差摩婆帝授記經

Thus have I heard:

At one time the Buddha was dwelling on Mount Gṛdhrakūṭa near the city of Rājagṛha, together with a great assembly of twenty thousand bhikṣus and many Bodhisattvas, such as the Bodhisattva Maitreya, the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, and many other Bodhisattvas.

At that time, early in the morning, the Buddha donned his robe, took up his bowl, and together with the Bodhisattva Maitreya entered the city of Rājagṛha to beg for alms. When they came to the palace of the great king Bimbisāra, the two of them wished to enter; but at that moment the great king Bimbisāra and his consort, Lady Śyāmāvatī, who were upon a high tower, beheld the World-Honored One, and their minds at once became pure.

They descended from the tower, took up a priceless garment called Pradoṣa, spread it out, and invited the Tathāgata to be seated upon it. The Bodhisattva Maitreya seated himself upon a sitting-cloth (niṣīdana). After the two of them had taken their seats, the royal consort Lady Śyāmāvatī arranged everything with adornment, made her body neat and orderly, then bowed her head to the feet of the World-Honored One, and turning, paid reverent homage to the Bodhisattva Maitreya.

Before the venerable countenance and the majestic, dignified bearing of the Buddha as he sat, the consort grew ever more reverent, and in her heart she wished to hear the Dharma.

The World-Honored One, seeing that the royal consort Lady Śyāmāvatī had completed every adornment and prepared her person, and wishing to bestow joy and benefit upon all sentient beings, knowing the answer, yet asked her:

O Śyāmāvatī! Now your body has attained foremost radiance, upright and majestic, surpassingly beautiful, like the color of the fruit of a tree. What, then, is that tree?

The royal consort Lady Śyāmāvatī composed verses and replied:

O foremost great hero,

Knowing, you yet ask me:

"What tree is that tree,

Whose fruit one obtains thus?"

That is the tree of merit,

Which in former lives I planted;

This fruit is that very tree,

And now I pluck and eat it!

Moreover, I planted that tree

In the right Dharma of the Śrāvakas,

Abiding firmly on the path of Bodhi,

Seeking the station of Perfect Enlightenment.

The waters of Giving and Precepts moistened it,

Causing that tree to grow;

And once the tree had grown,

It bore this upright, majestic fruit.

By the power of patient endurance and diligence

That tree was made to grow;

And once that tree had grown,

It bore this stainless fruit.

Making that tree upright and majestic,

The flowers of meditation and wisdom bloomed in profusion;

Now I eat that fruit,

Just as the World-Honored One has seen.

Like the dense forest of trees and grasses,

All of them living within the mountains,

Whose branches, leaves, and limbs increase and grow,

Above and below all unmoving—

Even so is that great tree

Which in former lives I planted well,

To benefit all sentient beings,

That I might attain the Dharma of the Buddhas.

Even so is the tree of merit;

I have obtained its very flower,

And that fruit I likewise eat;

Hereafter that fruit shall be

The foremost fruit of Bodhi,

The unsurpassed Buddha-Bodhi.

Casting off this lowly female body,

Afterward I shall surely obtain that fruit;

I shall become a great hero,

The highest among all sentient beings.

All the Dharmas of enlightenment,

The complete and all-pervading knowledge—

These I shall bring to aid sentient beings,

Delivering them from every suffering and fear.

Let all take refuge in me;

I cherish all sentient beings.

At that time, the World-Honored One said to the royal consort Lady Śyāmāvatī:

Most excellent, most excellent is what you have spoken, O consort! You have well brought benefit and ease to many people, cherishing the world, bringing benefit, ease, and joy to all beings, to gods and humankind alike.

The royal consort Lady Śyāmāvatī, hearing the Buddha praise her, then addressed him, saying:

World-Honored One! By what causes and conditions does the body attain the thirty-two marks of a great hero, the eighty graceful features, the ten powers of the Tathāgata, the four fearlessnesses, the four unobstructed knowledges, the eighteen unique qualities of a Buddha, great loving-kindness and great compassion, great joy and great equanimity? Each of these is thus immeasurable and innumerable, beyond all telling; from where do these innumerable Buddha-Dharmas arise?

When the royal consort asked thus, the Buddha spoke in verse:

I too am even so:

In former lives I planted that tree,

To benefit sentient beings,

Seeking the knowledge of Perfect Enlightenment.

I cultivated giving, precepts, and patience,

Diligence, meditation, and wisdom;

Throughout all times,

I constantly cultivated meditation and wisdom.

Toward all sentient beings

I never once gave rise to an evil mind;

Day after day, my mind was impartial,

And today I have become a Buddha.

My mind was without hatred or attachment;

Toward good friends and foes alike, impartial;

And once my mind had become impartial,

The tree of merit grew and increased.

My body is like a great tree

That has gathered immeasurable merit.

I was once a Wheel-Turning King,

Or else was Indra, lord of gods,

And again was Great Brahmā,

Rich and noble beyond all number.

The Dharma of the Buddha is beyond all reckoning;

Now once more I have obtained the many marks.

Hearing of such merits, the royal consort Lady Śyāmāvatī praised him, saying:

How excellent! Hearing the words of the World-Honored One, I rejoice with all my heart.

The royal consort, facing the World-Honored One, spoke in verse:

Among the victorious, the most victorious—

Even so do I follow and learn;

As what is to be learned is well learned,

The ocean of merit is boundless.

I now learn the Dharma of the Buddha,

The merits of enlightenment;

I shall depart from the suffering of birth and death,

And attain such tranquil quiescence.

Through my many births in lives gone by,

I once cultivated the practice of giving;

I vow that by all that merit

I may attain the unequaled wisdom of a Buddha.

In the past and in the present,

I have guarded and upheld the precepts;

I vow that by all that merit

I may attain the wisdom of the Tathāgata.

I cultivate patience and diligence,

As well as samādhi and prajñā;

Even so do I vow that all of it

May accomplish the Buddha-Dharma.

The deeds of my body, speech, and mind

Must cultivate abundant good;

I vow to attain great Bodhi,

Seeking the merit of the Buddha's wisdom.

I cast off this female body

And obtain the fair marks of a great hero;

And having obtained the body of a great hero,

I next obtain the body of a Buddha.

Attaining the most victorious Bodhi,

Turning the unsurpassed wheel of the Dharma,

I shall save sentient beings and set them free,

Delivering them from the hells of birth and death.

The World-Honored One praised the royal consort Lady Śyāmāvatī, saying that she had spoken most excellently, and extolled her:

Excellent indeed! Such are your words.

Excellent indeed! Such is your good aspiration.

You shall destroy the hosts of Māra

And attain the accomplishment of Perfect Enlightenment.

The royal consort Lady Śyāmāvatī, having received this prediction from the World-Honored One himself, and having heard it, rejoiced and gave rise to a supreme mind; and having formed a resolute intention, she then presented to the World-Honored One many kinds of food, such as khādanīya, bhojanīya, and sādanīya (hard and soft foods: rice, vermicelli, noodles, beans, and the like), each kind complete in itself, and likewise offered such foods to the Great Bodhisattva Maitreya.

At that time, the World-Honored One, having finished his meal, put away his bowl and washed his hands; then, for the sake of the royal consort Lady Śyāmāvatī, he again expounded the Dharma, instructing and exhorting her so that the royal consort was filled with joy. Once more the World-Honored One bestowed a prediction:

O Śyāmāvatī! In the future, after the passage of immeasurable kalpas, you shall become a Buddha named Guṇaratnaprabhāsa-vijaya Tathāgata, Worthy of Offerings, Perfectly and Universally Enlightened, Perfect in Knowledge and Conduct, Well-Gone, Knower of the World, Unsurpassed One, Tamer of Beings, Teacher of Gods and Humans, Buddha, World-Honored One. That Buddha-land shall be foremost in purity, without any of the evil destinies or suffering and affliction; the mind there shall attain joy and ease, adorned and surpassingly excellent. The dwelling place of the Bodhisattvas there shall be foremost in purity. Such shall be that adorned and pure Buddha-land, wherein you shall dwell.

When the Buddha expounded this teaching, there were innumerable upāsakas, more than a thousand in number, who all gave rise to the mind of supreme, perfect enlightenment. Thousands of sentient beings—gods, humans, and the world—had no further doubt concerning this Dharma and attained a mind of conformity with it. When the Tathāgata had finished expounding the Dharma, Śyāmāvatī, the Bodhisattva Maitreya, and the whole of the assembly—gods, humans, asuras, gandharvas, and the rest—hearing what the World-Honored One had spoken, all greatly rejoiced.