not seek the sravaka path. Those devoted to the two vehicles do not teach the Mahayana. If the Mahayana is proclaimed and they hear its meaning and purport, they no longer delight in hearing teachings concerning sravakas and pratyekabuddhas.

O Tranquil Resolve! The Tathagata turns the Dharma wheel in accordance with the inclinations of sentient beings’ minds, enabling them all to attain liberation. Even one possessing wisdom like Sariputra, though contemplating for hundreds of thousands of years the entry into the meaning of the path practiced in former lives, could not fathom it—how much less could anyone else.

When this account was given of the bodhisattva’s arrival beneath the Bodhi tree, his subjugation of Mara, attainment of the path, and turning of the Dharma wheel, eighty-four thousand people in the great assembly generated the aspiration for unsurpassed bodhi.”

At that time, Vajrapani, the Mighty Vajra-Wielder, came forward and said to the Buddha: “Blessed One! In proclaiming just now the essential secrets of the Tathagata, have I avoided error and the slandering of the Tathagata?

The essential secrets of the Tathagata are exceedingly profound, wondrous, vast, and boundless, and are difficult for the world to believe.

Although I have spoken of the Tathagata’s essential secrets, I remember within my own mind that it was the Tathagata’s wisdom that entered my body; it was not my own power.”

The Buddha said: “It is exactly so. It is as Vajrapani has said. Wherever the Tathagata’s wisdom of the path enters, there is no one who does not attain peace and security. When the Buddha’s disciples proclaim the scriptures, they all rely upon the awesome spiritual power of the Tathagata.

Because the Tathagata’s profound and wondrous wisdom of the path enters the body devoid of dharmas, there is no one who does not penetrate and comprehend it.

Never before has there been such a thing as enabling sentient beings themselves to establish the Tathagata’s true Dharma, proclaim its meaning, and gather beings into it.

Now you have contemplated ultimate truth and, relying upon the Tathagata’s wisdom of the path, gained the power of fearlessness with which to expound this Dharma. To speak of ultimate truth is precisely to speak of this Dharma.

Why is this so?

This ultimate truth is the unsurpassed, right, and true path followed by all Buddhas of the past, future, and present. If anyone proclaims this scripture of essential secrets correctly and without error, that person will attain Buddhahood.

If anyone hears this scripture and responds with faith and delight, that person will be respected, cherished, and trusted by the entire world.

A person might place Mount Sumeru upon their head or shoulders and stand in midair; such a feat would still be possible.

But a person lacking virtue is incapable of hearing this scripture.

Even if such a person hears it, believing it is difficult.

Even if that person believes it, they may be unable to cherish and delight in it.

How much more difficult, then, is it to receive, retain, read, recite, and explain it?

If someone hears this scripture, responds with faith and delight, receives and retains it, reads and recites it, and explains it to others, that person has in previous lives made offerings to countless kotis of hundreds of thousands of millions of nayutas of Buddha-Bhagavats. Such a person is a true being who has planted roots of merit, resolutely upholds the Mahayana, and will certainly receive a prediction of Buddhahood.

How much more is this true of one who practices it with complete sincerity!”

At that time, Bodhisattva Tranquil Resolve came forward and said to the Buddha: “Blessed One! What is the meaning of quiescence and serenity?”

The Buddha told Bodhisattva Tranquil Resolve: “Good man! Quiescence and serenity mean extinguishing the defilements and calming all impurities.

Because defilements are extinguished, all craving and deluded thought are said to be eliminated.

When thoughts of desire have been eliminated, there is no discursive thinking. When there is no discursive thinking, there is no attachment. When there is no attachment, there is no karmic activity conditioned by causes. When there is no karmic activity conditioned by causes, there is no ignorance in which craving abides. When there is no ignorance in which craving abides, the notion of a self is extinguished. When the notion of a self is extinguished, name-and-form do not arise. When there is no name-and-form, karmic attachment to annihilationism and eternalism is extinguished. When there is no karmic attachment to annihilationism or eternalism, attachment to the body is extinguished.

Good man! The defilements arising as the fruits of causes and conditions in accordance with karmic attachments and inverted views all become afflictions through attachment to the body.

When there is no attachment to the body, all sixty-two kinds of views are abandoned.

When there is no attachment to the body, all conditions become utterly quiescent.

When there is no attachment to the body, all desires naturally become serene.

When there is no attachment to the body, all expectations become quiescent and cease.

It is like uprooting a tree: its roots, trunk, branches, leaves, flowers, and fruit are all removed at once, and that tree will never exist again.

The practitioner is likewise. When attachment to the body is extinguished, the sixty-two kinds of views no longer exist. When attachment to the body is extinguished, all appropriated dharmas and the afflictive perils of the five skandhas and six ayatanas are eliminated. Because there is no attachment to the body, the afflictive perils of the five skandhas do not exist.”

Tranquil Resolve asked: “Blessed One! Is it because attachment to the body has not been eliminated that the notion of a self exists?”

The Buddha said: “Good man! Because the notion of a self still exists, attachment to the body has not been eliminated. Because notions of a person and a lifespan still exist, attachment has not been eliminated.

What is seen is neither within nor without and abides nowhere. When sought throughout all places, nothing seen can be found. Because nothing seen exists, there is no discrimination. This is called eliminating the view of attachment to the body, for attachment to the body is entirely empty.

Through the cognition of conforming to the patient acceptance of dharmas, one can understand the emptiness of dharmas. Thus those views no longer exist; there is no perception of one’s own body, no activity whatsoever, no birth, and no arising. This is called patient acceptance in accord with the Dharma, in which views no longer exist and attachment to the body is eliminated.

Good man! If one is not attached to the body, one liberates the body into bodilessness.

What is called bodilessness?

The body, formed through the conjunction of the four great elements, originally has no name. Knowing this, one understands it to be false and deceptive. Therefore it is called unreal and unobtainable, existing solely through deluded thought.

If one neither seeks nor entertains deluded thought, is neither confused nor mistaken, neither acts nor abides, then there is no greed or anger. Because there is no greed or anger, this is called quiescence and serenity.

What is extinguished for it to be called quiescence?

The extinguishing of causes and conditions is quiescence.

Why is this so?

Because those causes and conditions cause the mind to blaze. Without causes and conditions, the mind does not blaze.

It is like two pieces of wood: because they are rubbed together under suitable conditions, fire blazes forth. Without wood or fire, there is no blazing.

Likewise, because of conditioned objects, the mind blazes. Without conditioned objects, there is no blazing.

Moreover, good man, through the power of skillful means, the bodhisattva-mahasattva extinguishes causes and conditions as appropriate, yet does not extinguish the roots of merit. He does not arouse causes and conditions of defilement, but initiates meritorious practices and the paramitas. He casts aside the deeds of Mara and evil karma, yet does not abandon the practices of the path and the karmic conditions of the Buddhas.

He abandons the cause of nirvana, yet does not abandon the thirty-seven practices of the path. His mind neither clings to nor delights in the sravaka and pratyekabuddha paths, yet he does not abandon the bodhisattva’s aspiration for the true wisdom of the path. By contemplating emptiness and nonexistence, he arouses great compassion.

He examines causes and conditions without following conditioned characteristics. He proclaims the highest virtue and does not lose the aspiration for the path through deluded thought. Because he seeks nothing, he becomes disenchanted with the causes, opposing conditions, and tribulations of the three realms.

He simply has no conditions producing birth, yet does not abandon what is to be born. Free from doubt, he cultivates merit and performs the practices of the path.

This is the bodhisattva’s skillful wisdom: entering samadhi and attaining mastery.

Does he contemplate impermanence? Without becoming disenchanted with samsara, he attains freedom, because there is nothing to fear.

Does he contemplate suffering? He establishes sentient beings in the peace and security of nirvana.

Does he contemplate nonself? Out of great compassion, he takes pity upon sentient beings and brings them happiness.

Does he contemplate emptiness and nonexistence? This is so that his mind may attain the Tathagata’s Noble Eightfold Path.

Does he contemplate the activity of desire? This is so that he may prepare the purifying medicine for the illness of craving.

Does he proclaim the true Dharma? This is so that their minds may abide firmly.

Does he contemplate anger? This is so that he may proclaim the medicine of loving-kindness and cause beings to be free of anger.

Does he contemplate delusion? This is so that he may give deluded beings the medicine of the twelve links of dependent origination, healing the illness of their minds and making them unwavering.

Does he contemplate an equal share of the afflictions? For sentient beings in whom greed, anger, and delusion are equally present, he applies three teachings to heal the illnesses of their minds and expounds the medicine of impermanence.

Does he contemplate freedom from desire? This is because he wishes to teach and transform sravakas.

Does he depart from anger? This is so that he may establish their minds firmly in the pratyekabuddha vehicle.

Does he depart from delusion? This is so that he may teach and transform their minds and establish them in the Mahayana.

Does he contemplate visible forms? This is so that his mind may abide universally and attain the form body of the Tathagata.

Does he contemplate sounds? This is so that his mind may abide in the voice of the Tathagata.

Does he contemplate fragrances? This is so that his mind may be established in the fragrance of the Tathagata’s morality.

Does he contemplate flavors? This is so that his mind may abide in the flavor of the Tathagata’s path.

Does he contemplate the marks of a great being? This is so that his mind may abide in the adornment of the excellent marks.

Does he contemplate softness and smoothness? This is so that his mind may abide in the softness of the Tathagata’s hands and feet.

Does he contemplate the scriptural Dharma? This is so that his mind may abide in and attain the Tathagata’s realization of nonarising.

Does he contemplate generosity? This is so that his mind may abide in the complete fulfillment of the excellent marks.

Does he contemplate morality? This is so that his mind may abide in a pure and adorned Buddha land.

Does he contemplate patience? This is so that his mind may abide in the Tathagata’s Brahma voice.

Does he contemplate diligence? This is so that his mind may abide in liberating sentient beings.

Does he contemplate meditation? This is so that his mind may abide in the arising of supernormal powers.

Does he contemplate wisdom? This is so that his mind may abide in eliminating wrong views and severing the net of sixty-two doubts and attachments.

Does he contemplate loving-kindness? This is so that his mind may remain impartial toward all sentient beings and harbor no intention to harm them.

Does he contemplate compassion? This is so that he may resolve to rescue sentient beings.

Does he contemplate sympathetic joy? This is so that his mind may abide in delighting to hear the Dharma.

Does he contemplate equanimity and relinquishment? This is so that he may resolve to cast aside the perilous afflictions of the fetters.

Does he contemplate the four means of attraction? This is so that he may maintain the resolve to teach, transform, guide, and support sentient beings.

Does he contemplate greed and anger? This is so that he may gather all possessions and distribute them to sentient beings.

Does he contemplate evil transgressions? This is so that he may preserve the resolve to establish the Tathagata’s pure moral conduct.

Does he contemplate disputes? This is so that his mind may abide in the Tathagata’s discerning eloquence.

Does he contemplate hostility and harm? This is so that he may preserve the resolve to establish the Tathagata’s ten powers and four fearlessnesses.

Does he contemplate agitation? This is so that his mind may abide in the Tathagata’s samadhi.

Does he contemplate wrong wisdom? This is so that his mind may establish for sentient beings the complete and unobstructed perfection of wisdom.

Does he contemplate the lesser vehicles? This is so that his mind may abide in accumulating merit and virtue, with its resolve fixed upon the Mahayana.

Does he contemplate harmonious conformity? This is so that he may preserve a peaceful and harmonious mind and not commit evil or unlawful acts.

Does he contemplate the lower destinies? This is so that his mind may abide in rescuing and protecting all sentient beings who have fallen into the lower destinies and the eight difficult states.

Does he contemplate the devas? This is so that he may preserve the understanding that all meetings must end in separation.

Does he contemplate human beings? This is so that his mind may abide in every kind of wondrous goodness.

Does he recollect the Buddha? This is so that he may repeatedly behold the Buddhas.

Does he recollect the Dharma? This is so that he may preserve the resolve to practice the Dharma of the path and abandon what is useless.

Does he recollect the Sangha? This is so that he may establish the Dharma of nonretrogression.

Does he contemplate giving? This is so that his mind may abide without abandoning sentient beings.

Does he contemplate the moral precepts? This is so that his aspirations may be completely fulfilled.

Does he recollect the devas? This is so that he may preserve the resolve to establish the complete merit of a bodhisattva bound to one more birth.

Does he contemplate bodily action? This is so that he may attain the Buddha’s body.

Does he contemplate speech? This is so that his mind may abide in all the Buddha’s scriptural teachings.

Does he contemplate mind and thought? This is so that he may preserve the resolve to attain the Buddha’s mind.

Does he contemplate the conditioned? This is so that his mind may abide in accumulating merit and virtue until it naturally becomes complete.

Does he contemplate the unconditioned? This is so that his mind may abide in the complete fulfillment of noble wisdom.

Good man! The Mahayana path cannot be attained without conditions and without teaching and transforming beings. It is entirely through conditions of mind that one reaches the Buddha path and attains omniscience.

If a bodhisattva guides all conditions and transformations toward omniscience, this is the bodhisattva’s skillful means. Upon seeing any dharma, he cherishes the resolve to guide it toward omniscience.

Just as the great trichiliocosm contains all lands, sentient beings, grasses, trees, rivers, and seas, excluding nothing, and all depend upon it to arise and flourish,

so too, good man, through all conditions the bodhisattva practices skillful means and performs the foremost and supreme practices leading to omniscience.

Just as every visible form consists of the four great elements,

so too, through skillful means, the bodhisattva establishes all conditions so that they lead to the Buddha path.

Why is this so?

When sentient beings commit offenses against a bodhisattva, the bodhisattva not only refrains from retaliation but takes these conditions as an opportunity to practice the perfection of generosity and thereby fulfills the perfection of morality.

If someone is angry and hostile and harbors a malicious intent, the bodhisattva then practices the perfection of patience and thereby brings the perfection of diligence to fulfillment.

If he sees sentient beings amid noise and commotion whose minds are not peaceful, he takes this as a condition for practicing the perfection of meditation and suddenly accomplishes the perfection of wisdom.

If sentient beings are obstructed and in darkness, the bodhisattva eliminates for them the nets of fetters, bondage, and obstruction.

If sentient beings diligently cultivate, the bodhisattva eliminates all their attachments, bows his head in praise, and shows them how to take refuge for themselves.

Toward those who delight in disparagement and slander, the bodhisattva accommodates their intentions so that they do not give rise to a slanderous mind.

If he sees those who are distressed and tormented by countless sufferings, the bodhisattva immediately arouses great compassion and rescues them from suffering.

If he sees those who are happy and at ease, the bodhisattva rejoices greatly and gathers them in.

If he sees beings who are obstinate and difficult to transform, the bodhisattva guides and instructs them at the appropriate time so that they generate the aspiration for the path.

Seeing those who are humane and harmonious, the bodhisattva cultivates resolute conduct among them and causes them to generate the aspiration for the path.

If there are mighty persons experiencing the results of their karmic conduct, the bodhisattva accommodates and gathers them in, teaches and instructs them, and causes the aspiration for the path to arise within them.

This is called attaining mastery in accordance with conditions. Following skillful means, the bodhisattva clearly knows sentient beings and teaches the Dharma at the proper time. In accordance with their karmic results, aspirations, and inclinations, he teaches, reveals, and analyzes, causing all sentient beings to advance calmly and diligently along the great path of noble wisdom, and discusses with them its unsurpassed and profound meaning.

With a vast heart of loving-kindness, the bodhisattva explains the perfectly true path for sentient beings. Step by step, he proclaims and teaches them that unsurpassed path of causality, explaining and distinguishing its passages and phrases. From a single phrase of Dharma, the bodhisattva expounds many meanings.

For those who delight in tranquility, the bodhisattva analyzes and contemplates all things. For those with unwholesome initial and sustained thought, the bodhisattva teaches the moral precepts through contemplation of liberating samadhi. He also teaches them about the hells, hungry ghosts, and animals. Upon hearing this Dharma, they understand impermanence and that there is no refuge or protector, causing them to seek the refuge of the path.

If people possess right concentration, the bodhisattva discusses the perfection of wisdom with them.

For those who delight in leisure and seclusion, the bodhisattva teaches them to purify body, speech, and mind.

For those who know contentment, the bodhisattva reveals the meritorious conduct of the noble ones and sages.

For those who are conceited, foolish, and benighted, the bodhisattva proclaims diligence, broad learning, and extensive hearing.

For those filled with desire, the bodhisattva shows them the peril, impurity, and futility of desire.

For those prone to anger and hostility, the bodhisattva exhorts them to generate loving-kindness and harbor no resentment or harmful intent.

For those who are deluded and mistaken, the bodhisattva teaches the twelve links of dependent origination through which samsara arises.

For those whose afflictions are present in equal measure, the bodhisattva expounds impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and nonself.

For those infatuated with sensual forms, the bodhisattva teaches impurity.

For those whose benevolence makes them so foolish and benighted that they lack understanding, the bodhisattva shows them the conditions through which faults arise.

For those with wrong views, the bodhisattva clearly determines the Dharma of emptiness and nonexistence.

For those who harbor expectations, the bodhisattva expounds the practice free from deluded thought.

For those who cling rigidly to vows, the bodhisattva teaches wishlessness.

For those who delight in the five hindrances, the bodhisattva analyzes the five skandhas as illusory, magical, false, deceptive, and unreal.

For those attached to the great elements, the bodhisattva clearly explains that the four great elements and eighteen dhatus are like shadows appearing through the projection of forms.

For those who rely upon the ayatanas, the bodhisattva teaches that the twelve ayatanas—the six inner faculties and six outer sense objects—are not one’s possessions, just as dream objects cease to exist upon waking.

For those attached to the desire realm, the bodhisattva explains and distinguishes how all things return to impermanence.

For those who grasp the form realm, the bodhisattva expounds that all the karmic activities of sentient beings are roots of affliction.

If people defend the formless realm, the bodhisattva proclaims that all dharmas are empty and devoid of self.

For those difficult to transform, the bodhisattva instructs them to cultivate the Dharma of the noble ones diligently.

For those easy to transform, the bodhisattva reveals the unsurpassed and perfectly true Dharma.

For those who wish to be born in the heavenly or human realms, the bodhisattva praises pure morality.

For those who delight in the sravaka vehicle, the bodhisattva reveals the Four Noble Truths: suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path.

For those devoted to the pratyekabuddha vehicle, the bodhisattva reveals the twelve links of dependent origination, rooted in ignorance.

For those studying the practices of the Mahayana, the bodhisattva accordingly propagates the six paramitas, four immeasurables, and four means of attraction to guide them.

For those who have newly generated the aspiration, the bodhisattva examines their resolve and disposition and teaches them accordingly.

For those who have perfected the practices and are not weary of samsara, the bodhisattva teaches the Dharma free from difficulties so that they may attain nonretrogression.

For those who have attained nonretrogression, the bodhisattva accordingly explains the purity of Buddha lands.

For great bodhisattvas bound to one more birth, the bodhisattva reveals the perfectly true seat of bodhi.

Good man! The bodhisattva attains mastery in teaching and transforming beings according to conditions, proclaims the Dharma of the path without error, and uses skillful words to gladden and benefit sentient beings.”

When the Blessed One spoke these words, ten thousand people in the Dharma assembly generated the aspiration for unsurpassed bodhi, and five hundred bodhisattvas attained the patient acceptance of the nonarising of dharmas.

At that time, bodhisattvas in the assembly thought: “When will Vajrapani, the Mighty Vajra-Wielder, attain Buddhahood? What will his name be when he becomes a Buddha? What will that land be called? What kind of meritorious and pure adornments will it possess? What will its assembly of bodhisattvas be like?”

Knowing the thoughts of the bodhisattvas, the Blessed One smiled. Countless kotis of hundreds of thousands of rays of light streamed from the Buddha’s mouth, illuminating limitless worlds throughout the ten directions, eclipsing the light of the sun and moon and covering Mara’s palaces. Those rays returned, circumambulated the Buddha countless times, and entered through the crown of his head.

Bodhisattva Tranquil Resolve immediately rose, bared his right shoulder, joined his palms, bowed to the Buddha, and spoke verses of praise to ask the reason for the Buddha’s smile:

“Lofty as a golden mountain,

Your wondrous radiance is free of dust.

The Buddha’s mind is firm and quiescent,

Like the sun in the open sky.

Those rays are exceedingly bright,

Dispelling every darkness.

Why have you manifested in this way?

May the Blessed One explain.

Pure as a lotus flower

That grows within the mud,

Its roots and stalk beneath the water,

Yet rises without stain;

Your merit is most fragrant,

Your thought extends ever farther.

You should calmly tell us:

Why do you smile with joy?

The Buddha’s wisdom and mind are peaceful,

Quiescent, gentle, and harmonious.

Your loving-kindness grows ever greater,

Eliminating every impurity.

With the light of wisdom,

You dispel all darkness,

Abiding steadfast like a lotus

And casting away every doubt.

With deepening compassion, you cultivated the seat of awakening

And freely practiced the path.

From the Buddha’s mouth stream rays of light,

Drying up every craving.

You teach and transform sentient beings,

Making their vision bright and pure.

Abiding securely, you vanquish hostile thieves

And eliminate every fault.

Throughout the entire assembly,

All devas and human beings

Gaze reverently upon the Buddha’s features.

Why does the Buddha smile with joy?”

The Buddha asked Bodhisattva Tranquil Resolve: “Do you see Vajrapani, the Mighty Vajra-Wielder?”

Bodhisattva Tranquil Resolve replied: “Blessed One! I see him.”

The Buddha said: “Vajrapani, the Mighty Vajra-Wielder, will make offerings to all the Tathagatas of the Auspicious Kalpa, protect and preserve the true Dharma, and reveal benefit to immeasurable sentient beings.

After dying in this body, he will be born in the Land of Wondrous Joy of Buddha Aksobhya. Thereafter, he will encounter countless Buddhas and purely cultivate the holy life.

After that number of kalpas has passed, having accumulated merit, he will become a Buddha named Vajra Assembly Tathagata, Arhat, Samyaksambuddha. His land will be called Universal Purity, and the kalpa will be called Pure Adornment. The Land of Universal Purity will be made of the seven treasures, and its people will be numerous, wealthy, and joyful, like those in the Tusita Heaven. That land will have neither the three lower destinies nor the eight difficult states. Devas and humans will not be separate, and all will be devoted to the subtle and wondrous Buddha path. That land will not contain the two vehicles, and even the names ‘sravaka’ and ‘pratyekabuddha’ will be absent; it will consist solely of bodhisattvas.

Vajra Assembly Tathagata will proclaim the nonretrogressive Dharma of the Mahayana. The bodhisattvas in the Land of Universal Purity will be too numerous to calculate or measure. That land will have no people of evil disposition who are envious, violate the precepts, or hold wrong views. Its people will cherish the Buddha-Dharma, possess gentle and harmonious dispositions, and have bodies adorned with twenty-eight excellent marks.

Vajra Assembly Tathagata will live in the world for eight minor kalpas. He will constantly teach the Dharma to assemblies of devas and humans, while his body emits light illuminating the entire land. All devas and humans touched by the Buddha’s light will resolve their doubts, praise the true Dharma, and take refuge in the Buddha. Everyone will think: ‘I should go before the Buddha to inquire about and study the scriptures.’ Some will travel to the Buddha using their own supernormal powers. Those who are still in training will reach him through the Buddha’s awesome spiritual power.

Buddha Vajra Assembly will remain in midair, a hundred thousand ren above the ground, and proclaim the sound of Dharma throughout the ten directions, gladdening all who come to the assembly. For the bodhisattvas, he will proclaim only the unsurpassed great path of the Mahayana.

In that Land of Universal Purity, no one will oppose or slander the Buddha’s instructions.

That land will have no kings or rulers. The Buddha-Bhagavat alone will be its Dharma King.

In that land, all the people will possess wisdom. They will not cling to a self or anything belonging to a self, nor will they separately own houses or fields.

Because of the Buddha’s loving-kindness and compassion, in the evening the people of that land will see Vajra Assembly Tathagata manifest before their homes, robed and holding his alms bowl. They will think: ‘The Tathagata has compassion for me and wishes to come to my home to receive a meal.’ That night they will prepare food and arrange seats and tables. The next morning, at the midday mealtime, the Buddha and the noble assembly will come to their home and receive the meal. After washing his hands, the Buddha will teach the scriptural Dharma to the donor’s household. That donor will attain nonretrogression from unsurpassed perfect awakening. After teaching the scripture, the Buddha will return to the monastery.

When the Buddha sits quietly in his pure chamber, the bodhisattvas of that land will each cultivate in accordance with the Dharma of the samadhi they have attained.

Good man! Such will be the extraordinary meritorious, adorned, and pure qualities of Buddha Vajra Assembly’s land.”

When the Blessed One gave this prediction to Vajrapani, the Mighty Vajra-Wielder, twenty thousand people in the assembly generated the aspiration for unsurpassed bodhi and vowed to be born in that land.

The Buddha predicted that when Buddha Vajra Assembly attains the path, everyone in this great assembly who aspires to see him will be born in that Land of Universal Purity and receive from that Buddha a prediction of unsurpassed bodhi.

Hearing the Buddha’s prediction, Vajrapani, the Mighty Vajra-Wielder, rejoiced greatly and raised the vajra he held into the air. Immediately, the entire great trichiliocosm quaked in six ways, light illuminated the ten directions, celestial flowers rained down like snow, and many kinds of music sounded spontaneously.

In the right hands of everyone in the Dharma assembly there spontaneously appeared many kinds of flowers, incense, banners, and beautiful canopies, which they all took up.

Holding flowers, incense, banners, and canopies, Vajrapani, the Mighty Vajra-Wielder, circumambulated the Buddha and spoke these verses of praise:

“Your Dharma pervades all things in mastery;

Its treasury is inexhaustible.

You teach the Dharma with perfect clarity,

Bringing benefit to sentient beings.

The Buddha has entrusted it to me;

May I always delight in using this Dharma vessel,

Practice in accordance with the true Dharma,

And take refuge in the Buddha path.

Wisdom is able to purify;

Your practices are fully illumined.

Your name penetrates the three times;

Your merit is ultimately complete.

The Buddha’s wisdom penetrates the three realms;

His noble virtue is free from attachment.

With mastery he liberates sentient beings,

Teaching and transforming them beyond suffering and peril.

Pure as the face of the moon,

His countenance is exceedingly radiant,

Shining into the farthest places,

Like the brilliant sun.

The Buddha’s voice is wondrous and harmonious,

Like the celestial voice of Brahma.

With loving-kindness and compassion he proclaims his teaching;

I bow to the Most Honored One.

You manifest a bodily form

And display the possession of a lifespan.

May the Buddha proclaim the sound of Dharma

And expound its words and letters.

Though you expound the scriptural Dharma,

You do not conceive that any Dharma exists.

Though you liberate all sentient beings,

You do not conceive that any person exists.

The Blessed One compassionately teaches and transforms us—

Who could ever repay the Buddha’s kindness?

Even if all beings

Accumulated virtue for immeasurable kalpas,

They should only inquire about the Buddha-Dharma,

Their resolve resting in no other undertaking.

They should themselves practice the Buddha’s conduct

And also teach and instruct others.”

After circumambulating the Buddha and the assembly seven times, Vajrapani, the Mighty Vajra-Wielder, cast the many flowers and jeweled canopies into the air as offerings to the Buddha. As the flowers were cast, throughout the four continents there spontaneously appeared many kinds of flowers adorning eight tiers of roads and ponds filled with water possessing the eight excellent qualities. Through the Buddha’s awesome spiritual power, there was nowhere they did not extend.

Bodhisattva Tranquil Resolve asked Vajrapani, the Mighty Vajra-Wielder: “Has the Tathagata given you a prediction of Buddhahood?”

Vajrapani, the Mighty Vajra-Wielder, replied: “You have seen the Buddha give the prediction. That prediction is naturally like a dream.”

He asked:

“To what place did you arrive in receiving the prediction?”

He replied:

“The place where the prediction was received is nowhere one arrives.”

He asked:

“Where does one not arrive?”

He replied:

“One does not arrive at nonself; no person or lifespan is attained; the five skandhas, six sense objects, and four great elements are not attained; one does not perceive deeds that liberate the present world; one does not arrive at offenses or nonoffenses, outflows or freedom from outflows, defilement or anger, the conditioned or unconditioned, samsara or nirvana. Arriving nowhere at all is what is called receiving a prediction.”

He asked:

“If there is nowhere to arrive, who receives the prediction?”

He replied:

“Having nowhere to arrive is what is called arrival.”

He asked:

“If there is no self, who receives the prediction?”

He replied:

“The one who gives the prediction and the one who receives it are equal. In the original limit there is neither duality nor difference.”

He asked:

“If there is no original limit, who receives that prediction?”

He replied:

“The original limit neither arises nor ceases and has no duality. Because of that original limit, the prediction is received today.”

He asked:

“In what original limit does one abide to receive the prediction?”

He replied:

“One abides in the natural state, the nondual original limit. The original limit has no self, person, or lifespan. Abiding in the natural state is what is called receiving the prediction.”

He asked:

“Where does the original limit of the self abide?”

He replied:

“It abides where the Tathagata abides.”

He asked:

“When nothing can be known, what place is known?”

He replied:

“That which can be known is no place of knowing.”

He asked:

“If what is said is that there is nothing to say, then, supposing there is nothing to say, what is taught?”

He replied:

“What is taught is that there is nothing to teach.”

He asked:

“What does it mean to teach that there is nothing to teach?”

He replied:

“All dharmas are nowhere taught.”

He asked:

“If there is nothing to teach, how can this be known?”

He replied:

“If there is nothing to teach, such is the place of knowing.”

He asked:

“What does it mean to teach the place of knowing?”

He replied:

“Do not inquire into the place of knowing.”

He asked:

“What does it mean not to inquire into the place of knowing?”

He replied:

“The mind is not heedless.”

He asked:

“What does it mean for the mind not to be heedless?”

He replied:

“It returns of itself to the essential meaning.”

He asked:

“What does it mean to return of itself to the essential meaning?”

He replied:

“It means not seeing meaninglessness.”

He asked:

“What is meant by not seeing meaninglessness?”

He replied:

“Neither grasping meaning nor regarding it as meaningless is called meaning.”

He asked:

“Why is neither grasping meaning nor regarding it as meaningless called meaning?”

He replied:

“Neither grasping meaning nor regarding it as meaningless is the meaning of the path.”

He asked:

“If one grasps meaninglessness, does one fail to accomplish the meaning of Dharma?”

He replied:

“How could that meaning of Dharma be meaning? Why is this so? One who inclines toward meaning is contrary to Dharma and does not accomplish Dharma.”

He asked:

“What is Dharma?”

He replied:

“Dharma without reverberation is called Dharma.”

He asked:

“How can Dharma without reverberation be called Dharma?”

He replied:

“Because there are no words or letters in that Dharma, it is called Dharma. That Dharma is unobtainable. That Dharma has no sound and no speech.”

He asked:

“What is called the place of arrival?”

He replied:

“Just as the place that is reached is attained, so is this called arriving nowhere at all. Because one has departed from what can be attained, it is said: ‘I have reached the Tathagata.’ Only by cultivating the dharmas can one arrive. One can bring the mind of nonself to utter cessation. Everything proclaimed is the light of wisdom. Through those words and letters, the deeds of the Tathagata are proclaimed. Do not grasp nonarrival; do not grasp future arrival.”

He asked:

“At that place of arrival, what is not attained?”

He replied:

“Words issuing from the mouth are not attainment. When words issue from the mouth and the mind relies upon words and letters, that is not attainment.”

He asked:

“What is called attainment?”

He replied:

“There is nowhere to arrive and nothing to teach. Knowing that there is nothing to teach means neither knowing oneself nor knowing another. Neither knowing oneself nor knowing another is called attainment.”

He asked:

“When there is no attainment, what is its root? When there is attainment, what is its root?”

He replied:

“What is appropriated is the root.”

He asked:

“What is the root of what is appropriated?”

He replied:

“That upon which one relies is the root.”

He asked:

“What is the root of that upon which one relies?”

He replied:

“False and deluded thought is the root.”

He asked:

“What is the root of false and deluded thought?”

He replied:

“Defilements are the root of false and deluded thought.”

He asked:

“What is the root of the defilements of false and deluded thought?”

He replied:

“Clinging is the root.”

He asked:

“What is the root of clinging?”

He replied:

“Forms, sounds, fragrances, flavors, and tangible objects are the root.”

He asked:

“What is the source of clinging?”

He replied:

“The accumulation of craving and fetters is called the source of clinging. Not yearning for those objects of clinging is called nonattachment.”

O Tranquil Resolve! When one seeks the locus of attachment within that accumulation of craving and fetters, no locus of attachment can ever be found.”

When the Buddha, the Blessed One, had given Vajrapani, the Mighty Vajra-Wielder, his prediction and again proclaimed this Dharma, five hundred bhiksus in the assembly exhausted the outflows and attained liberation of mind, while two hundred bodhisattvas attained the patient acceptance of the nonarising of dharmas.