佛說巨力長者所問大乘經

The Buddha told the elders:

These sentient beings,

Throughout many kalpas,

Have accumulated dharmas,

Namely: greed, hatred, delusion,

Views, conceit, doubt, and regret.

With the various objects of desire

They make contact and are infatuated.

Morning, noon, afternoon, and night,

It never ceases.

They have never cultivated

The tranquil cessation of quiet contemplation;

The source of the suffering of birth and death

They likewise do not contemplate.

They do not know that the world

Is a mark of arising and ceasing,

Having no self-nature,

Being entirely empty,

Arising only through craving,

Sown and accumulated,

Borrowing causes and conditions to arise,

Coming together as if existing.

When the causes and conditions end,

In the end it disperses and ceases.

Owing to the root of Ignorance,

There again arises craving;

Beginning and end follow one another in succession,

Like ants crawling around in a ring.

As for the supramundane,

Within the truth of reality,

The pure realm

Of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas

Has no duality of the two extremes.

Turning toward the delight of craving—

Such a person

Is veiled by ignorance and delusion,

In the sea of birth and death

Drifting and floating about.

The illusory marks of the Five Dusts—

The mind is much defiled and attached,

Drunken, deranged, and inverted,

Forever failing to wake from the dream.

If there are sentient beings

Whose wholesome roots have matured,

They naturally draw near

To good and wise friends,

Their minds constantly cultivating,

Practicing the conduct of the twofold benefit.

With regard to the various superior ones—

Persons, self, and sentient beings—

They are able to expound the Dharma,

Giving rise to a rare aspiration,

Delighting in making offerings,

Without giving rise to arrogance.

Toward the merit of the Buddha,

Profound and subtly wondrous,

A realm beyond conception,

They have no doubt nor slander.

Nor, with regard to these:

Within the realm of the Five Dusts,

Falsely deluded and attached,

Do they give rise to craving.

They do not commit many sins—

The cause of the suffering of arising and ceasing.

Day and night diligently striving,

They contemplate the ultimate truth,

Increasing the various superior practices,

Cultivating the dharma of giving and the like.

They constantly delight in reciting

The scriptures of the Great Vehicle,

Their minds free of wrong thoughts,

Having no aberrant notions.

The blissful dharma of meditation

And the pure conduct of celibacy

Nourish and rear the Dharma-body

And the life of contemplative wisdom.

They do not, together with the deluded,

Become defiled and attached to the world,

Thinking only of food and drink,

Bodily form and possessions,

Delighting and drowning in the Five Desires,

Never weary of them and casting them aside,

Not knowing the root of suffering,

Not seeking liberation,

Following the various heterodox paths,

Knowing wrongly, thinking wrongly,

Right mindfulness not arising,

Without true wisdom.

As when they say there is a self:

"A pure jeweled pond—

If there are sentient beings

Who enter within to bathe and wash,

Swimming and sporting in play,

Such a person

Will before long attain

Birth among the heavenly beings."

In this way, deluded,

They cling to aberrant views,

Not understanding cause and effect,

Pursuing the wrong and false,

Inverting the right principle,

Cultivating impure conduct—

An evil cause, a suffering fruit—

And do not attain liberation.

O elders!

You ought to understand and know

That cause and effect in the world

Are a false and illusory coming-together,

Like a wooden statue of a person

Performing various enterprises,

Yet within all this

Giving rise to no arrogance.

Storehouses of money and jewels,

Honor, glory, and luxury,

Are like seeing a dreamscape:

Once known, they are empty.

Yet those foolish people

Do not know this matter—

That arising and ceasing are illusory transformations,

Their nature originally pure.

With regard to the world

They cling to it as permanently existing.

For what reason?

Because, from beginningless time,

They have given rise to greed, hatred, and delusion,

Bound up and not letting go.

Favorable, adverse, joy, and anger,

Without any rest or pause.

Foes and enemies

Always encounter one another;

Kinfolk vast and many,

Possessions abundant and rich,

Drawing near and intimate,

Together delighting in play,

Increasing craving,

And thereby creating suffering.

Afterward they fall into poverty,

Wealth and goods scattered and lost,

Things going contrary, and separation—

Sorrow, grief, and affliction.

There arise many disputes and lawsuits

And the forging of enmities.

Reaching old age, exceedingly aged,

There is added many kinds of suffering:

Their form and complexion withered and gaunt,

The faculties weak and declining.

Friends and kinfolk

All keep their distance.

In the prime of youth and vigor,

Indulging in the Five Desires,

They do not delight in cultivation,

Do not think to be weary and disgusted.

Old age and sickness invade them,

Worry, sorrow, and vexation.

When the body decays and the life ends,

They fall down into the hells.

The Ox-headed guards detain them,

Pain and suffering bitter and stinging,

With no means of rescue or aid,

Passing through many kalpas.

When the hells come to an end,

They are born as hungry ghosts,

Their heads like great mountains,

Their necks thin as needles,

Unable to obtain food and drink,

Only skin wrapping bone.

When the hungry-ghost karma is exhausted,

They become creatures of the animal kind,

Bearing fur, scales, and wings,

Swimming, flying, and leaping,

Caught by nets and snares,

Seized one after another,

Frightened and panic-stricken,

Fleeing but unable to escape,

Beaten with whip and staff,

Repaying the karma of former lives.

When the animal karma is exhausted,

Perhaps they are born as humans,

Poor, destitute, base, and lowly,

The faculties not complete,

Money and goods lacking and scarce,

Far too many sicknesses and sufferings.

If they are born wealthy and noble,

Their merit and wisdom run contrary;

The possessions and wealth they own

They are unable to enjoy and use.

Or they have much hatred and anger,

Their own mind constantly suffering;

Or they are afflicted by grave illness

And meet with an untimely death.

Karmic retribution such as this

Is due to greed, hatred, and delusion.

That which is created there

Is like a silkworm drawing out its thread,

Binding and tethering itself,

Like a moth

Burned and scorched by the fire.

Body and mind oppressed and tormented,

There is not a moment of peace.

Led on by evil karma,

Coming and going without abiding,

Entering the three evil paths

As if strolling through a garden to view it,

Encountering much pain and suffering,

The mind has no remorse,

Does not seek liberation,

Nor is weary of it and casts it aside.

Undergoing the various retributions for sin,

Hard to bear and hard to endure,

Forlorn, desolate, and dark—

At that very time

There is not the slightest lament.

Father, mother, wife, and children,

All of one's kinfolk,

Cannot take one another's place;

It is only oneself

Who undergoes the many calamities,

From suffering to suffering,

Without any end.

Causes and conditions such as these

Are all because sentient beings,

Through beginningless Ignorance,

Continuously and successively give rise to them.

Greed and hatred bind them up,

Setting in motion body, speech, and mind,

Creating far too many sins—

Yet they have not understood their offenses—

The karmic causes of the three realms,

Thought after thought increasing and growing.

O elders!

If there are sentient beings

Whose aspiration delights in stillness and tranquility,

Seeking and yearning for transcendence and escape,

Who, toward the objects on which the mind dwells,

Regard the defiled and the pure as equal,

Naturally they will attain

The gradual dissolving of karmic hindrances,

Departing far from the cycle of rebirth

And the retribution of mixed evil.

Encountering the right Dharma of the Buddha,

With faith and joy they cultivate it,

Gradually subduing and taming

The various: greed, hatred, and delusion.

They also skillfully contemplate,

Understanding that the bodily form

Is like an illusion, like a dream,

Like lightning, like foam.

Searching and seeking thoroughly,

They see that there is nothing real in it.

Those who possess wisdom

Ought to know it thus,

Contemplating the ultimate truth,

That self and dharmas are both empty.

Encountering the Buddhas,

And the true and wholesome Dharma,

In due order they cultivate and practice

The superior conduct of giving and the like,

Accumulating the subtly wondrous,

Superior and supreme, the right Dharma.

Casting off the nature of the ordinary,

They straightway become of the sacred lineage.

Just as a mountain

Is formed from the gathering of soil,

And again as drops of water

Gradually trickling fill up a vase.

O good sons!

With regard to the Buddha's teaching and vehicle,

Within the truth of reality,

Patiently enduring, they attain bliss.

With regard to the flavors and ways of the world,

One ought not to be defiled and attached.

Casting off false and deceptive dharmas,

They realize the true and real nature,

Departing from the suffering of birth and death,

Attaining bliss without fear.

Awakening to these forms and marks

As being like a heat-shimmer mirage,

Truly false and deceptive,

Their essential nature unreal.

Contemplating in this way

The own-marks of all dharmas,

The mind is not inverted,

And ultimately attains liberation.

That name is called

The nature of the Bodhisattva Vehicle.

Skillfully and well they bring peace and joy

To all sentient beings,

Following the conduct of the Buddha,

Complying with and cultivating awakening.

Each and every vow of conduct,

Always and ever they are vigorous and diligent,

Their minds not turning back into darkness,

Swiftly cultivating and practicing,

Without idleness or abandonment.

Of their own accord they practice giving,

The Six Paramitas,

Without hoping for repayment,

The Three Spheres being essentially empty,

The dual conditions ceasing and vanishing.

Or in times that come hereafter,

They surely have no regret in any of it.

Guarding the faculties closely,

They do not violate the pure precepts.

Though foes and enemies appear before them,

They likewise do not retaliate.

At the beginning, middle, and end of the night,

Bravely and valiantly diligent,

Departing far from doubt and vexation,

Halting all distraction and confusion.

With regard to the categories of good and evil,

They have full power to consider them thoroughly.

Their bodily karma being pure,

They constantly manifest the rules of discipline.

Their tone of voice soft and gentle,

Harmonious with everyone.

The Six Consciousnesses being silent and still,

They cut off the various sense-faculties.

With regard to the Buddhas'

Supreme possession—

The deep and subtly wondrous Dharma—

They are able to enter into accord with it.

Using skillful wisdom

They embrace and receive sentient beings,

According to their faculties and capacities,

Expounding through skillful means,

So that each and every one awakens and enters

The Dharma-gate of liberation.

At that time the elder Mighty-Strength, together with the five hundred elders, having heard the Dharma, their minds were exceedingly joyful. Through hearing that Dharma they attained the profound forbearance of the Dharma, the supremely great forbearance, the Unsurpassed forbearance. They straightway rose, circumambulated the Buddha three times, bowed their heads to the Buddha's feet, and then stood to one side. The elder Mighty-Strength and the five hundred elders together addressed the Buddha, saying:

"Reverently we address the World-Honored One! From before until now we have never heard such profound, subtly wondrous Dharma. Today we have encountered the One of Unsurpassed Enlightenment, who is replete with all-knowledge, who bestows the great Dharma throughout the world.

Because we have been able to hear such a wondrous Dharma, we have understood clearly that the dharmas of the world are merely established by false combination, like an illusion and a dream… in the end ultimately empty. We have all awakened and entered the forbearance of the non-arising of dharmas, given rise to the aspiration for Right and Perfect Enlightenment, and we vow that in the future we shall, like the World-Honored One today, be able, amid immeasurable great assemblies of humans and gods, to raise the lion's roar, revealing the wondrous, pure sound of the Dharma, bringing benefit and peace and joy to all sentient beings.

"Reverently we address the World-Honored One! We greatly delight in wishing to speak verses of praise; we pray that the Tathagata may permit it." Then, standing before the Buddha, they spoke verses:

The marks of subtly wondrous golden hue,

Most supreme, beyond compare,

Using a wondrous and gentle voice,

Proclaim and chant the true meaning.

Of old you cultivated the conduct of a Bodhisattva;

Your lifespan is immeasurable.

All the sentient beings,

Seeing and hearing, all rejoice.

A gathering of pure merit,

At peace and ease within the place of the Way.

Just as the king of suns

Abides constantly in the void of space,

It is all because, in times long past,

You practiced giving vast and great:

Giving gold, silver, and precious treasures,

Elephants, horses, and carriages,

Even your head, eyes, marrow, and brain,

As well as your realm, your wife and children.

Performing those deeds hard to perform,

Your giving was brought to perfection.

Having used the power of your original vows,

You manifest a responsive transformation-body,

Forever and ever without interruption,

Surpassing kalpas as numberless as the Ganges' sands.

Your great compassion is beyond conception;

You cherish and love the sentient beings,

Bestowing the sweet-dew gift of the Dharma,

Removing affliction and granting cool refreshment.

We, throughout many kalpas,

Have wandered through many realms,

Craving and clinging to possessions,

And to wife, children, and kinfolk.

Of little merit and without wisdom,

We did not give rise to the aspiration for Bodhi,

Defiled and attached to fame and renown

And to the pleasures of the Five Desires.

We rejoice that we still have merit

And are fortunate to encounter the World-Honored One,

To hear this subtly wondrous meaning,

To know clearly that the dharmas are false and illusory.

All have attained liberation,

The minds of everyone at peace and ease.

We beg the Buddha to allow us

To go forth from home and become Shramanas.

We vow that all sentient beings

May awaken fully to this Dharma-gate,

Not be defiled by the joys of the world,

And swiftly accomplish the Way of Bodhi.

When the elder Mighty-Strength and the various elders had finished speaking the verses, each of them reverently bowed his head to the Buddha and begged to go forth from home. The Buddha consented.

At that time, the Buddha, upon his seat, smiled with joy and gladness, and using the power of his majestic virtue, manifested a great spiritual power.

Upon his countenance there appeared innumerable rays of light, the rays of light of every kind of color, like the many kinds of light of precious gems reflecting one another: blue, yellow, red, green, violet, crystal, and the color of pure gold. Those rays of light shone forth and illuminated the immeasurable, boundless, incalculable worlds beyond conception. Reaching up to the world of the Brahma-heaven, in the places where there was the light of the sun and moon and the light of the bodies of the heavenly beings, all were covered over and could not appear.

The rays of light illumined but a single place such as this, yet all sentient beings were able to come into contact with them, and there was none who did not rejoice. The evil karma and sin-hindrances of sentient beings were eliminated. The blind could see, the deaf could hear, the lame could walk, the mute could speak, the hungry could be filled to satisfaction, the naked obtained clothing.

Sentient beings had their fetters, cangues, and prison shackles removed; there were none of the various evils, and the holy realm appeared before them.

At that time, in the great assembly of the gathering, the gods and humans, seeing this, were joyful with a strange wonder never before known, and said: "By what causes and conditions does this phenomenon appear?" Everyone gave rise to the aspiration and rose up, circumambulated the Buddha a hundred, a thousand times, reverently paid homage, made offerings, and praised him, then withdrew and stood to one side. Within the assembly, the Venerable Ananda bared his right shoulder, knelt his right knee upon the ground, bowed his body in reverence, and addressed the Buddha, saying:

"Reverently I address the World-Honored One! By what causes and conditions does the World-Honored One manifest this strange and beautiful mark? All the assembly have doubts; everyone says: 'When the World-Honored One smiles, there is always a cause and condition.' Today the Tathagata manifests this strange mark; surely there is a reason. We pray the Tathagata, the Worthy of Offerings, the One of Right and Perfect Enlightenment, of great kindness and great compassion, for our sake, World-Honored One, to draw together what is dignified and majestic and to proclaim each kind of wholesome matter. We greatly delight in wishing to hear it."

At that time, the World-Honored One told the Venerable Ananda:

"Today the Tathagata manifests this beautiful mark because he wishes to proclaim, for the elder Mighty-Strength and the five hundred elders, so that they may awaken to the forbearance of the non-arising of dharmas, give rise to the aspiration for Right and Perfect Enlightenment, and, in due order, when the causes and conditions are complete, will become Buddhas. O Ananda, listen attentively! These elders have, in the past hundreds of thousands of kalpas of immeasurable Buddhas, each one drawn near, reverently made offerings, paid homage, honored, and praised them, and have been able to hear the true and supreme meaning of the Dharma such as this.

They eliminated their karmic hindrances and departed far from the three evil destinies. For hundreds of thousands of kalpas they were constantly born among humans and gods and received the supremely wondrous joy of the Dharma; up to the present they have obtained wealth rich, abundant, and vast, with many kinfolk, their merit and wisdom dignified and majestic, beloved and respected by everyone. All of this is owing to the power of having sown wholesome roots in former lives!

Now, having come to my age, they have again been able to hear the meaning of the deep and profound Dharma. O Ananda! The elder Mighty-Strength and those various elders, in a future age, will encounter Maitreya, the Tathagata, the Worthy of Offerings, the One of Right and Perfect Enlightenment.

When they encounter that Buddha, they will again be able to hear the pure, wondrous Dharma of the Great Vehicle, well able to be vigorous and diligent in cultivating the Bodhisattva conduct of giving… and the rest of the Six Paramitas, able, throughout the ten directions, to draw near, pay homage, reverently make offerings, honor, and praise immeasurable Buddhas, and they will also encounter the Buddhas of the Worthy Kalpa.

Those Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, will likewise proclaim the subtly wondrous meaning of the Dharma of the Great Vehicle. Having heard it, they will receive and uphold it, and for the sake of everyone they will, in turn, expound, instruct, and bring immeasurable benefit and joy to sentient beings. O Ananda!

The elder Mighty-Strength, after passing through five hundred kalpas, constantly born within the lands of Buddhas, cultivating and practicing in many ways, meeting many Buddhas, performing deeds of making offerings yet not seeing himself doing so—at last they will accomplish Right and Perfect Enlightenment, all of them alike bearing the one title: Auspicious-Treasury Tathagata, the Worthy of Offerings, the One of Right and Perfect Enlightenment, the One Perfect in Knowledge and Conduct, the Well-Gone One, the Knower of the World, the Unsurpassed One, the Tamer of Men, the Teacher of Gods and Humans, the Buddha, the Bhagavan.

Their lands will be dignified, peaceful, secure, abundant, and joyful; the True Dharma, the Semblance Dharma, and the lifespan over many ages—all will be equal and the same. They will expound the Dharma and deliver sentient beings beyond counting."

At that time, the Venerable Ananda and the great assembly of humans and gods, having heard the Buddha, the World-Honored One, skillfully speak the subtly wondrous meaning of the Dharma in this way, all straightway praised it and addressed the Buddha, saying:

"Reverently we address the World-Honored One! By what name should this sutra be called? How shall we receive and uphold it?"

The Buddha told Ananda:

"This sutra is to be named: The Sutra of the Elder Mighty-Strength Inquiring About the Great Vehicle. You should receive and uphold it accordingly."

When the Buddha had finished expounding the sutra, the Venerable Ananda, together with the Bodhisattvas, the Bhikshus, and the elder Mighty-Strength, and with all of the world, the gods, the humans, the Asuras, the Gandharvas… having heard what the Buddha had spoken, all greatly rejoiced, faithfully received it, and respectfully practiced it.

End of the lower scroll.