The Lotus Sūtra

Summary

The White Lotus of the Good Dharma, popularly known
as the Lotus Sūtra, is taught by Buddha Śākyamuni
on Vulture Peak to an audience that includes bodhisattvas from countless realms,
as well as bodhisattvas who emerge from under the ground, from the space below
this world. Buddha Prabhūtaratna, who has long since passed into nirvāṇa,
appears within a floating stūpa to hear the sūtra, and Śākyamuni enters the
stūpa and sits beside him. The Lotus Sūtra is
celebrated, particularly in East Asia, for its presentation of crucial elements
of the Mahāyāna tradition, such as the doctrine that there is only one yāna, or
“vehicle”; the distinction between expedient and definite teachings; and the
notion that the Buddha’s life, enlightenment, and parinirvāṇa were simply
manifestations of his transcendent buddhahood, while he continues to teach
eternally. A recurring theme in the sūtra is its own significance in teaching
these points during past and future eons, with many passages in which the Buddha
and bodhisattvas such as Samantabhadra describe the great benefits that come
from devotion to it, the history of its past devotees, and how it is the
Buddha’s ultimate teaching, supreme over all other sūtras.

Acknowledgements

The White Lotus of the Good Dharma Sūtra was
translated from Tibetan with reference to the Sanskrit by Peter Alan Roberts.
Ling Lung Chen was the consultant for the Chinese versions. Emily Bower was the
project manager and editor. Ben Gleason was the proofreader.

The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of
84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.

The generous sponsorship of May & George Gu, which helped make the
work on this translation possible, is most gratefully acknowledged.

Introduction

Introduction

The White Lotus of the Good Dharma, popularly
known as the Lotus Sūtra, not only contains one
of the fullest expressions of the transcendent nature of the Buddha, but
also, through its successive descriptions of astonishing events and its
vivid parables, is imbued with a distinctive literary power of its own. The
sūtra inspired a devoted following in India, but it is above all in east
Asia that it has been particularly popular. There it has been the impetus
for a range of exquisite artistic and architectural forms, and indeed, whole
traditions of study and practice that thrive to this day. An extensive body of literature, too—both scholarly
and popular—is based upon the sūtra.

The Lotus

Sūtra in India

This sūtra’s references to South Indian musical instruments, and the
case endings that are preserved in the language of its verses, are possible
indications of a southwest Indian provenance, in common with some other
Mahāyāna sūtras. When this sūtra appeared, the Mahāsāṃghika tradition—in
which, it has been argued, Mahāyāna sūtras first made their appearance —was
prevalent in the northwest and southwest of India. The language of
the earliest surviving examples of the sūtra, such as those in the Lüshun
Museum (which date to the fifth or sixth century ce and come from Khotan), has specific
characteristics that are found elsewhere only in the Mahāvastu and other texts belonging to the
Mahāsāṃghika-Lokottaravādin sub-school of the Mahāsāṃghika tradition. This was
the first textual tradition to emphasize the transcendent nature of the
Buddha, a theme particularly present in the Lotus
Sūtra. The original language of the sūtra was a form of Middle
Indic, but the prose passages in particular were subsequently Sanskritized,
resulting in what is called Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit (BHS). BHS contains
words that are either not found in Classical Sanskrit, or have a different
meaning. In this sūtra, some words are closer in meaning to their
counterparts in Pali (which is itself a slightly Sanskritized Middle Indic)
than to the same words in Classical Sanskrit. Also, different versions of
this sūtra show instances of how the same Middle Indic word was rendered
differently in BHS. Seishi Karashima has pointed out, for example, that the
Middle Indic ajja
was interpreted as adya
(“today”) in the surviving central Asian manuscript fragments, while the
Nepalese manuscripts have ārya. Although both adya and ārya could be correct, according to context, Karashima states
that in this particular case in the Lotus
Sūtra, adya would
have been the correct choice.

Buddhist Studies scholars have generally concluded that the Lotus Sūtra was originally composed of chapters
2–9 only, and at first, as with other sūtras, consisted of just the
verses. There is certainly a change in the nature of the sūtra from the
tenth chapter onward. Later chapters reflect the negative reaction to the
promulgation of the original sūtra, containing admonitions to endure
persecution, providing blessings for protection from persecution, and
describing the evil fate that awaits the sūtra’s critics and persecutors.
Thus, there seems to have been a gradual accretion in the size of the sūtra
over time, as the result not only of additional chapters being added, but
also of the existing chapters being expanded by the insertion of additional
passages, as can be seen by comparing the Chinese translations to the
Tibetan. Perhaps the last passage added to a Sanskrit version was the one
describing the teaching that emanates from Buddha Prabhūtaratna’s floating
stūpa, as it is found neither in any surviving Sanskrit manuscript, nor in
the Chinese.

Of particular note is the passage in chapter 11 that deals with
Devadatta, Buddha Śākyamuni’s cousin. Elsewhere in the Buddhist tradition he
is portrayed as a villain who divided the saṅgha by becoming a rival
teacher, attempted to assassinate the Buddha, and eventually fell into hell
when the earth opened up beneath his feet. Even in the Jātaka stories, a
character that plays a villainous role is usually declared to have been a
previous life of Devadatta. However, the Lotus
Sūtra differs markedly in regard to its portrayal of Devadatta:
Śākyamuni describes Devadatta as being his teacher in a past life and also
prophesies his buddhahood. The Buddhist tradition of Devadatta continued in
India for at least a millennium, is mentioned in Pali texts as late as the
fifth century, and is described by Chinese pilgrims to India, including
Xuanzang (c. 602–64), who recorded three seventh century Devadatta Buddhist
monasteries in Bengal. This passage may therefore be the result of a more
harmonious coexistence of the two traditions at a certain time and place.
Even though the Devadatta passage was included in the text that Dharmarakṣa
translated into Chinese in 286 ce, it was absent
in the text translated by Kumārajīva in 406 ce.

The Lotus Sūtra introduced themes,
ideas, and views that have had a great influence on the Buddhist tradition,
such as the doctrine that there is only one single yāna, or “vehicle,” that
is the way to buddhahood; the distinction between teachings that are
expedient and those that are definite; the notion that the Buddha’s life was
simply a manifestation by one who had attained buddhahood an incalculably
long time ago; and the idea that the Buddha’s passing into the quiescence of
nirvāṇa was also an illusory manifestation, and that instead he continues to
teach eternally.

Within more general commentaries, however, there are many references
to the sūtra to be found. Over thirty texts in the Tengyur, predominantly of
the Madhyamaka tradition, cite it. Possibly the earliest such reference is
in the Sūtrasamuccaya (A Compendium from the Sūtras), which is simply an anthology of
extracts from sixty-eight Mahāyāna sūtras and was attributed to Nāgārjuna
(second to third century ce) by both Candrakīrti
and Śāntideva in the seventh century. The sūtra is cited three times on the
subject of faith.

Another early reference to the sūtra in a commentary is made in the
fourth century Mahāyāna Treatise on the Supreme
Continuum, attributed in the Tibetan tradition to
Maitreya-Asaṅga. The treatise mentions the Lotus
Sūtra “and other scriptures” as describing the skillful method
of giving Dharma teachings that counter attachment to the self, for the
purpose of ripening beings for the Mahāyāna. The commentary to this text,
attributed to Asaṅga, repeats this assertion. Vasubandhu,
traditionally identified as Asaṅga’s younger brother, refers to the single
yāna teaching of the Lotus Sūtra in his
commentary on The Mahāyāna Compendium.

In the seventh century, Candrakīrti (c. 600–650 ce) described nirvāṇa to be like the Lotus Sūtra’s parable of the illusory town created
for merchants. He also
quoted the sūtra twice in describing how śrāvakas can eventually attain
buddhahood.

In the eighth century, Śāntideva cited such passages in the sūtra as
the verses on the merit of building stūpas, (chapter 2, verses 80–82) and the verse on solitary contemplation on the
nature of phenomena (chapter 13, verse 24).

Dharmamitra (c. 800 ce), in his
commentary to Maitreya-Asaṅga’s Adornment of
Realization, refers to the Lotus
Sūtra three times. He states that Dharma teachings can be given
in an instant, as in chapter 14 of the Lotus
Sūtra in which, while the bodhisattvas who emerged from under
the earth make offerings for twenty-five eons, that timespan seems to the
beings in our world to be just one afternoon. He also
quotes from chapter 13, on how a buddha “does not request anything from his
followers,” and he states that a buddha teaches out of compassion with no
desire for material gain. Finally, he
refers to the sūtra when stating that the Buddha in actuality taught only
one yāna.

Jānavajra (the Sanskrit equivalent of his name would be Jñānavajra),
whose dates are unknown, appears to be from a later century and to have
lived in Kashmir. He refers to the Lotus Sūtra
four times in his commentary on The Sūtra of the Entry
into Laṅka. Another reference to the sūtra in a pre–ninth-century text
is found in a commentary on the hundred-thousand, twenty-five-thousand, and
eighteen-thousand verse Perfection of Wisdom
Sūtras attributed variously to Daṃṣṭrāsena of Kashmir, to
Vasubandhu, or to neither. The commentary, while describing the state of an
arhat, quotes at length from the Buddha’s prophecy of Śāriputra’s eventual
buddhahood.

References to the sūtra in commentarial works continued until the
time of Abhayākaragupta (d. 1125), the last of the great masters of Indian
Buddhism, who refers to it in explaining that there is only a single yāna
and that the nirvāṇa taught in the lower yānas is merely a provisional
teaching.

There is also a commentary specifically on the Lotus Sūtra that was translated into Tibetan from Chinese. It
lacks a Sanskrit title and a translator’s colophon, but its authorship is
attributed to a certain Saitsalak (sa’i rtsa
lag, a name which has been reconstructed in Sanskrit as
Pṛthivībandhu). Even though the colophon states that the author
is from Sri Lanka, the text is structured into enumerated sections and
subsections in a way unknown in the Indian tradition of commentaries, but
which was the modus operandi of Chinese and Tibetan commentaries. It
transpires that this is in fact an incomplete translation, going no further
than chapter 11, of a commentary written in Chinese by Kuiji (632–82), a
prominent student of the famous Xuanzang. The Denkarma
(ldan kar ma or lhan kar ma), a Tibetan catalog compiled in
the ninth century, lists this commentary as being one of only eight that
were translations from the Chinese. The only
other commentary in Tibetan translation that cites the Lotus Sūtra numerous times—thirty-three to be exact—and also
quotes from a commentary on the sūtra, is also a translation from the
Chinese.

The apparent absence of an Indian commentary specifically dedicated
to the Lotus Sūtra does not necessarily tell us
much about its importance or otherwise among Indian Buddhists. Much of the
history of Indian Buddhism has vanished along with its libraries, but there
is a fortunate exception. Gilgit is located in what is now northwest
Pakistan, a region where Islam prevails, but in 1931 some local people
accidentally discovered a buried two-story tower (which has often been
referred to mistakenly as a stūpa) that had served a Buddhist community in
the past and contained a library of Buddhist manuscripts. After its
discovery, the local populace used much of the collection for firewood and
building materials, but what precious contents remained were preserved
following an official excavation in 1938. In particular, the research work
of Oskar von Hinüber
on the library’s contents and on the rock inscriptions found in Gilgit has
revealed a Palola dynasty of the seventh to the eighth century that was
devoted to Buddhism. The royal family and others among the lay population
were evidently devoted to the Lotus Sūtra and
sponsored the creation of copies preserved in the ancient library.
Ironically the dynasty came to an end when it was conquered by Tibet in 737
ce, and the Buddhist sculptures sponsored by
the royal family were taken to Tibet. This was during the reign of King
Tride Tsuktsen (704–54), who was the father of Trisong Detsen (743–797/804),
under whom the work of translating the entire teachings of the Buddha would
begin.

In addition to these sixth to eighth century texts found in Gilgit,
there are manuscripts from Khotan, discovered in the nineteenth century,
that have often been referred to erroneously as Kashgar manuscripts.
Their dates vary from the sixth to possibly the eleventh century, but
linguistically they preserve a more ancient form of the sūtra, and some do
not contain the Devadatta section—as was the case with Kumārajīva’s source.
Their colophons again reveal a strong lay tradition of sponsoring copies of
the Lotus Sūtra to bring merit to both the
living and the deceased.

Nepalese Buddhism represents a continuous survival of the Sanskrit
tradition of Buddhism and has preserved over thirty palm-leaf manuscripts of
Sanskrit versions of the Lotus Sūtra that date
back to the eleventh century. In Nepal, as in Tibet, the sūtras were
surpassed in importance by the tantras, but even so the Lotus Sūtra is counted as one of the Nine Dharmas (navadharma) of Nepalese
Buddhism, which are traditionally recited and honored with offerings.

The Sūtra in China and Beyond

The Lotus Sūtra is said to have been
first translated into Chinese in 255 ce in a
translation that was lost. The first surviving translation into Chinese
(T. 263) was made in 286 ce over a three-week
period, beginning on September 15 and concluding on October 6 in Chang’an,
then the capital of China. The translator was Dharmarakṣa (c. 233–310),
originally from Dunhuang. However, his translation was not very easy to
read and, like two lost translations apparently made in 290 and 335, it was
eventually overshadowed by the far more readable version (T. 262) by
Kumārajīva (334–413). It is this translation of the Lotus Sūtra, completed in 406, that made it accessible,
popular, and influential. Kumārajīva and his translation team must
have either translated freely from the Indian text, or were translating from
an earlier version of the sūtra. It is recorded that the translation avoided
simply rendering the Sanskrit text literally into the Chinese language, and
the work involved lively discussions within his team. The Taishō canon
also includes another early translation (T. 265), dated to 265–317, whose
translator remains unknown.

Kumārajīva’s version did not translate the verses, and the Devadatta
section is noticeable by its absence, even though it had been in
Dharmarakṣa’s version. The Devadatta chapter was included eighty years
later, after Dharmamati (late fifth century) had translated a Sanskrit
version of the story retrieved from Turfan by the monk Faxian (423–97).

Both the verses and the Devadatta chapter were translated in 601–02
in the version (T. 264) made by Jñānagupta (523–600), in collaboration with
Dharmagupta. Jñānagupta and Dharmagupta basically produced a
revision of the Kumārajīva version. However, chapter 5 in their translation
(as in the Tibetan and present Sanskrit) follows the parable of the herbs
with other parables, such as that of sunlight and moonlight, and the blind
man cured by herbs, which were absent from Kumārajīva’s version. Similarly,
the last part of chapter 25 also first appeared in the 601–02 translation.
Later editions of Kumārajīva’s translation have added the Devadatta chapter,
the verses originally absent from Kumārajīva’s version, and the concluding
part of chapter 25.

The first Chinese commentary written specifically on the sūtra was
by Daosheng (c. 360?–434) who studied under Kumārajīva in Chang’an, assisted
in his translation of the Lotus Sūtra, and is
listed as one of Kumārajīva’s fifteen principal students. He argued that the
sūtra’s central teaching is that there is ultimately only one vehicle to
buddhahood.

The first works to emphasize the superiority of the Lotus Sūtra above all other sūtras are by Zhiyi
(Chih-i 538–97), who lived on Tiantai Mountain. This marks the real
beginning of the Tiantai school, which was based on the Lotus Sūtra, and became one of the major schools of Chinese
Buddhism. The popularity of the sūtra is evident in the Dunhuang
caves, which were sealed in the eleventh century. In addition to a thousand
copies of the sūtra, murals portraying scenes from the sūtra, such as the
floating stūpa and the burning house, are found in seventy-five of the
caves.

The sūtra spread from China into other Asian countries, and
Kumārajīva’s version was translated into a number of Asian languages. The
Tiantai school was taken to Japan, where it is called the Tendai school, by
Saichō (767–822), who returned from China in 805 and built a temple on Mount
Hiei. It grew into Japan’s main Buddhist tradition and subsequently
divided into sub-schools.

Nichiren (1222–82), who had studied in the Tendai tradition,
established his own school of thought and practice. In 1253, he set out to
proclaim the supremacy of the Lotus Sūtra and
began teaching the recitation of “Homage to the White Lotus of the Good
Dharma Sūtra,” which is a homage to the title of the Lotus Sūtra as translated by Kumārajīva: Namu myōhō renge kyō.
Namu is the equivalent of
the Sanskrit namaḥ
(“homage”) and Myōhō renge kyō is the
Japanese rendering of the Chinese title of the sūtra, Miao fa lian hua jing (妙法蓮華經). Nichiren espoused the sūtra as important for the
welfare of the state, and his combative approach led to his being exiled for
two periods, and almost brought about his execution. Nevertheless,
many Nichiren traditions developed over the ensuing centuries, all
practicing the recitation of homage to the title of the sūtra. Some of these
schools have been intolerant of other traditions, and were sometimes
nationalistic and even violent. As a result, certain followers of Nichiren,
too, suffered exile, imprisonment, torture, and even execution. The
best-known Nichiren traditions in the present day are Nichiren Shōshū and
Sōka Gakkai, which broke away from Nichiren Shōshū in 1991. Nichiren Shōshū
holds the view that Nichiren himself was the Buddha. Sōka Gakkai is a
lay organization founded in 1930 as a part of Nichiren Shōshū. Although its
founders were imprisoned in 1943, a subsequent program of vigorous
proselytization has led to a huge following around the world. The head of Nichiren Shōshū excommunicated the entire
Sōka Gakkai organization in 1991.

In addition to these traditions based upon the Lotus Sūtra, there is also an extensive scholastic tradition of studying the Lotus Sūtra in Japan.

The Sūtra in Tibet

The Tibetan translation was made during the reign of King Ralpachen
(r. 815–38) as part of the translation project at Samye Monastery instituted
by King Trisong Detsen (r. 742–98). The translators were Nanam Yeshé Dé, who
was also the chief editor and whose name is in the colophon of no fewer than
380 texts in the Kangyur and Tengyur, three of which are his own original
works in Tibetan, and the Indian translator Surendrabodhi, who did not come
to Tibet until Ralpachen’s reign and is also listed as the translator of 43
texts.

The Tibetan version matches in content the version translated into
Chinese by Jñānagupta and Dharmagupta in 601–02, and also matches the
Nepalese Sanskrit manuscripts. The last part of chapter 25 corresponds to
the passage that first appeared in Chinese in the 601–02 translation and was
subsequently added to Kumārajīva’s version. The Devadatta episode, which is
not in Kumārajīva’s Chinese translation and is included as a separate
chapter in Jñānagupta’s, forms part of chapter 11, “The Appearance of the
Stūpa,” in both the Nepalese Sanskrit and the Tibetan. However, the
transition in chapter 11 from the account of the floating stūpa to the
Devadatta passage is abrupt. The Devadatta passage is also followed
immediately, without a narrative transition, by the account of Prajñākūṭa,
which might more gracefully have had its own chapter.

Present in Tibetan and Sanskrit, but not in Chinese, are the last
five verses of chapter 24, describing Avalokiteśvara in relation to
Sukhāvatī and his future buddhahood. Some Tibetan versions contain a
teaching that is emitted from the floating stūpa in chapter 11. As mentioned
above, this teaching is not found in any extant Sanskrit manuscript, nor in
the Chinese translations. Specifically, it is present in the Degé, Narthang,
Lhasa, and Stok Palace Kangyurs, but not in the Yongle Peking, Lithang,
Kangxi Peking, or Choné Kangyurs.

As mentioned above, the only commentary on the sūtra in the Tengyur
is an anonymous translation from the Chinese of the first eleven chapters of
a commentary by Kuiji (632–682). In Tibet the Lotus
Sūtra never gained the prominence it achieved in China, let
alone in Japan; nor did it have even the status it retains in Nepalese
Buddhism. Nevertheless, it has served through the centuries as a source of
quotations for many authors of all schools of Tibetan Buddhism, particularly
on the subject of the preeminence of the Mahāyāna.

Translations into Western Languages

The history of the Lotus Sūtra in the
West begins with Brian Houghton Hodgson (1801–94), the British Resident in
Kathmandu who acquired and sent Tibetan and Sanskrit texts to Europe. In
particular, in 1837 he sent three nineteenth-century Sanskrit manuscripts to
Paris. Eugène Burnouf (1801–52) made an excellent and elegant
translation into French of the sūtra—Le lotus de la
bonne loi—with copious notes, which was not published in its
entirety until after his death.

The first complete translation of the Lotus
Sūtra into English was that of Jan Hendrik Kern (1833–1917) in
1884. He translated it from the Sanskrit as The Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, or The Lotus of the True Law. Most
translations into European languages, however, have been from Kumārajīva’s
Chinese translation, beginning with Carlo Puini’s Italian translation in
1873.

A number of more recent English translations have been made from
Kumārajīva’s Chinese, such as those by Senchū Murano in 1974, Bunnō Katō in
1975, Leon Hurvitz in 1976, Daniel Montgomery in 1991, Tsugunari Kubo and
Akira Yuyama in 1993 (with a revised edition in 2007), Burton Watson in
1993, and Gene Reeves in 2008.

This Translation

This translation is based on the version found in the Degé Kangyur,
particularly the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur
ma) of the Degé (2006–09), which is annotated with the variant
readings of several other Kangyurs. Also consulted were the Stok Palace
manuscript Kangyur, an important Thempangma-recension Kangyur whose variant
readings are not recorded in the Comparative Edition, as well as the
available Sanskrit editions, particularly that of Vaidya, and the Chinese
translations, particularly that of Jñānagupta and Dharmagupta.

While the Tibetan and Sanskrit versions are quite similar, the
available translations in English (made from the Chinese) can differ
considerably from them, and from one another. This translation into English
is primarily intended to represent the Tibetan translation, but when the
Tibetan is clearly at fault—to the extent that it disrupts the integrity of
the text or narrative, whether that be through textual corruption or
seemingly imperfect translation—we have corrected it with reference to the
Sanskrit, and have given the Tibetan version in an accompanying endnote. If
the Tibetan is perfectly cogent, we have followed it in this translation,
even if it is in disagreement with the Sanskrit and Chinese. The Sanskrit
and Chinese versions are provided in the endnotes. “The Sanskrit” in notes
refers to Vaidya’s edition unless otherwise indicated. “The Chinese” refers
to the translation of Jñānagupta and Dharmagupta unless otherwise noted.

Because access to the glossary is easy and immediate in this online
format, we have used Sanskrit terms for items such as the names of the four
Indian castes, kūṭāgāra,
and various epithets, for which there are no precise English
equivalents.

Translation of the Title

There are two translations of the title from the Sanskrit and a
number of translations from the Chinese versions of the sūtra. In the
Sanskrit title, the qualifying adjective sat becomes sad in saddharma. Sat, or dam
pa in Tibetan, has been translated in various ways. Generally,
saddharma (or dam pa’i chos in Tibetan) is
translated simply as Dharma
with a capital D, but in the context of this famous title, the
qualifying adjective for “Dharma” needs to make its presence felt.

According to the Mahāvyutpatti
dictionary, the Tibetan word dam
pa translates not only sat but also bhadra (“good”), uttama (“supreme”), and bāḍha (“mighty”). The term dam pa could be translated into
English in many ways, such as “excellent,” “sublime,” “holy,” or “sacred,”
while the Sanskrit sat
primarily means “good” or “true.” In this translation we follow Burnouf and
Kern, who translated directly from the Sanskrit, in choosing the plain “good
Dharma.”

Translation of Specific Terms

Regarding the translation of pronouns, in Tibetan there is often no
distinction between masculine or feminine, or even between singular and
plural, but the Sanskrit of the sūtra frequently uses the masculine
singular. Since this Sanskrit usage of the masculine singular can usually be
interpreted as a general category that includes both sexes and refers to
both male and female devotees, we have chosen to render such pronouns as the
more gender inclusive “they” whenever the context allows it. However, in
passages that very clearly refer specifically to males, we have allowed
context to override gender inclusivity and have rendered the pronouns
accordingly as the masculine singular “he.”

The epithet devaputra literally means “son of a deva,” but it is simply
an elegant way of saying that someone is a deva, and a literal translation
appears rather awkward. Similarly, “son of a merchant” can, according to
context, just mean “merchant.” Also the epithets “son of a [noble] family”
and “daughter of a [noble] family” refer to a noble person and are simply
polite forms of address, akin to the English “ladies and gentlemen,” and so
they have not been translated literally as “sons” or “daughters.”

’jig rten gyi khams
(lokadhātu) can mean
not simply the one world we live in, but a thousand million worlds that are
presided over by one Brahmā and are the field of activity of a single buddha
(which is why the term buddha realm may include this
great number of worlds). However, it is sometimes uncertain whether lokadhātu is referring simply to
one world, as in early Buddhism, or to a group of many such worlds. The
terms universe and cosmos are too
comprehensive for such a set of worlds, as a number of these sets are said
to coexist. Galaxy has been used in some translations
and is analogous, but seems too modern a term with an overly specific
meaning for this translation. We have therefore used “world realm” because
it is a literal translation of lokadhātu and ’jig
rten gyi khams, and could be understood to mean both a single
world or a thousand million worlds.

Detailed Summary of “The White Lotus of the Good

Dharma”

Chapter 1: The Introduction

The Buddha is on Vulture Peak with a great assembly when he
emits a ray of light from his ūrṇā hair that illuminates eighteen thousand buddha
realms in the east, making all the beings there visible to the
assembly. Maitreya asks Mañjuśrī what this meant. Mañjuśrī states
that it is an omen that the Buddha is going to teach The White Lotus of the Good Dharma.
Mañjuśrī knows this because he had seen the same thing occur in a
previous eon when he was Śrīgarbha, also known as Varaprabha, the
senior student of Buddha Candrasūryapradīpa. And at that time
Maitreya was Śrīgarbha’s student, a lazy bodhisattva named
Yaśaskāma.

Chapter 2: Skill in Methods

The Buddha comes out of his meditation and tells Śāriputra
of how the buddhas possess skill in methods for liberating beings,
and their wisdom is inconceivable to śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas.
Śāriputra requests the Buddha three times to explain what he means.
Five thousand bhikṣus leave the assembly, not wishing to hear the
teaching. The Buddha states that there is only one yāna, which is
the way to buddhahood, and the division into three yānas is merely a
skillful method used by the buddhas. He warns that in the future,
śrāvakas will not preserve this sūtra. He describes the benefits for
those who will have devotion for it, and he also states that those
who make even the simplest offerings to the buddhas will eventually
attain enlightenment as a result. The Buddha describes his
enlightenment, his previous teachings on attaining nirvāṇa, and how
the time came to begin teaching the attainment of buddhahood. He
also states that those who reject this sūtra will be reborn in
hell.

Chapter 3: The Parable

Śāriputra states that he was sad not to have previously
received the teachings given to the bodhisattvas, but is now happy
because he has received them. The Buddha explains that in previous
lives Śāriputra had received this teaching, and he prophesies that
in a future eon Śāriputra will become Buddha Padmaprabha in a pure
realm called Virajā. Śāriputra states that there are those in the
assembly who are confused as to why there is a new teaching. He asks
the Buddha to explain. The Buddha says he will do so through a
parable. He describes a vast decrepit house, full of dangerous
monsters and creatures, that catches fire. The owner sees that his
sons are playing inside. They are so engrossed in their play that
they do not heed their father’s warning. He then promises them
ox-carts, goat-carts, and deer-carts, which fulfills their various
longings. They all rush outside, thus escaping from the house. The
father then gives them all magnificent ox-carts. The Buddha says
that the father employed a skillful method so as to save them, and
in the end they all got the best kind of cart. Therefore the father
could not be called a liar. The word for cart
in Sanskrit is yāna, and the cart they are all eventually given is a
“great cart,” in other words, the Mahāyāna. This establishes that
the Buddha uses the skillful method of giving various teachings so
as to liberate beings from saṃsāra, but eventually he gives them all
the supreme teaching of omniscient wisdom, the one true yāna, which
is the Mahāyāna.

Chapter 4: The Aspiration

The principal elder monks, such as Mahākāśyapa, state that
they are astonished to hear this new teaching. They had never
previously had the intention to become buddhas, but only to attain
nirvāṇa. They then relate the parable of a man whose son wandered
away, becoming a beggar for fifty years. The father, meanwhile,
searching for the son, comes to another city where he becomes
incredibly wealthy. The son one day arrives at the father’s house
and, intimidated by his wealth and importance, flees. The father,
recognizing him, sends people to bring him back, but the son panics.
Therefore the father uses a ruse: he sends some low-class people to
offer him the job of clearing away the rubbish and waste of the
house. The son lives in a straw hut beside the house and does that
work. Gradually, over twenty years, the father has the son working
inside his home and taking care of all his wealth, although he still
lives in poverty in his straw hut. When he sees that his son is
ready, he holds a great meeting, announces the identity of his son,
and bestows all his wealth on him; the son is overjoyed. The elders
state that they were like this son, who knew of the teaching
practiced by the bodhisattvas for attaining buddhahood, and even
taught it to them, but they themselves did not have the confidence
for such a great goal. However, on this day they are overjoyed to
hear from the Buddha that they also are able to attain
buddhahood.

Chapter 5: Herbs

The Buddha relates to Mahākāśyapa the parable of how the
rain falls equally on all plants, from the smallest herbs to the
greatest trees, nourishing them all in accordance with their needs,
and in this way he teaches the Dharma to beings on different levels
according to their needs, and does not give them all the teaching on
the attainment of omniscience. He teaches another parable on how the
light of the sun and the moon shines equally on all, and, in the
same way, the light of the Buddha’s wisdom shines on all, whatever
their aspirations. This light gives them the exact teaching they
aspire to, and that is why there are the teachings of the three
yānas. He also teaches the parable of how a potter makes pots from
the same clay, but they are used to contain different substances and
therefore given different designations. In the same way, there is
but one yāna, the Buddhayāna, but because of the differences among
beings, there are the designations of śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas,
and bodhisattvas. The Buddha also teaches the parable of a man who,
because he is blind from birth, does not believe there is a sun,
moon, or anything to be seen. A compassionate physician obtains
herbs from the Himalayas and cures him. Realizing he was previously
ignorant, the man thinks he can now see everything, but clairvoyant
rishis make him realize his sight is still limited. He practices in
solitude and gains higher knowledge. In that way beings are blinded
by ignorance, but the Buddha teaches them so that they are freed
from saṃsāra. They believe they have attained the ultimate goal of
nirvāṇa, but the Buddha explains that there is still the omniscience
of buddhas to be attained.

Chapter 6: The Prophecies to the Śrāvakas

The Buddha prophesies how Mahākāśyapa will, in a future
time, after being a student of millions of buddhas, become a buddha
named Raśmiprabhāsa in a pure realm called Avabhāsaprāptā. The
Buddha describes the length of his lifespan and the subsequent
duration of his teachings. Mahāmaudgalyāyana, Subhūti, and
Mahākātyāyana pray in their minds for prophecies, which the Buddha
subsequently gives for each of them. Subhūti will become Buddha
Śaśiketu in the pure realm Ratnasaṃbhava. Mahākātyāyana will become
Buddha Jāmbūnadaprabhāsa in an unnamed pure realm.
Mahāmaudgalyāyana will become Buddha Tamālapatracandanagandha in
the pure realm Ratiprapūrṇa.

Chapter 7: The Past

The Buddha tells of a time in the distant past when Buddha
Mahābhijñājñānābhibhū spent ten intermediate eons under the Bodhi
tree to attain enlightenment. His sixteen sons came to supplicate
him for teachings, as did brahmās from quintillions of world realms
in every direction. He gave the teachings of the four truths of the
āryas and of dependent origination, and his saṅgha became
innumerable. At a request from his sixteen sons for the highest
Dharma, he taught The White Lotus of the Good
Dharma for a hundred thousand eons. Then he entered
solitude and each of the sixteen sons taught the sūtra to
quintillions of beings. The Buddha states that the sixteen sons have
become sixteen buddhas, one of whom is himself, and his students
from that distant time are again his students in the present. He
then gives the parable of a guide leading a great number of beings
through a vast jungle on the way to an island of jewels. When they
become exhausted and wish to turn back he magically creates a city
for them to rest in. When they are rested he tells them the city was
an illusion and that they should continue their journey. Similarly,
the Buddha has taught the yānas and nirvāṇas of the śrāvakas and
pratyekabuddhas to beings so that they may rest on their journey to
buddhahood, whereas there is truly only one nirvāṇa and yāna, that
of buddhahood.

Chapter 8: The Prophecy to the Five Hundred

Bhikṣus

The Buddha declares Pūrṇa Maitrāyaṇīputra to be the supreme
teacher of the Dharma from among his saṅgha, and that he was also
the principal teacher for the six previous buddhas and will be for
the remaining ninety-six buddhas of this eon. He says that in the
distant future he will be Buddha Dharmaprabhāsa in this world, which
at that time will have become a miraculous pure realm. The twelve
hundred arhats present wish in their minds to also receive
prophecies. Knowing this, the Buddha gives them. First he says that
Kauṇḍinya will become a buddha named Samantaprabhāsa, and five
hundred of the arhats will follow him as successive buddhas all
named Samantaprabhāsa. Without any detail he states that it will be
the same for the others. The five hundred arhats confess their
previous ignorance and describe it through the parable of a man
whose friend had sewn a jewel in his clothes, but who later, unaware
of that jewel, was living as a destitute beggar concerned only with
finding food, until his friend found him and showed the jewel. They
say they had in this way been ignorant of the Buddha’s higher
teachings and had been concerned only with attaining nirvāṇa, which
they now realize is not the true nirvāṇa. Now, however, they have
understood this and are overjoyed to receive his prophecy of their
eventual buddhahood.

Chapter 9: The Prophecies to Ānanda, Rāhula, and Two

Thousand Bhikṣus

Ānanda, Rāhula, and two thousand bhikṣus make the aspiration
to receive a prophecy from the Buddha. First the Buddha prophesies
that Ānanda, after serving quintillions of buddhas, will become
Buddha Sāgaravaradharabuddhivikrīḍitābhijña. New bodhisattvas
wonder why a śrāvaka should receive such a prophecy instead of a
bodhisattva. The Buddha explains that he and Ānanda began their
spiritual journey together, but because Ānanda focused on receiving
teachings rather than practice, he has been the principal keeper of
the Dharma for quintillions of buddhas. Then the Buddha prophesies
that Rāhula, who is his own son, will become Buddha
Saptaratnapadmavikrāntagāmin, and until that time he will be the
son of every buddha, lastly that of Ānanda as the Buddha
Sāgaravaradharabuddhivikrīḍitābhijña. The Buddha then prophesies
that the two thousand bhikṣus will all simultaneously in different
realms become buddhas, all named Ratnaketurāja, who will have
identical realms and lifespans.

Chapter 10: The Dharmabhāṇakas

The Buddha addresses principally the bodhisattva
Bhaiṣajyarāja and tells him that all in the assembly are
bodhisattvas, and whoever even hears one line of verse from the
sūtra will attain buddhahood. He says that those who transmit this
sūtra should be honored as if they were buddhas and that stūpas
should be built wherever the sūtra is taught, recited, or written.
Speaking badly of such a dharmabhāṇaka would be worse than insulting
the Buddha to his face for an eon. He says that a bodhisattva who
does not know this sūtra is far from buddhahood, like a man digging
a well and encountering only dry earth, while a bodhisattva who
knows the sūtra is close to buddhahood, like a well-digger
encountering wet earth, which is a sign of the proximity of water.
The Buddha states that in the future, when someone teaches this
sūtra, he will send emanations to the assembly that listens to it.
If someone recites it in solitude in a forest he will emanate
nonhuman beings to listen to that person. In the concluding verses
he says his emanations will protect a teacher of this sūtra from
physical attacks and abuse, and he will manifest before those
reciting the sūtra in solitude and will check and correct their
recitation.

Chapter 11: The Appearance of the Stūpa

A gigantic stūpa rises into the sky from the midst of the
assembly. A voice commends the Buddha for teaching this sūtra. The
Buddha explains to the bodhisattva Mahāpratibhāna that this is the
stūpa of Buddha Prabhūtaratna, who attained enlightenment through
this sūtra. Buddha Prabhūtaratna had prayed to appear within his own
stūpa wherever the sūtra was taught. He also prayed that any buddhas
teaching it would bring all their emanations from other realms to
that world to listen, and he also prayed that his stūpa would be
opened by those buddhas. Buddha Śākyamuni then draws his
quintillions of emanations as other buddhas into his world realm,
which is transformed into a pure realm. Those buddhas all send
attendants to Śākyamuni requesting the opening of the stūpa.
Śākyamuni levitates and opens it, revealing Buddha Prabhūtaratna
inside. He sits next to him, and describes the uniquely incalculable
merit of teaching the sūtra. The Buddha then describes his previous
life as a king dedicated to the Dharma who became a rishi’s slave in
order to hear this sūtra. As a result of that he has now attained
the qualities of a buddha. He states that the rishi was a previous
life of Devadatta, who in the future will be the buddha Devarāja.
The bodhisattva Prajñākūṭa, who is from Buddha Prabhūtaratna’s
realm, requests that Prabhūtaratna come back to his realm. The
Buddha asks Prajñākūṭa to stay for a while and talk with Mañjuśrī.
Mañjuśrī miraculously comes from the palace of the nāga king Sāgara,
which is in the ocean, and manifests for Prajñākūṭa the vast number
of bodhisattvas he has guided toward enlightenment in the ocean. He
also describes the great qualities of the nāga king’s daughter and
states that she can attain buddhahood. When Prajñākūṭa finds that
hard to believe, the nāga princess appears. Śāriputra says to her
that a woman cannot attain buddhahood, regardless of her qualities.
The nāga princess then offers a jewel as valuable as the world realm
to the Buddha and states that she can attain buddhahood faster than
making that offering. She transforms into a male bodhisattva and
goes to a southern realm and becomes a buddha. Everyone in this
world realm is able to see that buddha teaching in that realm.

Chapter 12: Resolutions

The bodhisattvas Bhaiṣajyarāja, Mahāpratibhāna, and two
hundred thousand others reassure the Buddha that they will teach the
sūtra in the future. The bhikṣus also state they will teach it in
other world realms. The Buddha tells his aunt Mahāprajāpatī that in
the distant future she will become Buddha
Sarvasattvapriyadarśana, that her following of six thousand
bhikṣuṇīs will be her students, and that she will prophesy their
buddhahood. Similarly, the Buddha tells Yaśodharā, who had been his
wife, that she will become Buddha
Raśmiśatasahasraparipūrṇadhvaja. Then eighty-thousand
bodhisattvas declare that they will teach the Dharma in the later
times, enduring all persecution and rejection.

Chapter 13: Dwelling in Happiness

Mañjuśrī asks the Buddha how bodhisattvas should teach the
sūtra in the future. The Buddha says they should have four
qualities: (1) In terms of practice they should have self-control
and see correctly the characteristics of phenomena; in terms of
their field of activity they should stay apart from society and
worldly life, and in particular avoid attraction to women. (2) They
should see the emptiness of phenomena. (3) They should also remain
in a state of happiness and never criticize others; they should not
discourage people, by saying that they are unable to attain
enlightenment. (4) They should remain far from others but have
compassion for them, and wish to attain buddhahood so as to liberate
them. The Buddha then prophesies that such bodhisattvas will be
greatly revered by humans and devas. The Buddha gives the parable of
a king rewarding heroic warriors with all kinds of gifts, and
finally giving his crest jewel. The Buddha explains that in the same
way he has taught many sūtras to those battling Māra, but his final
marvelous gift is this sūtra, his final teaching that he has kept
secret until this moment.

Chapter 14: The Bodhisattvas Emerging Out of the

Ground

The bodhisattvas who have come from other world realms make
the commitment to teach this sūtra in the future. The Buddha says
that it will not be necessary as he has so many bodhisattvas in his
realm. Immediately the ground splits open and out from the ground
come countless bodhisattvas who dwell in the space below the world.
The four main ones among these—Viśiṣṭacāritra, Anantacāritra,
Viśuddhacāritra, and Supratiṣṭhitacāritra—ask after his welfare.
Maitreya asks the Buddha who these bodhisattvas are whom no one has
ever seen before. The Buddha says that they were all brought onto
the path of enlightenment by himself after he attained buddhahood.
Maitreya states that these bodhisattvas have been practicing for
many eons, and this is like a young man introducing hundred-year-old
men as his sons. Even though all present believe whatever the Buddha
says, future bodhisattvas on hearing this will doubt it and as a
result be reborn in the lower realms, and so he asks the Buddha to
explain how this can be so.

Chapter 15: The Lifespan of the Tathāgata

The bodhisattvas ask the Buddha to explain what his long
life means. He states that he had attained buddhahood countless
quintillions of eons ago, but stated that he had only recently
attained it in order to guide beings, and therefore that was not a
lie. He appears to pass into nirvāṇa but does not, and this is also
not a lie, but to prevent beings from being complacent. He gives the
parable of a doctor whose sons have been poisoned. He has the
antidote but some of his sons will not take it because their minds
are affected. He then goes away and sends them the news that he has
died. They then realize the value of what he has given them and take
the antidote. The doctor then reveals to them that he is still
alive. In the same way, the Buddha uses skillful methods and should
not be called a liar.

Chapter 16: The Extent of the Merit

The Buddha tells Maitreya that hearing this teaching on his
lifespan has caused countless bodhisattvas to attain various levels
of accomplishment. Miraculous events also occurred wherever the
buddhas who had gathered were present. The Buddha states that
hearing this teaching and believing it brings an inconceivably
greater merit than practicing the first five perfections for eons.
Those who have faith in the teaching will see the Buddha teaching in
this world as a pure realm filled with bodhisattvas. Those who carry
the text on their shoulder are carrying the Buddha, and they do not
need to build stūpas or temples, as those who have this devotion to
the sūtra have made vast offerings in the presence of the Buddha.
They will develop excellent qualities and will attain buddhahood.
Caityas should be built in honor of the Buddha wherever teachers of
this sūtra have been.

Chapter 17: Teaching the Merit of Rejoicing

Maitreya asks the Buddha how much merit is created from
rejoicing in hearing the sūtra. The Buddha gives a parable of
someone who hears the teaching and repeats it to someone else, who
repeats it to someone else, and so on, until it is heard by a
fiftieth person. Even if they only hear one line of verse, their
merit is far greater than that of a person who satisfies all the
beings in four hundred thousand realms with gifts for eighty years
and then brings them all to arhathood. The merit such a person would
accrue would not even be a quintillionth of the merit of the one who
rejoiced in hearing one line of verse that had been passed on
through fifty people. Those who go to a temple to listen to the
sūtra even briefly will have excellent carriages in their future
life. If they sit down they will have the thrones of deities and
kings, and if they make someone else listen to it, even for a
moment, they will have an excellent physical body in their future
lives.

Chapter 18: The Benefits of the Purity of the Six

Āyatanas

The Buddha tells the bodhisattva Satatasamitābhiyukta that
those who are devoted to this sūtra will attain numerous special
qualities of purified faculties, which are those of the body’s
senses and not yet the divine faculties. Nevertheless, the eight
hundred qualities of the faculty of the eye include seeing
everywhere, and seeing everyone, in the world realm of a billion
worlds. The twelve hundred qualities of aural perception include
hearing every sound, both those produced by beings and natural
sounds, in the world realm of a billion worlds, without being
overwhelmed by them. The eight hundred qualities of olfactory
perception include sensing all smells of beings and matter in the
world realm of a billion worlds. The twelve hundred qualities of
gustatory perception include all tastes becoming divine, and the
faculty of their tongue teaching the Dharma with a voice that will
delight everyone, both humans and nonhumans, and inspire their
veneration. The eight hundred qualities of the sensory faculty of
the body include having a purified body the color of beryl and
seeing within one’s body all the beings within a billion worlds. The
twelve hundred qualities of the mental faculty include understanding
the many meanings contained within one verse and teaching them for
as long as a year, and knowing all the thoughts of all beings in a
million worlds such that one’s teaching is always correct.

Chapter 19: Sadāparibhūta

The Buddha tells the bodhisattva Mahāsthāmaprāpta that
those who revile adherents to this sūtra will experience the bad
result of being mute, while those who support it will have purified
faculties. He says that long ago there was a world in which there
was a series of millions of buddhas all named
Bhīṣmagarjitasvararāja. When the Dharma of the first of these was
coming to an end, there was a bodhisattva called Sadāparibhūta who
endured the condemnation of other monastics and lay-followers. When
he was dying he heard the words of The White
Lotus of the Good Dharma coming from the air, taught
those who had previously reviled him, and lived on for millions of
years, teaching this sūtra during the time of millions of succeeding
buddhas until finally he attained enlightenment. Śākyamuni reveals
that he was Sadāparibhūta and also that those who reviled him were
now among his students. He encourages them to maintain and teach
this sūtra after he has passed into nirvāṇa.

Chapter 20: The Tathāgata’s Miracles

Viśiṣṭacāritra and the other bodhisattvas who emerged from
the ground, along with a vast number of other beings, make their
commitment to uphold the sūtra in the future. Then both Śākyamuni
and Prabhūtaratna, still seated inside the stūpa, and the buddhas in
the other world realms, extend their tongues as far as the paradise
of Brahmā, and their tongues radiate a vast number of light rays,
from within which appear countless bodhisattvas who teach the Dharma
while floating in the sky above a great number of worlds. This
miracle continues for a hundred thousand years. Then they make the
sound of clearing their throats and snap their fingers, a sound that
is heard throughout the worlds, which shake. All the buddhas then
declare that the beings in the other worlds should pay homage to
Śākyamuni and make offerings to him because he is teaching this
sūtra. They throw offerings in his direction and they cover like a
canopy this world and all other worlds. The Buddha states that there
would be no end to describing the benefits of maintaining and
promulgating this sūtra, and wherever it is taught or transcribed
should be regarded as a holy place of the Buddha.

Chapter 21: Dhāraṇīs

The bodhisattva Bhaiṣajyarāja asks the Buddha how much merit
someone who upholds this sūtra will have. The Buddha replies that
someone dedicated to just one line of verse from the sūtra will have
greater merit than that from making offerings to quintillions of
buddhas. Bhaiṣajyarāja then recites a dhāraṇī that will protect the
holders of the sūtra from attacks, and states that to attack such a
person is to attack the quintillions of buddhas who have pronounced
that dhāraṇī. Then the bodhisattva Pradānaśūra recites a dhāraṇī for
the same purpose. Then the deity Vaiśravaṇa, one of the four
mahārāja deities, recites a dhāraṇī for the protection and good
fortune of holders of the sūtra. Then Virūḍhaka, one of the other
mahārājas, arrives and recites a protective dhāraṇī. Then the
rākṣasī Hārītī, accompanied by ten other rākṣasīs and their
followers, comes and recites a protective dhāraṇī, which they all
say will make the head of one who attacks a holder of this sūtra
explode. The Buddha expresses his pleasure and tells them to protect
those who study and offer to the sūtra, even someone who only knows
the name of the sūtra.

Chapter 22: The Past of Bhaiṣajyarāja

The bodhisattva Nakṣatrarājasaṃkusumitābhijña asks the
Buddha to relate what the bodhisattva Bhaiṣajyarāja has practiced in
his past lives. The Buddha says that in the distant past there was a
buddha named Candrasūryavimalaprabhāsaśrī with a lifespan of
many eons in a world that was a pure realm. He taught The White Lotus of the Good Dharma. His
student bodhisattva Sarvasattvapriyadarśana practices this and
attains samādhi, at which time miraculous events occur. Then
Sarvasattvapriyadarśana spends twelve years eating aromatic
resins and drinking perfumed oils and then sets his body on fire as
an offering to the Buddha. The light of the fire shines through many
worlds and the buddhas there commend him for his supreme offering.
He burns for twelve years and then is miraculously born, with the
power of speech, to a king. He then flies in a precious palace to
see Buddha Candrasūryavimalaprabhāsaśrī. That buddha tells him
that he is passing into nirvāṇa that very night and entrusts his
students and his relics to Sarvasattvapriyadarśana.
Sarvasattvapriyadarśana cremates Buddha
Candrasūryavimalaprabhāsaśrī and places the relics inside
eighty-four thousand stūpas and then burns his arm as an offering to
them. The other students are upset, but invoking the power of truth
his body becomes golden and his arm is restored. The Buddha states
that Sarvasattvapriyadarśana was a previous life of
Bhaiṣajyarāja. He then proclaims how the offering of the body is the
greatest way to create merit and that a follower of the Mahāyāna
should burn a toe, finger, or a limb as an offering to a stūpa. He
describes through analogies how this sūtra is superior to all other
sūtras, and will bring many kinds of benefits. In particular,
devotion to this particular chapter will end rebirth as a woman and
bring rebirth in Sukhāvatī. The Buddha then entrusts the propagation
of this chapter to the bodhisattva
Nakṣatrarājasaṃkusumitābhijña.

Chapter 23: Gadgadasvara

The Buddha emits a light from his ūrṇā hair that spreads through buddha
realms in the east and reaches Vairocanaraśmipratimaṇḍitā, in
which lives Buddha
Kamaladalavimalanakṣatrarājasaṃkusumitābhijña and the
bodhisattva Gadgadasvara. Gadgadasvara wishes to come to Sahā to see
Buddha Śākyamuni, enters samādhi, and many miraculous lotuses appear
on Vulture Peak. The Buddha explains to Mañjuśrī that this is a sign
of Gadgadasvara’s intention to come. Śākyamuni asks Buddha
Prabhūtaratna to cause him to come. Buddha Prabhūtaratna speaks
words inviting Gadgadasvara, who comes with quintillions of
bodhisattvas, makes an offering to Śākyamuni, and conveys
Kamaladalavimalanakṣatrarājasaṃkusumitābhijña’s respectful
inquiry as to Śākyamuni’s health, and so forth. The bodhisattva
Padmaśrī asks Śākyamuni about Gadgadasvara’s past. Śākyamuni
describes how in a previous life in the distant past, in the realm
Sarvarūpasaṃdarśanā, Gadgadasvara made extensive offerings to Buddha Meghadundubhisvararāja,
and subsequently to countless buddhas, and how he has also taught
this very sūtra to beings in various divine and human forms through
the samādhi manifestation of all forms. Through
hearing the contents of this chapter a vast number of bodhisattvas
attained that samādhi, a lesser number attained receptivity to the
nonarising of phenomena, and Padmaśrī attained the samādhi of this
sūtra. Gadgadasvara and his accompanying bodhisattvas return to his
realm and relate to the buddha there what had occurred.

Chapter 24: Facing Everywhere: The Teaching of the

Miracles of Avalokiteśvara

The bodhisattva Akṣayamati asks the Buddha what the name
“Avalokiteśvara” means. The Buddha replies by recounting how hearing
the name of Avalokiteśvara, and thinking of him, or calling out to
him, will save beings from all kinds of dangers, such as fire,
drowning, snakes, and violence. If someone pays homage to
Avalokiteśvara they will be freed from desire, anger, or ignorance.
A woman who does so will have an excellent son. The merit from
paying homage to him is equal to paying homage to countless buddhas.
Akṣayamati asks the Buddha about the activity of Avalokiteśvara, and
the Buddha states how he takes the form of various deities and
humans, buddhas, and bodhisattvas in various worlds so as to teach
the Dharma. Akṣayamati then offers a pearl necklace to
Avalokiteśvara, who then divides it into two and offers it to the
two buddhas present: Śākyamuni and Prabhūtaratna. Verses summarize
the prose with the addition of describing how Avalokiteśvara is the
attendant of Amitābha in Sukhāvatī. Then the bodhisattva
Dharaṇīṃdhara states that great merit is obtained by hearing this
chapter. Finally the sūtra describes how eighty-four thousand beings
developed the aspiration for enlightenment on hearing the Buddha
teach this chapter.

Chapter 25: The Past of King Śubhavyūha

The Bhagavān tells the gathered assembly that in the distant
past in a world called Vairocanaraśmipratimaṇḍitā there was a
Buddha named
Jaladharagarjitaghoṣasusvaranakṣatrarājasaṃkusumitābhijña.
At that time there was a King Śubhavyūha, Queen Vimaladattā, and
their two sons, Vimalagarbha and Vimalanetra. The sons
asked their mother for permission to go and see the Buddha, but she
said as the king was a follower of brahmins he would not allow it.
Therefore they performed miracles that impressed the king so that
he, the queen, his court, and thousands of other beings came to see
this buddha who was teaching this very sūtra. The king gave up his
throne to his younger brother and he and all the others became
bhikṣus and bhikṣuṇīs. After eighty-four thousand years he attained
a samādhi so that he rose into the sky from where he spoke to the
Buddha of how his sons were realized beings and his teachers. The
Buddha explained that beings find teachers because of their past
merit. The king descended to the earth, paid homage to the Buddha’s
qualities and then returned back up into the sky. He and his queen
cast a string of pearls toward the Buddha as an offering that
transformed into a floating building of pearls within which the
Buddha sat. The Buddha prophesied the king’s attainment of
buddhahood. Then Śākyamuni explains that the bodhisattva Padmaśrī
was the king, the bodhisattva
Vairocanaraśmipratimaṇḍitadhvajarāja was the queen, and the
bodhisattvas Bhaiṣajyarāja and Bhaiṣajyasamudgata were the two
sons. He says the world will pay homage to anyone who knows the
names of those two bodhisattvas. The chapter concludes by saying
that eighty-four thousand beings attained Dharma eyes through
listening to this very chapter.

Chapter 26: Samantabhadra’s Encouragement

The bodhisattva Samantabhadra with countless bodhisattvas
and beings come from an eastern world to the Buddha and request the
teaching of this sūtra, and the Buddha describes the four qualities
of a woman who will obtain this sūtra. Samantabhadra promises to
protect those who uphold the sūtra in the future from humans and
nonhumans. He will come mounted on an elephant to its practitioners
and reveal himself to them. And he gives a dhāraṇī that will bless
them, so that they will obtain the sūtra and that it will continue
to be preserved in the world. He describes the benefits of
dedication to the sūtra, which include being reborn in the
Trāyastriṃśa and Tuṣita paradises. He states that the holders of
this sūtra will have many good qualities and should be seen as
future buddhas and respected as buddhas, while those who disrespect
them will have various kinds of physical ailments and deformities.
The chapter concludes by saying that countless bodhisattvas attained
a great power of mental retention through listening to this very
chapter.

Chapter 27: The Entrusting

The Buddha miraculously takes the right hands of all the
bodhisattvas in his right hand and entrusts the sūtra to them. They
promise to make it widespread. The Buddha gives his leave to all the
buddhas who had come from other worlds to depart, and Buddha
Prabhūtaratna and all other buddhas, bodhisattvas, and beings
rejoice and praise the Buddha’s teaching.

The Translation

The Mahāyāna Sūtra

The White Lotus of the Good Dharma

Chapter 1

The Introduction

Homage to the
buddhas and the bodhisattvas.

Thus did I hear at one time. The Bhagavān was dwelling on Vulture Peak in Rājagṛha
together with a great saṅgha of twelve hundred bhikṣus, all of whom were solely arhats whose
defilements had ceased; who were without kleśas; who had mastered
themselves; who had liberated minds; who had completely liberated wisdom;
who were noble beings; who
were great elephants; who had done what had to be done; who had accomplished
what had to be accomplished; who had put down their burden; who had reached
their goals; who had ended engagement with existence; and who had liberated
their minds through true knowledge, had perfectly attained all the powers of
the mind, were renowned for their higher knowledge,
and were
mahāśrāvakas.

They were Brother Ājñātakauṇḍinya, Brother Aśvajit, Brother Vāṣpa,
Brother Mahānāman, Brother Bhadrika, Brother Mahākāśyapa, Brother
Uruvilvākāśyapa, Brother Nadīkāśyapa, Brother Gayākāśyapa, Brother
Śāriputra, Brother Mahāmaudgalyāyana, Brother Mahākātyāyana, Brother
Aniruddha, Brother Revata, Brother Kapphiṇa, Brother Gavāṃpati, Brother
Pilindavatsa, Brother Bakkula, Brother Mahākauṣṭhila, Brother Bharadvāja,
Brother Nanda, Brother Upananda, Brother
Sundarananda, Brother Pūrṇa Maitrāyaṇīputra, Brother Subhūti, Brother
Rāhula, and other great śrāvakas; and the student Brother Ānanda; and also
two thousand bhikṣus who were in training and had transcended training; and
six thousand bhikṣuṇīs such as Mahāprajāpatī and bhikṣuṇī Yaśodharā, the
mother of Rāhula, and her followers.

Also present were eighty thousand bodhisattvas, all of whom were
irreversible from great enlightenment; had attained retention; remained in
great eloquence; turned the irreversible wheel of the Dharma; had attended
many hundred thousands of buddhas; had planted the roots of merit with many
hundred thousands of buddhas; had praised many hundred thousands of
buddhas whose bodies, speech, and minds were pervaded with love; and who
were adept in entering the wisdom of the tathāgatas, had great wisdom, had
fully realized the perfection of wisdom, were renowned in many hundreds of
thousands of worlds, and had liberated many hundred thousands of hundred
thousands of millions of beings. They were the bodhisattva mahāsattva
Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta, the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva
Mahāsthāmaprāpta, the bodhisattva Sarvārthanāman, the bodhisattva
Nityodyukta, the bodhisattva Anikṣiptadhura, the bodhisattva Ratnapāṇi, the
bodhisattva Bhaiṣajyarāja, the bodhisattva Bhaiṣajyasamudgata, the
bodhisattva Vyūharāja, the bodhisattva Pradānaśūra, the bodhisattva
Ratnacandra, the bodhisattva Ratnaprabha, the bodhisattva Pūrṇacandra, the
bodhisattva Mahāvikrāmin, the bodhisattva Anantavikrāmiṇ, the bodhisattva
Trailokyavikrāmiṇ, the bodhisattva Mahāpratibhāna, the bodhisattva
Satatasamitābhiyukta, the bodhisattva Dharaṇīdhara, the bodhisattva
Akṣayamati, the bodhisattva Padmaśrī, the bodhisattva Nakṣatrarāja, the
bodhisattva mahāsattva Maitreya, and the bodhisattva mahāsattva Siṃha. Also
present were the sixteen excellent men, such as Bhadrapāla. They were
Bhadrapāla, Ratnākara, Susārthavāha, Naradatta, Guhyagupta, Varuṇadatta, Indradatta, Uttaramati, Viśeṣamati,
Vardhamānamati, Amoghadarśin, Susaṃprasthita, Suvikrāntavikrāmiṇ,
Anupamamati, Sūryagarbha, and Dharaṇīṃdhara.

These and the other eighty thousand bodhisattvas were present
there.

Also present was Śakra, the lord of the devas, with his retinue of
twenty thousand devas, such as the deva Candra, the deva Sūrya, the deva
Samantagandha, the deva Ratnaprabha, the deva Avabhāsaprabha, and the rest
of the twenty thousand devas.

Also present were the four mahārājas and their retinue of thirty
thousand devas: Mahārāja Virūḍhaka, Mahārāja Virūpākṣa, Mahārāja
Dhṛtarāṣṭra, Mahārāja Vaiśravaṇa, the deva Īśvara, the deva Maheśvara, and a
retinue of thirty thousand devas.

Also present were Brahmā, the lord of the Sahā world realm, with a
retinue of twelve hundred Brahmakāyika devas: the brahmā Śikhin, the brahmā
Jyotiṣprabha, and the rest of the one thousand two hundred Brahmakāyika
devas.

Also present were the eight nāga kings—the nāga kings
Nanda, Upananda, Sāgara, Vāsuki, Takṣaka,
Manasvin, Anavatapta, and Utpalaka—together with a retinue of many trillions
of nāgas.

Also present were the four kinnara kings—the kinnara king Druma,
the kinnara king Mahādharma, the kinnara king Sudharma, and the kinnara king
Dharmadhara—together with a retinue of many trillions of kinnaras.

Also present were devas who were of the four classes of
gandharvas—Manojña, Manojñasvara, Madhura, and the
gandharva Madhurasvara—together with a retinue of many trillions of gandharvas.

Also present were the four lords of the asuras—the asura lords
Bali, Kharaskandha, Vemacitrin, and Rāhu—together with a retinue of many
trillions of asuras.

Also present were the four garuḍa lords—the garuḍa lords Mahātejas,
Mahākāya, Mahāpūrṇa, and Maharddhiprāpta—together with many trillions of
garuḍas.

Also present was King Ajātaśatru of Magadha, the son of
Vaidehī.

At that time, the Bhagavān, surrounded by the fourfold assembly,
was esteemed, honored, revered, respected, offered to, praised, and
venerated. He had taught the Dharma teaching of the great extensive sūtra
called The Great Elucidation, which is an
instruction for bodhisattvas that is possessed by all the buddhas.

Sitting cross-legged on that Dharma seat, he entered the samādhi
named the state of infinite instruction; his body
became motionless and his mind became motionless.

As soon as the Bhagavān entered that state there fell a rain of
coral tree flowers, great coral tree flowers, and spider lily and great
spider lily flowers,
that fell upon the Bhagavān and his fourfold assembly. The whole buddha
realm shook in six ways: it moved, moved strongly, quaked, quaked strongly,
shuddered, and shuddered strongly. Then at that time the bhikṣus and
bhikṣuṇīs, the upāsakas and upāsikās, the devas, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas,
asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, mahoragas, humans and nonhumans, kings of
regions, balacakravartins, and cakravartins of the four continents,
together with their retinues who were gathered in that assembly, were all
gazing upon the Bhagavān with wonder, amazement, and joy.

Then at that time, a light ray shone from the ūrṇā hair between the Bhagavān’s
eyebrows into eighteen thousand buddha realms in the eastern direction. The
light of that light ray pervaded all those buddha realms from the great
Avīci hell up to the apex of existence. It illuminated all beings without
exception in the six classes of existence in those buddha realms. It also
illuminated the buddha bhagavāns who resided, lived, and remained in those
buddha realms. The Dharma that those buddha bhagavāns taught was heard by
all without exception.

It illuminated in those buddha realms all the bhikṣus, bhikṣuṇīs,
upāsakas, upāsikās, yogins, and yogācāras, both those who had attained the
result and those who had not attained the result.

It illuminated in those buddha realms the bodhisattvas and
mahāsattvas who practiced bodhisattva conduct through being skilled in
methods, due to the many various ways of listening to the teachings, having
objectives, and having aspirations.

It illuminated in those buddha realms the stūpas made of precious
materials that contained the relics of the buddha bhagavāns who had passed
into nirvāṇa.

Then bodhisattva mahāsattva Maitreya thought, “Oh! The Tathāgata
has shown this great miraculous sign. Why did the Bhagavān show this kind of
great miraculous sign? The Bhagavān, while resting in this samādhi, has revealed
these kinds of inconceivable, marvelous, amazing, great miracles. Who can
answer my question as to what this means? This Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta has
served previous jinas, has planted the roots of merit, and has attended many
buddhas. This Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta has also previously seen this kind of
sign from past tathāgatas, arhats, perfectly enlightened buddhas, and he has
previously heard numerous accounts of the great Dharma. I should ask
Mañjuśrī.”

The bhikṣus and bhikṣuṇīs, the upāsakas and upāsikās, and the
devas, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, mahoragas,
humans, and nonhumans saw this light that was the great miraculous sign of
the Bhagavān and were amazed, astonished, and intrigued.

They thought, “Whom shall we ask about this great miraculous sign
revealed by the Bhagavān?”

Then the bodhisattva mahāsattva Maitreya instantaneously knew the
thoughts in the minds of the fourfold assembly, and inquired of Mañjuśrī
Kumārabhūta, “Mañjuśrī, what was the cause and what the reason for the
Bhagavān manifesting this wonderful illumination through a marvelous,
astonishing, miraculous light that revealed these eighteen thousand
beautiful, supremely beautiful buddha realms, among which are the tathāgatas
and also the followers of the tathāgatas?”

The bodhisattva mahāsattva Maitreya then spoke these verses to
Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta:

“Mañjuśrī, for what reason

Did this guide of men emit this single ray of light,

This greatly illuminating light

From the ūrṇā hair between his eyebrows? {1}

“The rejoicing devas sent down

A great rain of sandalwood powder,

Divine, delightful perfumes,

And coral tree and spider lily flowers. {2}

“They beautified this entire earth

And this fourfold retinue was filled with joy.

This entire realm shook terrifyingly

In six different ways. {3}

“The light ray in the eastern direction

Filled eighteen thousand realms.

Those beautiful realms, the color of gold,

Were all illuminated in an instant. {4}

“All the beings that are in those realms

From Avīci up to the highest existence,

Those who are in the six classes of beings,

Who pass away and are reborn in them, {5}

“And also their various kinds of karma,

Their happy and unhappy existences are visible.

The good, the bad, and similarly the neutral,

Have all been seen by those who are present here. {6}

“I see the buddhas, the lion-like lords of humans,

Teaching and revealing the Dharma,

Giving teachings to many millions of beings,

Speaking in verses with melodious voices. {7}

“Each in their own realm gives forth

Their profound, vast, and marvelous speech.

They are teaching this Buddhadharma

Through trillions of parables and reasons. {8}

“They teach the ultimate peace of nirvāṇa

To those beings that are afflicted by suffering,

Who are weary of birth and aging, and have no knowledge,

Saying, ‘Bhikṣus, this is the end of suffering.’ {9}

“They teach the Pratyekabuddhayāna,

Describing this way of the Dharma

To those humans who have attained vast power,

Who have reached it through merit and seeing the buddhas. {10}

“Also, they praise enlightenment

To those who are the offspring of the sugatas,

Who are seeking for the highest wisdom,

And accomplish various activities throughout all times. {11}

“Mañjughoṣa, while I am present here

I see and hear such things that are there.

I shall describe merely an indication

Of billions of other
different perceptions. {12}

“I see within those many realms

Bodhisattvas as numerous as the Ganges sands.

They number not less than a thousand million

And give rise to enlightenment through various kinds of diligence.
{13}

“Some in that way give away gifts

Of wealth, money, gold, and silver;

Pearl jewelry, mother of pearl, and coral;

Male slaves, female slaves, chariots, horses, and sheep. {14}

“Similarly, with a joyful mind they give

The gifts of palanquins adorned with jewels,

Dedicating this toward supreme enlightenment,

Saying, ‘May we attain that yāna!’
{15}

“Through this kind of giving of gifts

May I also quickly become one who has attained

That unique supreme yāna within the three realms,

Which is the Buddhayāna praised by the sugatas. {16}

“Some of them similarly make gifts

Of chariots that are drawn by four horses,

With seats adorned by flowers and banners,

With flags of victory made of precious materials. {17}

“Some give their sons and similarly their wives,

And some give their own beloved flesh,

And, seeking this highest enlightenment,

They give their hands and feet when requested. {18}

“Some give their heads and some their eyes,

And some give their perfect bodies.

They give these gifts with a serene mind,

Intent upon the wisdom of the tathāgatas. {19}

“Mañjuśrī, I have seen some

Who forsake their prosperous kingdoms,

Giving up their harems, and likewise

All continents and all ministers and relatives. {20}

“They come before the guides of the worlds

And for the highest peace they ask about the Dharma.

They put on the saffron robes

And shave off their hair and moustaches. {21}

“I see some bodhisattvas

Who are bhikṣus living in the forests,

Dwelling in empty, solitary places,

Delighting in reciting the teachings. {22}

“I see some bodhisattvas

Who are dwelling resolutely in the mountains,

Meditating on this wisdom of the buddhas,

Contemplating it and observing it. {23}

“Some give up all sensory pleasures

And meditate while having pure conduct.

Having developed the five higher knowledges

These children of the sugatas live in solitude. {24}

“Some resolute ones, standing with legs together,

Join their palms in homage before the guides.

Feeling joy, with thousands of verses,

They praise the king who is the Lord of Jinas. {25}

“Some who are fearless, mindful, and tamed

Are endowed with the wisdom of subtle conduct.

They ask the lords of humans about the Dharma,

And having listened to it, they become holders of the Dharma. {26}

“I see some children of lords of jinas

In meditation here and there,

Teaching the Dharma to many millions of beings,

With many millions of parables and reasons. {27}

“They are joyfully teaching the Dharma

And are inspiring many bodhisattvas.

They vanquish the māras with their armies and chariots,

And they are loudly beating the drum of the Dharma. {28}

“I see some who follow the teaching of the sugatas,

To whom humans, maruts, yakṣas and rākṣasas make offerings.

These children of the sugatas are not astonished,

Have no pride, are peaceful, and have peaceful conduct. {29}

“They are primarily living in forests, but also

Their bodies are shining with light

That brings beings out from the hells

And also inspires them toward enlightenment. {30}

“Some children of the jinas are maintaining diligence,

Forsaking completely all sleep.

Wandering around, living in forests,

Through diligence they are established in the highest enlightenment.
{31}

“Some are maintaining unimpaired, correct conduct

That is always as pure as a precious jewel.

Some have completely perfect conduct

And through conduct are established in the highest enlightenment.
{32}

“Some children of the jinas have the power of patience;

They have patience toward proud, aggressive bhikṣus,

And similarly patience toward abuse and threats.

Through patience they are established in the highest enlightenment.
{33}

“I see some bodhisattvas

Who forsake all delight in amusements.

They forsake foolish companions

And are steadfast in delighting in the company of noble ones. {34}

“Having forsaken the mind’s distractions

They practice meditation with a one-pointed mind

For billions of years in forests and in mountains,

And through meditation are established in the highest enlightenment. {35}

“And similarly there are those who give gifts

Of food and drink—both hard food and soft food—

And medicine for illness, not a little but a great amount,

Directly to the jinas and their saṅghas of students. {36}

“They give thousands of millions of robes

Of the value of millions of millions.

They give robes with priceless value

Directly to the jinas and their saṅghas of students. {37}

“They create billions of monasteries

Made from jewels and likewise sandalwood,

Adorned by a plenitude of seats and beds

That they donate directly to the sugatas. {38}

“Some give, as places for resting during the day,

Beautiful, pure parklands

With a variety of flowers and fruits

To the Supreme Being and his disciples. {39}

“With a feeling of joy they are giving

Various different gifts such as these.

Having given them they strive for enlightenment with diligence

And through generosity are established in the highest enlightenment.
{40}

“Some are teaching the Dharma of peace

Through many trillions of parables and reasons;

They are teaching billions of beings

And through knowledge are established in the highest enlightenment.
{41}

“Knowing the Dharma that is without activity,

They have entered nonduality, which is the same as space.

The children of the sugatas who are without attachment,

Through wisdom are established in the highest enlightenment. {42}

“I see others, Mañjughoṣa, following the teachings

Of sugatas who have passed into nirvāṇa.

Many resolute bodhisattvas appear

Who honor the relics of the jinas. {43}

“I see thousands of millions of stūpas,

As numerous as the sands of the Ganges.

They continually adorn millions of realms

And are created because of the children of the jinas. {44}

“Thousands of millions of parasol standards

Made of the seven precious materials are erected.

In height they are five thousand yojanas

And their circumference is two thousand yojanas. {45}

“Always with beautiful banners of victory

And the constant sound of bells and little bells,

Humans, maruts, rākṣasas, and yakṣas make offerings

With flowers, perfumes, and similarly with music. {46}

“The children of the sugatas are those who cause

These kinds of offerings to be made to the relics of the jinas,

Just as the blossoming coral trees

Beautify the ten directions. {47}

“I and many millions of beings

Present here have seen all that;

The Jina, with this single light ray from his visage,

Has made this world and its devas blossom. {48}

“Oh! The vast immaculate wisdom—

Oh! Of the powerful Supreme Being—

The one who today emitted a single light ray

And revealed many thousands of realms! {49}

“We are amazed to have seen such a sign

As this, which is marvelous and immeasurable.

Tell us, Mañjusvara, the meaning of this sign

And eliminate the doubts of the bodhisattvas. {50}

“This delighted fourfold retinue

Is looking at you, hero, and at me.

Why did this Sugata today

Emit this kind of light? {51}

“You, son of the sugata, give an explanation

That will bring joy and dispel doubt.

For what reason has there been

This emission of a vast light ray? {52}

“Lord of the World, will you teach

The supreme qualities attained by the Sugata,

The supreme being, at the Bodhimaṇḍa?

Bodhisattva, will you explain them? {54}

“The many thousands of revealed realms

Are adorned by various brilliant jewels,

And buddhas with infinite vision are revealed.

This certainly has no little cause.” {55}

Maitreya thus questioned the son of the Jina

To the delight of the humans, maruts, yakṣas, and rākṣasas.

The fourfold assembly waited there

For the explanation that Mañjusvara would give. {56}

Then Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta said to the bodhisattva mahāsattva
Maitreya and the complete assembly of bodhisattvas, “Noble sons, the
Tathāgata’s intention is to relate a great Dharma teaching.

“Noble sons, the Tathāgata’s intention is to send down a great
Dharma rain, to sound the great Dharma drum, to erect the great Dharma
banner, to light the great Dharma lamp, to blow the great Dharma conch, and
to beat the great Dharma bherī
drum.
Noble sons, that is the intention the Tathāgata has formed today.

“Noble sons, from previous tathāgatas there has come illumination
with a light ray like this, and I think that just as it was revealed to
me,
just as I have seen an omen of this kind in the past from previous
tathāgatas, arhats, perfectly enlightened buddhas, this tathāgata, too,
intends to give a great Dharma teaching, to make others hear a great Dharma
teaching, and has therefore created such an omen. Why is that? The
Tathāgata, the Arhat, the perfectly enlightened Buddha has revealed a
miraculous omen of this kind, this illumination from a ray of light, because
he intends to teach the Dharma that is not in accord with the entire
world.

“Noble sons, I remember that in a past time, even further back
beyond incalculable, numberless, immeasurable, inconceivable, vast,
completely countless asaṃkhyeya eons
ago, at that
time, in that era, there appeared in the world the tathāgata, the arhat, the
perfectly enlightened buddha, the one with perfect wisdom and conduct, the
sugata, the knower of the world, the unsurpassable guide who tamed beings,
the teacher of gods and humans, the buddha, the bhagavān named
Candrasūryapradīpa.

“He taught the Dharma that is good in the beginning, good in the
middle, good in the end; has excellent meaning and excellent words; and is
unalloyed, complete, pure, perfected, and concerns pure conduct.

“To the śrāvakas he taught the Dharma conjoined with the four
truths of the āryas, and nirvāṇa as the ultimate goal, as well as the
process of dependent origination, in order that they might transcend birth,
aging, sickness, death, misery, lamentation, suffering, unhappiness, and
distress.

“To the bodhisattva mahāsattvas he taught the Dharma that commences
with the highest, complete enlightenment conjoined with the six perfections,
and concludes with omniscient wisdom.

“Noble sons, subsequent to that tathāgata, arhat, perfectly
enlightened buddha Candrasūryapradīpa, there appeared in the world a
tathāgata, arhat, perfectly enlightened buddha who was also named
Candrasūryapradīpa.

“Ajita, in this way there appeared sequentially tathāgatas, arhats,
perfectly enlightened buddhas who had the same name, Candrasūryapradīpa,
and the same family and same clan, which means there were twenty thousand
tathāgatas of the Bharadvājasa family.

“Ajita, from the first of those twenty thousand tathāgatas until
the last of those tathāgatas they taught the Dharma that is good in the
beginning, good in the middle, good in the end; has excellent meaning and
excellent words; and is unalloyed, complete, pure, perfected, and concerns
pure conduct.

“To the śrāvakas they taught the Dharma that has the four truths of
the āryas and dependent origination, so that the śrāvakas might transcend
the troubles of birth, aging, illness, death, misery, wailing, suffering,
and unhappiness, and conclude in nirvāṇa.

“To the bodhisattvas mahāsattvas they taught the Dharma that
commences with the six perfections and the highest, complete enlightenment,
and concludes with omniscient wisdom.

“Ajita, in this way, when the tathāgata, the arhat, the perfectly
enlightened buddha Candrasūryapradīpa was previously a young man living in
the capital, who had not yet entered homelessness, he had eight sons. The
names of those princes were Mati, Sumati, Anantamati, Ratnamati, Viśeṣamati,
Vimatisamuddhāṭin, Ghoṣamati, and Dharmamati.

“Ajita, those eight princes who were the sons of Bhagavān
Candrasūryapradīpa had great miraculous powers.
Each one of them acquired and possessed four great continents and was the
king of them. When they knew that the Bhagavān had abandoned the capital and
heard that he had attained the highest, complete enlightenment of perfect
buddhahood, they forsook all royal enjoyments and followed the Bhagavān into
homelessness, and they all became dedicated to the highest, complete
enlightenment and became dharmabhāṇakas. Those princes constantly maintained
celibacy and planted roots of merit with many hundreds of thousands of
buddhas.

“Ajita, when the bhagavān, the tathāgata, the arhat, the perfectly
enlightened buddha Candrasūryapradīpa had taught the Dharma teaching of the
great extensive sūtra called The Great
Elucidation, which is an instruction for bodhisattvas that is
possessed by all the buddhas, then at that time, at that instant, that very
moment, among that gathered assembly, sitting cross-legged upon the great
Dharma seat, he rested in meditation in the samādhi named the
basis of infinite elucidation; his body became motionless and
his mind became motionless.

“As soon as the Bhagavān rested in meditation there fell onto the
Bhagavān a great rain of coral tree flowers, great coral tree flowers,
spider lily flowers, great spider lily flowers,
and divine flowers, which were scattered upon the Bhagavān and his
assembly.

“The complete buddha realm shook in six ways: it moved, moved
strongly, quaked, quaked strongly, shuddered, and shuddered strongly. Then
at that time the bhikṣus and bhikṣuṇīs, the upāsakas and upāsikās, the
devas, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, mahoragas,
humans and nonhumans, kings of regions, cakravartins, and cakravartins of
the four continents, together with their retinues who were gathered in that
assembly, were all gazing upon the Bhagavān with wonder, amazement, and joy.

“Also at that time, a light ray shone from the ūrṇā hair between
the Bhagavān’s eyebrows to twenty thousand buddha realms in the eastern
direction. The light of that light ray pervaded all those buddha realms.
Ajita, it was just like how these buddha realms are illuminated now.

“Ajita, at that time, there were two hundred million bodhisattvas
among the Bhagavān’s followers; those who were listening to the Dharma in
that assembly saw the world illuminated by the radiance of that great light
ray and were amazed, astonished, and intrigued.

“Ajita, at that time, in that Bhagavān’s teaching there was a
bodhisattva mahāsattva named Varaprabha who had eight hundred students. The
Bhagavān arose from that samādhi and taught the Dharma teaching of The White Lotus of the Good Dharma, first to the
bodhisattva Varaprabha. For sixty whole intermediate eons he taught while
sitting on the one seat with a motionless body and a motionless mind. The
entire assembly also remained seated on the same seats with motionless
bodies and motionless minds, listening to the Dharma from the Bhagavān for
sixty eons. There was not a single being within that assembly who became
fatigued and there were none whose minds became wearied.

“When the bhagavān, the tathāgata, the arhat, the perfectly
enlightened buddha Candrasūryapradīpa had taught for sixty intermediate
eons the Dharma teaching of the great extensive sūtra called The White Lotus of the Good Dharma, which is an
instruction for bodhisattvas that is possessed by all the buddhas, then in
that moment he announced his parinirvāṇa in front of the world with its many
beings, including devas, māras, and Brahmā. He said, ‘Bhikṣus, tonight at
midnight the tathāgata will pass away into the state of nirvāṇa that has no
remainder of the skandhas.’

“Then, Ajita, the bhagavān, the tathāgata, the arhat, the perfectly
enlightened buddha Candrasūryapradīpa gave the prophecy of the highest,
complete enlightenment to the bodhisattva mahāsattva Śrīgarbha
and declared
to the assembly, ‘Bhikṣus, this bodhisattva mahāsattva Śrīgarbha will after
me attain the highest, complete enlightenment and become the bhagavān, the
tathāgata, the arhat, the perfectly enlightened buddha Vimalanetra.’

“Then, Ajita, the bhagavān, the tathāgata, the arhat, the perfectly
enlightened buddha Candrasūryapradīpa that evening at midnight passed away
into the state of nirvāṇa that has no remainder of the skandhas. The
bodhisattva mahāsattva Śrīgarbha took up the Dharma teaching of The White Lotus of the Good Dharma and for eighty
intermediate eons taught the teaching of that bhagavān who had passed into
nirvāṇa.

“Ajita, the eight sons of that bhagavān, such as Mati, became
students of the bodhisattva Śrīgarbha. He ripened them for the highest,
complete enlightenment. Subsequently they all saw a hundred thousand
quintillion buddhas, honored them, and attained the highest, complete
enlightenment of perfect buddhahood. The last of them became the bhagavān,
the tathāgata, the arhat, the perfectly enlightened buddha Dīpaṃkara.

“One of the eight hundred students yearned for gain, yearned for
honor, yearned for prestige, and desired fame, so the words and letters that
had been taught did not engross him or take root in him. He became known as
Yaśaskāma. Through the merit he had previously acquired, he pleased many
quintillions of buddhas, and having pleased them he honored them, venerated
them, respected them, made offerings to them, worshiped them, and revered
them.

“At that time, Ajita, the bodhisattva Śrīgarbha was a
dharmabhāṇaka. Do not have any doubt or uncertainty that he was someone
else. Why is that? It is because at that time I was the dharmabhāṇaka
Śrīgarbha. The bodhisattva Yaśaskāma had become lazy. Ajita, at that time,
on that occasion, you were the lazy bodhisattva Yaśaskāma.

“Ajita, when in this teaching I saw the light ray of this kind that
was the Bhagavān’s omen, I thought that the Bhagavān intended to teach the
great extensive sūtra, the Dharma teaching of The White
Lotus of the Good Dharma.”

Then Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta taught that meaning extensively, at that time reciting these verses:

“I remember a time in the past,

Inconceivable, innumerable eons ago,

When there was a jina, a supreme being,

Whose name was Candrasūryapradīpa.
{57}

“That guide of beings taught the good Dharma

And guided countless millions of beings.

He established many countless billions

Of bodhisattvas in wisdom. {58}

“When that guide had been a prince,

He had eight sons at that time.

When they saw the great muni’s renunciation

They gave up all desires and themselves became renunciants. {59}

“That lord of the world taught the Dharma,

The Supreme Infinite Teaching Sūtra.

It was also named The Very Extensive
Sūtra,

And he taught it to billions of beings. {60}

“As soon as that guide had taught

He sat cross-legged, and in that instant

The best of munis, sitting on the Dharma throne,

Meditated in the samādhi of the supreme infinite teaching. {61}

“There fell a rain of divine flowers and coral tree flowers,

There was the sound of drums without drums being beaten,

And devas and yakṣas were present in the sky,

Making offerings to the supreme human. {62}

“At that moment the entire world shook.

There was then this wonder and marvel:

The Guide emitted a single, very beautiful

Ray of light from between his eyebrows. {63}

“That ray of light shone into the east

And illuminated and beautified all the worlds

In the entirety of eighteen thousand realms,

Revealing the deaths and births of beings. {64}

“Some realms that were made of jewels,

And some that were the color of beryl,

And various beautiful realms were revealed

Through the power of the Guide’s light ray. {65}

“The devas and humans, the yakṣas and nāgas,

The apsarases, gandharvas, and kinnaras

Who were engaged in offering to the Sugata,

Were revealed to also be offering in those realms. {66}

“The self-arisen buddhas themselves were visible,

As beautiful as pillars of gold.

Like gold in the midst of beryls,

They taught the Dharma in the midst of their followers. {67}

“The śrāvakas there were beyond number;

Those śrāvakas of the sugatas were numberless.

All in each of those realms of those guides

Were made visible by the light of the light ray. {68}

“Children of the lords of men were revealed

Who were residing and practicing in the mountains,

Who were diligent, with unimpaired conduct,

Had faultless conduct, and were like precious jewels. {69}

“Bodhisattvas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges

Were all revealed by that light ray.

They had given away all their possessions,

Were resolute, had the power of patience, and delighted in meditation.
{70}

“The heart children of the sugatas were revealed;

They were immovable and unshakable,

Patient, delighting in meditation, and resting in samādhi,

Established through meditation in the highest enlightenment. {71}

“Those at the level of true peace, who were without defilements

And who had great knowledge, were revealed.

They also taught the Dharma in many worlds,

Having such an activity through the power of the sugatas. {72}

“When the fourfold assembly of protectors

Saw this power of Candrārkadīpa,

They all were filled with joy

And asked each other, ‘What is this?’ {73}

“Not long after the humans, maruts, and yakṣas made offerings,

The Guide of the World arose from samādhi

And he said at that time these words to Varaprabha,

The wise dharmabhāṇaka bodhisattva: {74}

“ ‘You who are wise, who are the eyes and path for the world,

You who are a trustworthy holder of my Dharma,

You who have been a witness to my Dharma treasure,

Teach it so that it will be of benefit to beings.’ {75}

“The numerous bodhisattvas were heartened by this,

Were filled with joy, and praised and lauded him.

Then throughout an entire sixty intermediate eons

That jina taught the supreme Dharma. {76}

“The supreme highest Dharma that the protector of the world

Taught while he was seated upon a single seat,

All of it was held by the son of the jina,

By the dharmabhāṇaka Varaprabha. {77}

“That jina taught the supreme Dharma

And brought happiness to many beings.

Then on that day the guide declared

Before the whole world and its devas: {78}

“ ‘I have taught this method of the Dharma;

I have explained exactly the nature of the Dharma.

Bhikṣus, today is the time of my nirvāṇa—

It will be at midnight on this night. {79}

“ ‘Be dedicated to this my teaching,

Attentively, and with deep faith;

Even during the passing of a quintillion eons

It is difficult to find a jina, a great rishi.’ {80}

“As soon as they heard the word nirvāṇa

Spoken by that supreme human,

The many children of the Buddha were distressed

And they experienced the greatest suffering. {81}

“The king, the lord of humans,

Reassured the countless millions of beings:

‘Bhikṣus, do not be afraid of my nirvāṇa.

There will come a buddha after me. {82}

“ ‘This wise bodhisattva Śrīgarbha,

Who has realized the immaculate wisdom,

Will reach the highest, supreme enlightenment,

And he will become the jina Vimalāṅganetra.’ {83}

“At midnight of that night, causes ended

And he was extinguished like a flame.

His relics were very extensive;

There were endless quintillions of stūpas. {84}

“The bhikṣus and likewise the bhikṣuṇīs

Who were established in the path to supreme enlightenment

And were dedicated to the teaching of that Sugata

Were not few, but were as numerous as the Ganges sands. {85}

“At the time, the dharmabhāṇaka bhikṣu

Varaprabha, who held his teaching,

Taught the supreme Dharma of that teaching

During the entirety of eighty intermediate eons. {86}

“He had eight hundred students,

And he ripened all of them.

They saw many millions of buddhas

And they honored those great sages. {87}

“During that time, they practiced appropriately

And then they became buddhas in many worlds.

One after another, according to their sequence,

They prophesied the next one’s supreme enlightenment. {88}

“In that succession of buddhas

The last one was Dīpaṃkara,

The sage, supreme deva, revered by multitudes,

Who guided ten billion beings. {89}

“In the past, the Sugata’s son

Who taught the Dharma, Varaprabha,

Had a student who was idle and covetous

And desirous of gain and the prestige of knowledge. {90}

“He had an overwhelming longing for fame

And wandered from town to town.

He thus received the entire recitation of the teaching

But at that time he had not grasped the teaching. {91}

“He thus gained this name of Yaśaskāma,

Which became renowned everywhere.

And he, through having accomplished

This good karma that was adulterated, {92}

“He served ten billion buddhas

And made vast offerings to them.

Through thus practicing appropriately

He has here seen Buddha Śākyasiṃha. {93}

“He will here become one who is in his final lifetime

And will subsequently attain supreme enlightenment.

He will become a bhagavān in the Maitreya family

And he will guide ten billion beings. {94}

“You were the one who, in that way,

Was the person idle during the time

Of the teaching of that sugata who had passed into nirvāṇa,

And at that time, I was the dharmabhāṇaka. {95}

“I, through that cause and that basis,

Have seen today the same kind of omen

As the celebrated omen of the wisdom,

Which I previously saw at that time. {96}

“The constant Lord of Jinas with all-seeing eyes,

The Śākya emperor who has seen the ultimate truth,

Also has the wish to speak and to give

The supreme teaching that I heard at that time. {97}

“That omen will today be fulfilled:

Śākyasiṃha will be establishing

The skillful method of the guides;

The seal on the nature of phenomena will be taught. {98}

“Be dedicated, have good aspiration, and place palms together;

The compassion that benefits the world will be taught.

An endless rain of the Dharma will fall,

Which will please those who are established in the cause of
enlightenment. {99}

“Whatever doubts there may be,

Whatever uncertainty or vacillation

They will be eliminated in those born from wisdom,

In the bodhisattvas fixed upon enlightenment.” {100}

Chapter 2

Skill in Methods

Then the Bhagavān mindfully and knowingly arose from that samādhi.
Having arisen from it, he addressed Brother Śāriputra.

“Śāriputra, the wisdom of the buddhas, which is profound, difficult
to see, and difficult to understand, has been realized by the tathāgatas,
arhats, perfectly enlightened buddhas. It is difficult for all śrāvakas and
pratyekabuddhas to know. Why is that? Śāriputra, the tathāgatas, arhats,
perfectly enlightened buddhas have served many hundred thousand quintillions
of buddhas; they have practiced for the highest, complete enlightenment with
many hundred thousand quintillions of buddhas; they have followed them for a
long time; they have been diligent; they have obtained marvelous, amazing
Dharma; and they know the Dharma that is difficult to know.

“Śāriputra, it is difficult to know the true meaning of the
teachings given by the tathāgatas, arhats, perfectly enlightened buddhas.
Why is that? They teach the Dharma that they have understood themselves
though a diversity of skillful methods, visions of wisdom, illustrations of
causes and reasons, supports, expressions, and modes of communication.
Through these skills in methods, they liberate this and that being, here and
there, from attachment. Śāriputra, the tathāgatas, arhats, perfectly
enlightened buddhas have reached the perfection of great skill in methods
and the highest vision of wisdom.

“Śāriputra, the tathāgatas, arhats, perfectly enlightened buddhas
are endowed with the wonderful dharmas of the strength of the unimpeded, unobstructed vision
of wisdom, as well as the fearlessnesses, the unique qualities, the powers,
the strengths, the aspects of enlightenment, the dhyānas, the liberations,
the samādhis, and the samāpattis, and they teach a variety of Dharma
teachings.

“Śāriputra, the tathāgatas, arhats, perfectly enlightened buddhas
have obtained that which is a great marvel. Śāriputra, it is enough to say
just that. Śāriputra, the tathāgatas, arhats, perfectly enlightened buddhas
have obtained that which is a supreme marvel.

“Śāriputra, the tathāgatas teach all dharmas. The tathāgatas know
all dharmas.

At that time, the Bhagavān then taught that topic in detail by
speaking these verses:

“There have been countless great heroes

In the world with its maruts and humans,

But all those beings were unable to know

Those guides in their entirety. {1}

“No one is able to know

The nature of their strengths,

Liberations, fearlessnesses,

Or the nature of the buddhas’ other dharmas. {2}

“In the past their practice

In the presence of millions of buddhas

Was profound and subtle,

Difficult to know and difficult to see. {3}

“They practiced bodhisattva conduct

For countless millions of eons.

And I have perfectly seen

At the Bodhimaṇḍa its result. {4}

“Like the guides in other worlds

I have the knowledge of it

In exactly the way that it is

And its exact characteristics. {5}

“It cannot be taught.

Its description cannot be known,

Except by bodhisattvas

Who maintain aspiration for it; {6}

“There are no other beings

Present in the worlds

To whom this Dharma is taught

And who know this teaching. {7}

“The wisdom of the jinas is beyond the scope

Even of the śrāvakas following the knower of the world,

Who have served him well and been praised by the Sugata,

Whose defilements have ceased and who are in their last bodies. {8}

“If all of those worlds were filled

With beings who were the same as Śāriputra

And they all in unison contemplated it

They would still not understand the wisdom of the sugatas. {9}

“Even if those who were as wise as you

Were to fill all the ten directions,

And if all ten directions were also filled in that same way

By those who are my other śrāvakas, {10}

“And if they all today in unison

Were to contemplate the Sugata’s wisdom,

Even all of them together would still not know

The extent of my limitless buddha wisdom. {11}

“If pratyekabuddhas who are without defilements,

Have sharp faculties, and are in their last bodies

Were to fill all the ten directions

Like reeds or a stand of bamboo, {12}

“And if they were in unison to contemplate

Just a fraction of my superior Dharma

For endless quintillions of eons,

They would still not understand its meaning. {13}

“If the ten directions were to be filled

By bodhisattvas who have newly entered the yāna,

Those who have served many millions of buddhas

And many dharmabhāṇakas of the definitive meaning, {14}

“If they filled all worlds like stands of bamboo

Uninterruptedly at all times,

And if for countless millions of eons

That are as innumerable as the Ganges sands {15}

“They were in unison to contemplate,

With subtle wisdom thinking of nothing else,

The Dharma that the Sugata has directly perceived,

It would still be beyond the scope of their understanding. {16}

“If bodhisattvas who are irreversible—

Not a few, but as numerous as the Ganges sands—

Were to contemplate this without a thought of anything else,

Even for them this would be beyond the scope of their knowledge. {17}

“The jinas in the worlds in the ten directions

Who understand the profound and very subtle Dharma,

Who are free of thinking and whose defilements have ceased,

Have for a long time been teaching this highest meaning. {18}

“Those jinas, those great sages teach nothing else

Than exactly this kind of knowledge that I have.

Śāriputra, you should have complete aspiration

For that which the tathāgatas are teaching. {19}

“I instruct all of these śrāvakas,

Those who are pratyekabuddhas,

And those I have brought to nirvāṇa,

To liberate them from the continuity of suffering. {20}

“I teach many dharmas in the world

So that here and there I bring liberation from attachment.

I give the teaching of the three yānas,

Which is my supreme skill in methods.” {21}

In that assembly two hundred thousand great śrāvakas such as
Ājñātakauṇḍinya, who were arhats, whose defilements had ceased and who had
attained power, and also bhikṣus, bhikṣuṇīs, upāsakas, and upāsikās who
followed the Śrāvakayāna, and also those who followed the
Pratyekabuddhayāna, all thought, “What is the cause and what is the reason
why the Bhagavān has praised the skill in methods of the tathāgatas, and
said, ‘This profound Dharma is the attainment of buddhahood’ and ‘It is
difficult for all śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas to understand it’? The
Bhagavān has said there is but one liberation, and we have obtained the
Buddha’s Dharma and we have attained nirvāṇa, and yet we do not know the
meaning of what the Bhagavān has said.”

Brother Śāriputra, knowing that the fourfold retinue was uncertain
and in doubt, at that time said these words to the Bhagavān: “Bhagavān, what
is the cause and what is the reason why the Bhagavān has in this way
repeatedly praised the teaching of the Dharma of being wise in skill in
methods, and repeatedly said, ‘I have realized this profound Dharma’ and ‘It
is difficult to know the intended meaning of the teaching’? I have never
before heard this Dharma teaching from the Bhagavān. Also the fourfold
retinue is uncertain and in doubt. What is the Tathāgata’s intended meaning?
I request that the Bhagavān explain perfectly the profound Dharma of the
tathāgatas, of which you have repeatedly spoken.”

Then at that time Brother Śāriputra recited these verses:

“ ‘I have obtained countless strengths,

Liberations, and dhyānas’—

Sun of humans, for a long time today

You have spoken words of this kind. {22}

“You are speaking about the Bodhimaṇḍa

Without anyone asking you to.

You are speaking about intended meaning

Without anyone asking you about it. {23}

“Without anyone asking you to speak of it

You are praising your own conduct.

You speak of your attainment of wisdom

And you declare it to be profound. {24}

“Those with power, whose defilements have ceased,

And those established in nirvāṇa

Are today in uncertainty,

Wondering what the Jina is saying. {25}

“Those who are intent on pratyekabuddhahood,

And the bhikṣus and likewise bhikṣuṇīs,

The devas, nāgas, and yakṣas,

And the gandharvas and mahoragas, {26}

“They are uncertain, analyzing,

Talking among themselves,

And gazing at the supreme human.

Great sage, give us your elucidation. {27}

“Within the teaching of the highest sage

I am supreme among the entirety

Of all the Tathāgata’s śrāvakas

Who are present here. {28}

“And yet I am myself still uncertain,

Supreme human, of your point.

How conclusive is my nirvāṇa

Or the practice I have been taught? {29}

“Emit the sound of the supreme drum

By relating the nature of this Dharma.

The heart children of the Jina are present here,

Gazing at the Jina with hands together in homage. {30}

“There are devas and nāgas together with yakṣas and rākṣasas

In many billions, as numerous as the Ganges sands.

There are eighty thousand present of those

Who are intent upon supreme enlightenment. {31}

“There are great monarchs, cakravartin kings

Who have come from billions of realms.

They have respectfully placed their hands together.

How can we make our practice perfect?” {32}

Then Brother Śāriputra for a second time made his request to the
Bhagavān, saying, “Bhagavān, I request that you teach this meaning. I
request that the Sugata teach it. Why is that? Bhagavān, in this assembly
there are many hundreds of beings, many thousands of beings, many hundred
thousands of beings, many hundred thousand quintillions of beings, who have
seen past buddhas and are endowed with wisdom, and they will have faith in
the teaching of the Bhagavān, will have conviction in it, and will uphold
it.”

Then at that time Brother Śāriputra recited this verse:

“There are thousands of beings in this assembly

Who have faith in, delight in, and venerate the Sugata,

And they will understand the Dharma that you teach.

Therefore, king and lord of humans, I request that you clearly teach.”
{33}

Then the Bhagavān said a second time to Brother Śāriputra.
“Śāriputra, if I were to teach the
meaning of this it would alarm this world with its devas, and it would cause
bhikṣus who have great pride to fall into a great abyss.”

Thereupon the Bhagavān spoke this verse:

“I have taught enough of this Dharma.

This wisdom is subtle and cannot be analyzed.

There are many present who are foolish and proud.

They will not understand and will reject my teaching.” {34}

Then Brother Śāriputra made a third request to the Bhagavān,
saying, “I request that the Bhagavān teach. I request that the Sugata teach.
Bhagavān, in this assembly there are many hundreds who are like me.
Bhagavān, there are many hundreds of such beings, many thousands of such
beings, many hundred thousands of such beings, many hundred thousand
quintillions of such beings, and there are others who were ripened by the
Bhagavān in their previous existences. They will have faith in, have conviction
in, and will uphold the Bhagavān’s teaching, and for a long time it will
bring them benefit, welfare, and happiness.”

Then at that time Brother Śāriputra recited these verses:

“Supreme human, teach the Dharma.

I, your senior son, make this request to you.

Here there are present billions of beings

Who will have faith in the Dharma you teach. {35}

“These beings, who in their previous lives

You constantly ripened over a very long time,

Are all standing here with hands in homage.

They will have faith in this Dharma. {36}

“There are twelve hundred here who are like me,

Who are established in the highest enlightenment.

Sugata, regard them and give your teaching

So that they will experience the highest happiness.” {37}

Then the Bhagavān, knowing Brother Śāriputra had made this request
for the third time, said these words to Brother Śāriputra: “Śāriputra, now
that you have made this request to the Tathāgata three times, I have said
what I had to say about your request. Therefore, Śāriputra, listen carefully
and remember, for I will give you the teaching.”

As soon as the Bhagavān had consented, more than five thousand
arrogant bhikṣus, bhikṣuṇīs, upāsakas, and upāsikās within that assembly
rose from their seats, bowed down their heads to the Bhagavān’s feet, and
departed from the assembly. As a result of their arrogance they believed
that they had obtained roots of merit when they had not obtained them, and
believed they had realization when they did not have realization. They had
become aware of their own error and departed from that assembly, the
Bhagavān giving his permission to do so by remaining silent.

Then the Bhagavān said to Brother Śāriputra, “Śāriputra, my
assembly has become free of its dregs. Śāriputra, it has become free of those
who were worthless, while those for whom faith is essential remain. It is
good that those who are arrogant have departed. Therefore, Śāriputra, I
shall teach that meaning.”

“Excellent, Bhagavān!” Śāriputra replied, and he listened to the
Bhagavān.

“Śāriputra,” said the Bhagavān, “a tathāgata rarely teaches this
kind of Dharma. Śāriputra, just as fig tree flowers rarely appear, a
tathāgata rarely teaches this kind of Dharma. Śāriputra, believe me, I am
speaking the truth. I am speaking correctly. I am not speaking
otherwise.

“Śāriputra, the tathāgatas’ teaching that contains an inner meaning
is difficult to understand. Why is that? Śāriputra, I teach the Dharma by
using various definitions, expressions, and parables, using hundreds of thousands of
different skillful methods.

“Śāriputra, that Dharma cannot be analyzed. It is beyond the scope
of sophists; it is what is known by a tathāgata. Why is that? Śāriputra, a
tathāgata, arhat, perfectly enlightened buddha comes into the world in order
to perform one deed, one action: a great deed and a great action.

“Śāriputra, what is a tathāgata’s one deed and one action, his
great deed and great action, for which a tathāgata, arhat, perfectly
enlightened buddha comes into the world? A tathāgata, arhat, perfectly
enlightened buddha comes into this world for the sake of causing beings to
acquire the vision of the tathāgatas’ wisdom. A tathāgata, arhat, perfectly
enlightened buddha comes into this world in order to reveal to beings the vision
of the tathāgatas’ wisdom. A tathāgata, arhat, perfectly enlightened buddha
comes into this world in order that beings will enter the vision of the
tathāgatas’ wisdom. A tathāgata, arhat, perfectly enlightened buddha comes
into this world in order that beings will realize the vision of the
tathāgatas’ wisdom. A tathāgata, arhat, perfectly enlightened buddha comes
into this world in order that beings will enter the path to the vision of
the tathāgatas’ wisdom.

“Śāriputra, a tathāgata appears in this world for that one deed and
one action, for that one great deed and one great action, and with that one
intention.

“Śāriputra, in that way a tathāgata accomplishes that one deed and
one action, that one great deed and great action of the tathāgatas. Why is
that? Śāriputra, I cause the acquisition of the vision of the tathāgatas’
wisdom. I reveal the vision of the tathāgatas’ wisdom. Śāriputra, I cause
entry into the vision of the tathāgatas’ wisdom. Śāriputra, I cause the
realization of the vision of the tathāgatas’ wisdom. Śāriputra, I cause
entry into the path to the vision of the tathāgatas’ wisdom.

“Śāriputra, I also I teach the Dharma to beings through a single
yāna, which is the Buddhayāna, ultimate omniscience. There are no second or
third yānas.

“Śāriputra, this is the true nature everywhere in all worlds in the
ten directions. Why is that? Śāriputra, the tathāgatas, arhats, perfectly
enlightened buddhas who in the past have appeared in
countless, innumerable worlds in the ten directions have known the thoughts
that are the various aspirations, natures, and intentions of beings. For the
sake of many beings, for the benefit of many beings, for the happiness of
many beings, and with compassion for the world, for the sake of a great
number of beings, and for the benefit and happiness of devas and humans,
they taught the Dharma by using a variety of teachings on accomplishment,
and various teachings on causes, reasons, parables, supports, and skillful methods.

“Śāriputra, all those tathāgatas, arhats, perfectly enlightened
buddhas taught the Dharma to beings through a single yāna, which is the
Buddhayāna, ultimate omniscience. It is the teaching of the Dharma that
causes the acquisition of the vision of the tathāgatas’ wisdom, reveals the
vision of the tathāgatas’ wisdom, causes entry into the vision of the
tathāgatas’ wisdom, causes the realization of the vision of the tathāgatas’
wisdom, and causes entry into the path to the vision of the tathāgatas’
wisdom.

“Śāriputra, all the beings who heard that Dharma from those
tathāgatas, arhats, perfectly enlightened buddhas in the past attained the
highest, supreme enlightenment.

“Śāriputra, the tathāgatas, arhats, perfectly enlightened buddhas
who in the future will appear in countless, innumerable worlds in the ten
directions will also know the thoughts that are the various aspirations,
natures, and intentions of beings. For the sake of many beings, for the
benefit of many beings, for the happiness of many beings, and with
compassion for the world, for the sake of a great number of beings, and for
the benefit and happiness of devas and humans, they will teach the Dharma
by using a variety of teachings on accomplishment, and various teachings on
causes, reasons, parables, supports, and skillful
methods.

“Śāriputra, all those tathāgatas, arhats, perfectly enlightened
buddhas will teach the Dharma to beings through a single yāna, which is the
Buddhayāna, ultimate omniscience. It is the teaching of the Dharma that
causes the acquisition of the vision of the tathāgatas’ wisdom, reveals the
vision of the tathāgatas’ wisdom, causes entry into the vision of the
tathāgatas’ wisdom, causes the realization of the vision of the tathāgatas’
wisdom, and causes entry into the path to the vision of the tathāgatas’
wisdom.

“Śāriputra, all the beings who hear that Dharma from those
tathāgatas, arhats, perfectly enlightened buddhas in the future will attain
the highest, supreme enlightenment.

“Śāriputra, the tathāgatas, arhats, perfectly enlightened buddhas
who in the present have appeared in countless, innumerable worlds in the ten
directions also know the thoughts that are the various aspirations, natures,
and intentions of beings. For the sake of many beings, for the benefit of
many beings, for the happiness of many beings, and with compassion for the
world, for the sake of a great number of beings, and for the benefit and
happiness of devas and humans, they teach the Dharma by using a variety of
teachings on accomplishment, and various teachings on causes, reasons,
parables, supports, and skillful
methods.

“Śāriputra, all those tathāgatas, arhats, perfectly enlightened
buddhas teach the Dharma to beings through a single yāna, which is the
Buddhayāna, ultimate omniscience. It is the teaching of the Dharma that
causes the acquisition of the vision of the tathāgatas’ wisdom, reveals the
vision of the tathāgatas’ wisdom, causes entry into the vision of the
tathāgatas’ wisdom, causes the realization of the vision of the tathāgatas’
wisdom, and causes entry into the path to the vision of the tathāgatas’
wisdom.

“Śāriputra, all the beings who hear that Dharma from those
tathāgatas, arhats, perfectly enlightened buddhas will attain the highest,
supreme enlightenment.

“Śāriputra, in that same way, I am a tathāgata, arhat, perfectly
enlightened buddha who knows the thoughts that are the various aspirations,
natures, and intentions of beings. For the sake of many beings, for the
benefit of many beings, for the happiness of many beings, and with
compassion for the world, for the sake of a great number of beings, and for
the benefit and happiness of devas and humans, I teach the Dharma by using a
variety of teachings on accomplishment, and various teachings on causes,
reasons, parables, supports, and skillful
methods.

“Śāriputra, I also teach the Dharma to beings through a single
yāna, which is the Buddhayāna, ultimate omniscience. It is the teaching of
the Dharma that causes the acquisition of the vision of the tathāgatas’
wisdom, reveals the vision of the tathāgatas’ wisdom, causes entry into the
vision of the tathāgatas’ wisdom, causes the realization of the vision of
the tathāgatas’ wisdom, and causes entry into the path to the vision of the
tathāgatas’ wisdom.

“Śāriputra, all the beings who now hear that Dharma from me will also
attain the highest, supreme enlightenment.

“Śāriputra, know that in this teaching there is no second yāna
anywhere in any world in the ten directions, so how could there be a third?

“However, when tathāgatas, arhats, perfectly enlightened buddhas
appear during the degeneration of an eon, or when there is the degeneration
of beings, degeneration through the kleśas, degeneration of view, or
degeneration of lifespan, then, Śāriputra, when there is that turmoil of the degeneration of the era, many
defilements, and beings have craving and few roots of merit, then, Śāriputra, the tathāgatas, arhats, perfectly
enlightened buddhas with skill in methods teach that single Buddhayāna as a
teaching of three yānas.

“Śāriputra, those śrāvakas, arhats, and pratyekabuddhas who do not
listen to, do not engage in, and do not comprehend the activity of the
tathāgatas that causes the acquisition of the Buddhayāna, you should know
that they, Śāriputra, are not śrāvakas of the Buddha, and you should know
that they are not his arhats or pratyekabuddhas.

“Also, Śāriputra, those bhikṣus or bhikṣuṇīs who vow to become
arhats do not possess the aspiration to the highest, complete enlightenment.
They say, ‘I have cut myself off from the Buddhayāna; this is my last
existence, my nirvāṇa.’

“Śāriputra, know them to be arrogant. Why is that? Śāriputra, it is
impossible that a bhikṣu arhat, whose defilements have ceased, who hears
this Dharma in the presence of the Tathāgata, will be unable to have faith
in it, unless it is after the Tathāgata’s nirvāṇa. Why is that? Śāriputra,
at the time, after the Tathāgata’s nirvāṇa, these śrāvakas will not preserve or
teach this kind of sūtra.

“Śāriputra, they will have no doubt concerning this Dharma teaching
from other tathāgatas, arhats, perfectly enlightened buddhas. Śāriputra,
have faith in me, trust in me, and have confidence in me.

“Śāriputra, the tathāgatas do not lie. This one yāna, Śāriputra, is
the Buddhayāna.”

At that time the Buddha taught this topic in detail by reciting
these verses:

“The arrogant bhikṣus, bhikṣuṇīs,

Upāsakas, and upāsikās

Who are devoid of faith

Number no fewer than five hundred. {38}

“Having impaired training,

They saw this wrong of theirs,

And concealing their flaws,

The foolish ones departed. {39}

“They do not have the good karma

For listening to this Dharma.

Knowing them to be the very dregs of this assembly

I, the Lord of the World, gave them leave. {40}

“Those now present in my assembly

Are pure and free of the chaff.

All who are extraneous have departed

And these who remain are the essence. {41}

“Listen to me, Śārisuta! The supreme beings,

The guides, the buddhas have
taught

The perfect Dharma of the buddhas

With many hundreds of skillful methods. {42}

“In that way I know the thoughts and the conduct

And the many aspirations of millions of beings,

And I know their various kinds of karma,

And the good actions they have previously accomplished, {43}

“And I shall make those beings understand

Through various definitions and reasons,

And through hundreds of causes and parables,

And in those ways I will please beings. {44}

“I teach through prose and likewise
verse,

Histories, my previous lifetimes, accounts of miracles,

Prologues, hundreds of different analogies,

Prose put into verse, and similarly elucidations. {45}

“I give the teaching of nirvāṇa to those

Who lack wisdom, who are attracted to inferior paths,

Who do not practice the way of the many millions of buddhas,

Who are clinging to saṃsāra and suffer deeply. {46}

“A self-arisen one performs this method

So that the wisdom of buddhahood may be realized.

But I have never said to them,

‘You will become buddhas in this world.’ {47}

“Why is that? The Protector waits for an appropriate time,

And when he sees that time has come he teaches it.

That appropriate time has somehow arrived today

And that is why I shall teach the definitive truth. {48}

“My teaching has nine aspects,

Which are taught according to the strengths
of beings.

I teach with this method so that they will approach

The supreme gift that is wisdom. {49}

“I give the teaching of the extensive sūtras

To those bodhisattvas who
are always pure,

Who are wise, unsullied, and gentle,

Who have served many millions of buddhas. {50}

“As their aspirations are fulfilled

And they have purity of conduct,

I say that they will be in a future time

Beneficial and compassionate buddhas. {51}

“Hearing so, they all are filled with joy,

Thinking, ‘We will become buddhas, supreme among beings.’

And also, knowing their attitude,

I give them the teaching of the extensive sūtras. {52}

“Those śrāvakas of the Guide who in this way

Have heard this teaching of mine,

They who have heard or retained even one verse,

Will all, without doubt, attain enlightenment. {53}

“Apart from the skillful methods of supreme beings

Who give the teaching of separate yānas,

There is only one yāna; there is no second,

And there is never in the world a third. {54}

“A lord of the world appears in the world

In order to teach the wisdom of buddhahood.

That is his one activity, there is no second:

The buddhas do not guide beings with a lesser yāna. {55}

“A self-arisen one establishes beings

In that in which he is himself established:

In that very same buddhahood,

In the strengths, dhyānas, liberations, and powers. {56}

“If having attained preeminent, stainless enlightenment

I were then to establish even one being

In a lesser yāna, that would not be good:

I would have the fault of stinginess. {57}

“I do not have the slightest stinginess;

I have no envy and no desire.

I have eliminated every bad quality.

I am a buddha and I understand beings. {58}

“Just as the signs I am adorned by

Illuminate all these worlds,

I give the teaching of this seal of the Dharma’s nature

To the many hundreds of beings who are before me. {59}

“This is what I think of, Śāriputra:

‘How may all beings become

Possessed of a body with the thirty-two signs

And be self-luminous, self-arising knowers of the world?’ {60}

“Just as I saw and just as I thought,

And just as I resolved in the past,

My aspirations have been fulfilled

And I teach enlightenment and buddhahood. {61}

“If, Śārisuta, I were to say to beings,

‘Develop the desire for buddhahood,’

All who are ignorant would be bewildered

And they would not follow my good advice. {62}

“I have the knowledge of their nature;

They have not practiced the way in previous lifetimes.

They have attachment and cling to sensory pleasures.

They are stupefied by craving and bewildered by ignorance. {63}

“Desire causes them to fall into the lower existences.

They are tormented within the six existences.

They increase the charnel grounds over and over.

They have little merit and are tortured by suffering. {64}

“They constantly cling to the darkness of wrong views:

That things exist, do not exist, and similarly both exist and do not
exist.

They rely upon the sixty-two fabricated views.

They remain fixated upon things that have no reality. {65}

“They are treacherous, conceited, and incorrigible.

They are crooked, deceitful, fools with little learning.

Throughout billions of their lifetimes

They never hear these words from a buddha. {66}

“Śārisuta, I teach to them the method

That will bring an end to their suffering.

On seeing beings tortured by suffering

I then give to them the teaching of nirvāṇa. {67}

“Thus I give all these Dharma teachings

Of eternal nirvāṇa and primordial peace,

While a bodhisattva who has perfected his
practice

Will in a future time become a jina. {68}

“Similarly, the three yānas that I teach

Are a skillful method of mine.

There is but one yāna, but one way—

There is but this one teaching of the guides. {69}

“Those of you here who have doubt about this

Should dispel your doubt and your uncertainty.

The guides of the world do not teach anything else.

There is but this one yāna; there is no second. {70}

“The tathāgatas who have appeared in the past,

The many thousands
of buddhas who have entered nirvāṇa

In the countless eons of the past

Could never be enumerated. {71}

“All those supreme beings

Gave many pure Dharma teachings

Through parables, causes, and reasons,

And through hundreds of skillful methods. {72}

“All of them taught one yāna.

They brought countless billions

Of beings into that single yāna

And ripened them in that single yāna. {73}

“The tathāgatas, in a world with its devas,

Knowing the aspirations and thoughts of beings,

Are teaching this supreme Dharma

With other various methods of the jinas. {74}

“Those beings who in their presence

Are listening to the Dharma or have listened to it,

Who have practiced generosity, maintained good conduct,

Who have accomplished all practices with patience, {75}

“Who have served with diligence and meditation,

Who have contemplated with wisdom these Dharma teachings,

And have created various kinds of merit:

They will all of them attain enlightenment. {76}

“Those beings who have followed the teaching

Of the jinas who have passed into nirvāṇa,

And who are patient, peaceful, and self-controlled:

They will all of them attain enlightenment. {77}

“Those who make offerings to the relics

Of the jinas who have passed into nirvāṇa,

And have built countless thousands of stūpas

That are made of jewels, gold, and silver, {78}

“And of crystals, and of emeralds,

That are made from pearls and chrysoberyls,

Of the best beryls and likewise sapphires:

They will all of them attain enlightenment. {79}

“Also those who make stūpas out of stone,

Those who make them from sandalwood and agarwood,

Those who make stūpas out of deodar cedar,

Those who make them from a combination of woods, {80}

“And those who with delight make stūpas of jinas

From bricks or build them from clay,

And those who for that purpose create them

In remote forests from piles of earth, {81}

“And those children playing here and there

Who pile up sand

So as to create stūpas of the jinas:

They will all of them attain enlightenment.
{82}

“Similarly those who have others work

In order to create the precious images

Of statues that possess the thirty-two signs:

They will all of them attain enlightenment. {83}

“Those who make them from the seven precious materials,

Those who make them from copper and bronze,

Those who have made statues of the sugatas:

They will all of them attain enlightenment. {84}

“Those who have representations of the sugatas made

From lead, from iron, or from clay,

Or beautifully painted on cloth:

They will all of them attain enlightenment. {85}

“Those who paint their representations in murals,

Their entire bodies with a hundred signs of merit,

Whether they paint them themselves or have others do so:

They will all of them attain enlightenment. {86}

“Also those, whether adults or children,

Who in learning, or for their own amusement

Or to entertain others, draw those images

On a wall with a fingernail or with a stick: {87}

“They will all of them attain enlightenment,

All of them will become compassionate,

All of them will liberate millions of beings,

And they will make many become bodhisattvas. {88}

“Those who make offerings of flowers and incense

To the relics of the tathāgatas,

To stūpas and images made of clay,

And to murals and stūpas made of earth; {89}

“Those who cause music to be played for them

With the pleasant sounds of ḍamarus, conches, and bherī drums;

Those who play well upon drums

As an offering to the perfectly enlightened ones; {90}

“Those who do so with melodious lutes, cymbals, and gongs,

Mṛdaṅga drums, single-stringed lutes, and flutes,

Which bring delight, and are
pleasant to hear:

They will all of them attain enlightenment. {91}

“Those who, in order to make offerings to the sugatas,

Make music with strings of little bells,

With bowls of water, by
clapping their hands,

And with sweet, lovely well-sung songs— {92}

“Those who perform many kinds of offerings to the relics—

They will all become buddhas in the world.

Even those who make a little offering to the relics of a sugata,

Who play music on just one instrument, {93}

“Or make an offering with just one flower,

Or make an offering with a distracted mind

To the image of a sugata in a mural,

They will eventually see millions of buddhas. {94}

“Those who make the gesture of homage to a stūpa,

Either completely or even with just one hand;

Or bow their head for just an instant,

Or similarly bow their body just one time; {95}

“Or say ‘Homage to the Buddha’ just one time

To those containers of the relics—

Even those who do so once with a distracted mind—

They will all of them attain enlightenment. {96}

“Those beings who, at a time when the sugatas

Have passed into nirvāṇa or are present,

Have heard this Dharma teaching’s name:

They will all of them attain enlightenment. {97}

“The many millions of buddhas in the future,

Who are innumerable, beyond reckoning,

Those jinas, supreme lords of the world,

They will also teach these methods. {98}

“They who guide millions of beings

To the immaculate wisdom of buddhahood,

Those guides of the world

Will have infinite skill in methods. {99}

“There will never be even one being

Who has heard this Dharma teaching that will not become a buddha.

The prayer of the tathāgatas is:

‘Having followed the path, may I make others follow it for
enlightenment.’ {100}

“They will teach in the future times

Many thousand millions of entrances to the Dharma.

In buddhahood, they will teach the Dharma

Through teaching this single yāna.
{101}

“This way of the Dharma is always constant;

The nature of the Dharma is always illuminating.

The buddhas, the supreme humans, will know it

And will expound this single yāna of mine. {102}

“The constancy of the Dharma, the eternality of the Dharma

Is always constant, unfluctuating in this world.

The buddhas in the center of the earth

Will expound buddhahood and skillfulness in methods. {103}

“The buddhas, as numerous as the Ganges sands,

Present in the ten directions, to whom humans and devas make
offerings,

Also teach this supreme yāna

For the sake of the happiness of all beings. {104}

“The buddhas expound skillfulness in methods,

And they teach different kinds of yānas.

They also elucidate the single yāna,

This supreme level of peace. {105}

“They teach through knowing the conduct of all beings

And similarly their thoughts and past practice,

Knowing their strengths and their diligence,

And through knowing their aspirations. {106}

“The guides, through the power of wisdom,

Teach many causes, parables, and supports.

Knowing the various aspirations of beings

They teach various kinds of practices. {107}

“At this time, I, the guide who is a Lord of Jinas,

Have also appeared so that beings may attain happiness.

I teach this enlightenment of buddhahood

Through billions of various kinds of practices. {108}

“Knowing the thoughts and aspirations of beings

I teach the Dharma in many different forms.

I gladden them through various methods:

That is the power of my own wisdom. {109}

“I also see that destitute beings

Are without wisdom and merit.

They are sunk in saṃsāra, enveloped in misery,

And immersed in a continuum of suffering. {110}

“Bound to craving, the fools are like yaks;

They are continually blinded by desire.

They do not seek buddhahood that has great power;

They do not search for the Dharma that ends suffering. {111}

“Their minds are impeded in the six existences,

They adhere unshakably to incorrect views,

They experience suffering after suffering.

I have powerful compassion for them. {112}

“Knowing this, I remained

At the Bodhimaṇḍa for three full weeks.

I contemplated this meaning in that way

While gazing there upon the tree. {113}

“I stared, without blinking, at the lord of trees

While walking to and fro beneath it.

‘This wisdom is preeminent and marvelous.

These beings are unwise and blinded by ignorance.’ {114}

“At that time I was entreated by Brahmā,

Śakra, the four world guardians,

And also Maheśvara and Īśvara,

And many billions of maruts. {115}

“They all stood respectfully with palms together.

I contemplated my goal and how to accomplish it:

‘If I speak the praises of enlightenment

To these beings who are oppressed by suffering, {116}

“ ‘Those with foolish minds will reject my Dharma,

And having rejected it, they will go to the lower realms.

It is best that I never say anything.

May I enter nirvāṇa, peace, on this very day.’ {117}

“I remembered the buddhas of the past

And the skill in methods that they had:

‘I too therefore shall teach this enlightenment

Of buddhahood divided into three categories.’ {118}

“I contemplated that meaning in this way,

And the other buddhas in the ten directions

Revealed their own bodies to me

And with their voices they declared, ‘Excellent! {119}

“ ‘Excellent, Muni, supreme Guide of the World,

Who, having attained the supreme wisdom,

Is contemplating skill in methods,

Following the way of the guides of worlds. {120}

“ ‘We also, having realized the highest state,

Are teaching through a division into three.

Humans with inferior aspiration and lacking knowledge

Will not believe us if we say, “You shall become buddhas.” {121}

“ ‘Therefore we are employing skill in methods

Through a compilation of causes.

We are inspiring many bodhisattvas

By declaring what is the desired result.’ {122}

“I was filled with joy on having heard

The pleasant voices of the leaders of beings,

And filled with joy I said to those protectors,

‘Supreme great rishis, you speak meaningfully. {123}

“ ‘I too will act in the way that the wise ones,

The guides of the world, have described.’

I have also been born during this dreadful chaos,

In the midst of the degeneracy of beings. {124}

“And so, Śārisuta, knowing this,

At that time I walked to Vārāṇasī.

There, applying a method, I taught the five bhikṣus

The Dharma that is the state of pacification. {125}

“Then my wheel of the Dharma was turned,

And the word nirvāṇa appeared in the world.

The word arhat and likewise the word
Dharma

And the word saṅgha also appeared at that time.
{126}

“I taught for numerous years,

Explaining the level of nirvāṇa.

At all times I taught in this way:

‘This is the end of saṃsāra’s suffering.’ {127}

“Śāriputra, there came a time

When I saw infinite thousands of quintillions

Of offspring of the highest of humans

Who had set out for the supreme, highest enlightenment. {128}

“They who had arrived before me

Stood respectfully with palms together.

They had heard the Dharma from the jinas

And were skilled in many kinds of methods. {129}

“Then in that instant I had this thought:

‘The time has come for me to teach the highest Dharma.

It is for that purpose that I was born into this world

And I shall teach here the highest enlightenment. {130}

“ ‘Those with foolish understanding, who conceptualize
characteristics,

Who have become arrogant and who are lacking in wisdom

Will on this day not have faith in it.

But these bodhisattvas will listen to me.’ {131}

“At that time, fearlessly and joyfully,

Having abandoned every hesitation,

I spoke in the middle of the offspring of the sugatas

And inspired them toward enlightenment. {132}

“Having seen children of the buddhas such as these,

You too should be one who has banished doubt.

These twelve hundred who have no defilements

Will all become buddhas in this world. {133}

“Just like the nature of the past protectors

And like that of the jinas in the future,

I too have eliminated conceptualization

And will teach you in that way today. {134}

“Sometimes, somewhere, somehow,

A leader of beings appears in a world.

When someone with infinite vision appears in a world

Then sometimes this kind of Dharma may be taught. {135}

“Even in a million trillion eons it will be

Very difficult to find a supreme Dharma such as this.

It will be very difficult to find beings such as these

Who listen to the supreme Dharma and believe in it. {136}

“They are as difficult to find as a fig tree flower

That is sometimes, somehow, somewhere seen.

It may be a beautiful sight for beings

And a marvel for the world and its devas. {137}

“Therefore, I will teach the greatest marvel,

And whoever hears this well-taught Dharma,

Rejoices, and recites just one word of it

Will have made an offering to all the buddhas. {138}

“Banish all doubt and uncertainty concerning this.

I, the King of the Dharma, shall proclaim it.

I shall guide toward the highest enlightenment;

Here, I have no śrāvakas whatsoever. {139}

“Śāriputra, you must keep this great secret.

And also all those who are my śrāvakas,

And these who are eminent bodhisattvas,

They must maintain this great secret of mine. {140}

“Why is that? In the time of five degenerations

There are beings who are cruel and evil.

They are blinded by desires and have foolish judgment

And they will never develop the aspiration to enlightenment. {141}

“In future times, beings will be confused,

And having heard this single yāna of mine

That has been taught by the Jina,

They will reject the discourse and go to hell. {142}

“To those beings who will be modest and pure

And are intent upon the supreme, highest enlightenment,

To them I will relate without any fear

Endless praises of the single yāna. {143}

“In this way, in the teaching of the guides,

This skill in methods, which is most excellent,

Has been taught many times in words with an implied meaning

That those who are untrained could not understand. {144}

“Therefore, understanding the implied meaning taught

By the buddhas, the teachers of the world, the protectors,

Rejecting doubts and abandoning uncertainty,

You will become buddhas, so be joyous!” {145}

Chapter 3

The Parable

Then at that time, Śāriputra felt contented, delighted, elated,
and joyful. With happiness and gladness he bowed with palms together toward
the Bhagavān. Facing the Bhagavān, gazing solely upon the Bhagavān, he said
to the Bhagavān, “Bhagavān, I am astonished and amazed. I am overjoyed to
have heard this kind of speech from the Bhagavān.

“Why is that? Bhagavān, it is because I have never heard this kind
of Dharma from the Bhagavān. When I saw other bodhisattvas and heard the
names of the buddhas that those bodhisattvas will become in the future, and
yet, still had not heard this kind of Dharma teaching from the Bhagavān, I
imagined that I was deprived of that kind of vision of the tathāgatas’
wisdom, and was extremely
grieved and extremely distressed.

“Bhagavān, whenever I went to stay alone in mountains, caves,
forests, groves, river banks, or the foot of trees, and many other places
for my daytime rest, I thought, ‘Everyone enters the nature of the Dharma
equally, but we are being liberated by the Bhagavān through the Hīnayāna.’

“At that time I thought, ‘The fault is ours, the fault is not the
Bhagavān’s.’ Why is that? If we had stayed when
the Bhagavān was teaching the excellent Dharma, commencing with the highest,
complete enlightenment, then, Bhagavān, we also would have been liberated in
that Dharma. Also, Bhagavān, when the bodhisattvas were not present, we did
not understand the Bhagavān’s teaching that had an implied meaning. We
immediately heard, retained, meditated on,
contemplated, and focused upon the first Dharma teaching given by the
Tathāgata. Bhagavān, I have reprimanded myself for that day and night.

“Bhagavān, I have heard from the Bhagavān this marvelous Dharma
that I have never heard before. Bhagavān, today I have attained nirvāṇa.
Bhagavān, today I have become calmed.
Bhagavān, today I have attained complete nirvāṇa. Bhagavān, today I have
attained arhathood. Bhagavān, today I have become the Bhagavān’s principal
son, born from his heart and mouth, born from the Dharma, emanated from the
Dharma, descended from the Dharma, and created from the Dharma. Today I have
become freed from sorrow.”

Then at that time Brother Śāriputra addressed these verses to the
Bhagavān:

“Great Guide, I am astonished.

I am content on hearing these words.

From now on, I will never have doubts.

I am ripened in this supreme yāna. {1}

“The teaching of the Sugata is marvelous.

It clears away the doubts and misery of beings.

My defilements have ceased and there is no misery.

Hearing your speech has dispelled everything. {2}

“Sitting and walking during the day

In forests, in groves, and under trees,

Dwelling in mountains and in caves

I contemplated with these thoughts: {3}

“ ‘Alas! I have been deceived by bad thoughts

Of the equal accessibility of the Dharma teachings, free of
defilements.

I will not be teaching in future times

That which is the highest Dharma in the three realms. {4}

“ ‘Alas! I was deluded about the equal accessibility of the
dharmas.

I am deprived of the thirty-two signs.

I am deprived of the shining color of gold.

I am devoid of all the strengths and the liberations. {5}

“ ‘Alas! I am deceived, and deprived also

Of the full eighty supreme,

Excellent features of a great muni,

And the unique eighteen qualities.’ {6}

“Having seen you who compassionately benefits the world,

I went to sit alone in the day’s time of rest.

I considered, ‘Alas! I have gone astray

From inconceivable, unobstructed wisdom!’ {7}

“Protector, in that way throughout day and night

I contemplated this over and over,

Thinking I shall ask the Bhagavān,

‘Have I strayed or have I not?’ {8}

“This is how I was thinking, Lord of Jinas,

All the time, throughout day and night.

I saw many other bodhisattvas

Being praised by the Guide of the World. {9}

“I heard this Dharma of the Buddha

That was taught with a hidden meaning.

The Jina taught at the Bodhimaṇḍa

An inconceivable, subtle, immaculate wisdom. {10}

“I was in the past attached to views.

I was an esteemed tīrthika mendicant.

Then the Lord, knowing my thoughts,

Taught me nirvāṇa to free me from those
views. {11}

“After I was liberated from all those views

I realized the emptiness of phenomena.

Therefore I believed I had attained nirvāṇa,

But this was not what is called nirvāṇa. {12}

“When one becomes a buddha, the highest being,

Humans, maruts, yakṣas, and rākṣasas come before you,

And you possess a body with the thirty-two signs.

That is when there is the attainment of nirvāṇa without remainder.
{13}

“I have dispelled all my pride,

Heard your words, and today I have attained nirvāṇa.

You prophesied my supreme enlightenment

In front of the world and its devas. {14}

“When I first heard the words of the Guide

I experienced a powerful terror

That this might be the wicked Māra

Manifesting on this earth in the appearance of a buddha. {15}

“When you taught through a quintillion

Causes, reasons, and parables, establishing

Buddhahood’s highest enlightenment,

Hearing that I had no doubt in the Dharma, {16}

“At that time you taught how ten billion jinas

Of the past who had passed into nirvāṇa

Were established in skillful methods

And they also in that way taught the Dharma; {17}

“That many future buddhas who will be in the world,

And the present ones who have seen the ultimate truth,

Will be teaching and in that way are teaching

The Dharma through hundreds of skillful methods. {18}

“And you taught the nature of your own conduct,

Beginning with when you renounced your home,

And the way you realized the wheel of the Dharma,

And the way that you established the teaching of the Dharma. {19}

“And then I knew that you were not Māra,

But a lord of the world teaching correct conduct.

That is not found in the activity of the māras

And that had been the doubt in my mind. {20}

“When the gentle, profound, melodious

Speech of the Buddha filled me with joy,

All my uncertainties were dispelled

And in wisdom I remained free of doubt. {21}

“Without doubt I shall become a tathāgata

And the world and its devas will come before me.

Through words with an implied meaning, many bodhisattvas

Have been inspired toward the enlightenment of buddhahood.” {22}

In response to these words from Brother Śāriputra, the Bhagavān
said to him, “Śāriputra, before the world and its devas, with its Māra and
Brahmā, its mendicants and brahmins, I declare to you, and reveal to you,
Śāriputra, in the presence of twenty hundred thousand quintillion buddhas,
that I have ripened you for complete enlightenment.

“Śāriputra, you have been my follower for a long time.
Śāriputra, it is through the bodhisattva instructions and the great secret
of the bodhisattvas that you have appeared here within my teaching.

“Śāriputra, you do not remember your past conduct, prayers,
bodhisattva instructions, and great bodhisattva secret, formed through your
firm bodhisattva resolve. You have thus thought, ‘I have attained
nirvāṇa.’

“Śāriputra, I wish to make you remember and understand your past
conduct, prayers, and wisdom. So I will teach to the śrāvakas this great,
extensive sūtra, the Dharma teaching of The White Lotus
of the Good Dharma, which is an instruction for bodhisattvas,
and is possessed by all the buddhas.

“Śāriputra, in this way in the future, during countless,
innumerable, incalculable eons, you will be the holder of the Dharma of many
hundred thousand quintillions of tathāgatas, make all kinds of offerings to
them, and perfectly complete these practices of the bodhisattva, and then
you will appear in the world as the tathāgata, the arhat, the perfectly
enlightened buddha, the one with perfect wisdom and conduct, the sugata, the
knower of the world, the unsurpassable guide who tames beings, the teacher
of gods and humans, the buddha, the bhagavān named Padmaprabha.

“Śāriputra, at that time, the bhagavān tathāgata Padmaprabha will
have a realm named Virajā, which will be level, delightful, good,
beautiful, pure, prosperous, wealthy, peaceful, with an abundance of
food, and
filled with many humans and maruts. The ground will be beryl, divided
eightfold like a checkerboard by golden cords, and within each
square there will be jewel trees, which will always be adorned by flowers
and fruits made of the seven precious materials.

“Śāriputra, the tathāgata, the arhat, the perfectly enlightened
buddha Padmaprabha will teach the Dharma beginning with the three yānas.
Moreover, Śāriputra, although that tathāgata will not appear during an eon
of degeneration, he will nevertheless teach the Dharma in accordance with
his previous prayers.

“Śāriputra, the name of that eon will be Adorned by Great Jewels.
Śāriputra, why do you think that eon will be called Adorned by Great Jewels?
Śāriputra, in that realm the bodhisattvas will be called great
jewels (mahāratna), and at that time, in that era, in the realm
Virajā there will appear so many bodhisattvas that they will be countless,
incalculable, innumerable; only a tathāgata will be able to count them. That
is why that eon will be called Adorned by Great Jewels.

“Śāriputra, at that time the bodhisattvas in that buddha realm
will be stepping upon jewel lotuses when they walk. Those bodhisattvas will
not be novices, but will have practiced the roots of merit for a long time,
practiced celibacy with many hundreds of thousands of buddhas, been praised
by the tathāgatas, been dedicated to the wisdom of buddhahood, given rise to
the development of the great higher knowledges, become skilled in all the
ways of the Dharma, and will be kind and mindful.

“Śāriputra, that buddha realm will be filled by that kind of
bodhisattva.

“Śāriputra, the lifespan of Tathāgata Padmaprabha will be twelve
intermediate eons, not counting his youth. The lifespan of the beings there
will be eight intermediate eons.

“Śāriputra, when those twelve intermediate eons have passed,
Tathāgata Padmaprabha will say, ‘Bhikṣus, this bodhisattva mahāsattva named
Dhṛtiparipūrṇa will be next to attain the highest, complete enlightenment of
buddhahood and will appear in the world as the tathāgata, the arhat, the
perfectly enlightened buddha, the one with perfect wisdom and conduct, the
sugata, the knower of the world, the unsurpassable guide who tames beings,
the teacher of gods and humans, the buddha, the bhagavān named
Padmavṛṣabhavikrāmin.’ After he gives to the bodhisattva mahāsattva
Dhṛtiparipūrṇa the prophecy of his highest, complete enlightenment, he will
then pass into nirvāṇa.

“Śāriputra, the buddha realm of Tathāgata Padmavṛṣabhavikrāmin
will have the same appearance as that of Padmaprabha.

“Śāriputra, after Tathāgata Padmaprabha passes into nirvāṇa the
Dharma will remain for thirty-two intermediate eons, and then the outer form
of the Dharma will remain for another thirty-two intermediate eons.”

Thereupon the Bhagavān spoke these verses:

“In a future time you, Śārisuta,

Will become a jina, a tathāgata,

The all-seeing Padmaprabha,

Who will guide ten billion beings. {23}

“You will honor many millions of buddhas,

You will accomplish powerful conduct,

You will develop the ten strengths,

And you will reach the supreme, highest enlightenment. {24}

“After countless, incalculable eons

There will be the eon Many Jewels.

There will be a world named Virajā

That will be the pure realm of that supreme human. {25}

“The ground will be covered with beryl

And it will be adorned by cords of gold.

Present there will be hundreds of trees made of jewels

That are beautiful and adorned by flowers and fruits. {26}

“There will be many mindful bodhisattvas there

Who are skilled in the accomplishment of perfect conduct.

Those who will be born into that realm

Will have trained in conduct with hundreds of buddhas. {27}

“That jina in his final lifetime,

When he has passed beyond the time of his youth,

Will forsake desires, leave the worldly life,

And will attain the highest, complete enlightenment. {28}

“The lifespan of that jina

Will be the same as twelve intermediate eons.

The lifespan of humans in that world

Will be eight intermediate eons. {29}

“When that jina has passed into nirvāṇa

The Dharma will remain during the time

Of thirty-two intermediate eons in their entirety

In order to benefit the world and its devas. {30}

“The Dharma will cease but its outer form

Will remain for a futher thirty-two intermediate eons.

The relics of that protector’s body will multiply

And the humans and maruts will continually honor them. {31}

“That you will thus become a bhagavān,

Śārisuta, you should be delighted.

That is what you will become:

An unsurpassable supreme human.” {32}

Then the fourfold assembly of bhikṣus, bhikṣuṇīs, upāsakas, and
upāsikās, as well as devas, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas,
kinnaras, mahoragas, humans, and nonhumans, having heard directly from the
Bhagavān this prophecy of Brother Śāriputra’s highest, complete
enlightenment, were contented, delighted, elated, and joyful. With happiness
and gladness they presented the Bhagavān’s body with their own clothing.
Śakra, the lord of devas, and Brahmā, the lord of Sahā, and another trillion
devas also presented the Bhagavān’s body with divine clothing. They
scattered divine coral tree and great coral tree
flowers.
They waved divine cloths in the
sky above him. They played a hundred thousand divine musical instruments and
beat drums in the sky. A great rain of flowers fell and they proclaimed,
“The Bhagavān previously turned the wheel of Dharma in the Ṛṣipatana deer
forest in the land of Vārāṇasī, and on this day the Bhagavān
has turned the highest Dharma wheel.”

At that time those devas recited these verses:

“Unequaled individual, great hero,

In the land of Vārāṇasī

You turned the Dharma wheel

Of the arising and cessation of the skandhas. {33}

“There took place the first turning

And here, Guide, this is the second.

You have taught today, Leader,

That which is difficult to believe. {34}

“We have heard many dharmas

In the presence of the world’s lord,

But we have never before

Heard a dharma of this kind. {35}

“Great hero, we are overjoyed by

The great rishi’s words with implied meaning.

Just as in the prophecy

To the fearless Ārya Śāriputra, {36}

“May we also in that way become

Unsurpassable buddhas in the world,

And through words with implied meaning

Teach buddhahood’s highest enlightenment. {37}

“Whatever good we do

In this or in other worlds,

And through pleasing the Buddha,

May we aspire for enlightenment.” {38}

Then Brother Śāriputra said to the Bhagavān, “Bhagavān, I have
directly heard from the Bhagavān the prophecy of my attaining the highest,
complete enlightenment. Bhagavān, I have no doubt. I am free of uncertainty.

“Bhagavān, these one thousand two hundred who have gained
self-control were previously established as students by the Bhagavān, and
were instructed thus, were taught thus: ‘Bhikṣus, the ultimate conclusion of
the discipline of the Dharma is the transcendence of birth, aging, sickness,
and death, the goal of
nirvāṇa, being absorbed in nirvāṇa.’ Bhagavān, these bhikṣus, both those
training and trained, have renounced the view of self, the view of
production, the view of destruction, and all views. All of these two
thousand śrāvakas of the
Bhagavān think, ‘I reside on the level of nirvāṇa.’

“Having heard from the Bhagavān this kind of Dharma, which they
have never heard before, they are puzzled. Bhagavān, so that the fourfold
assembly will be without doubt, and without uncertainty, and so that these
bhikṣus will have their worries dispelled, I beseech the Bhagavān to teach
them well.”

The Bhagavān said to Brother Śāriputra, “Śāriputra, knowing the
different aspirations and different thoughts and natures of beings, a
tathāgata, arhat, perfectly enlightened buddha teaches the Dharma through
various accomplishments, causes, reasons, parables, supports, definitions,
and skillful methods in this way. Commencing with the highest, complete
enlightenment, through all the teaching of the Dharma he inspires them to
enter into this very Bodhisattvayāna. Have I not already taught you this
earlier?

“However, Śāriputra, in order to teach that meaning extensively I shall teach you parables. Why is
that? Some wise individuals will understand through parables the meaning of
what has been said.

“As a parable, Śāriputra, in a village, a town, a market town, a
district, a region, a country, or a capital, there was a householder who was
old, an elder, advanced in years, aged, and was rich, wealthy, and had many
possessions. His home was tall and extensive. It
had been built a long time ago and had deteriorated. A hundred, two hundred,
three, four, or five hundred people lived in it. It had only one
entranceway. It was roofed with hay. Its terrace was crumbling. The bases of
its pillars were rotten. The walls and doors were disintegrating. A great
fire started suddenly throughout the house from all sides. The man had many
sons—five, ten, or twenty—and the man came out from the house. Śāriputra,
the man then saw the great fire burning everywhere throughout his house. He
was frightened and dismayed. He thought, ‘I have not been touched, I have
not been burned by this great fire. I was able to quickly escape from the
burning house through the door. But my sons, who are young, who are
children, are engaged in enjoying themselves playing games inside the
burning house. They are not aware that the house is burning, they have not
understood it, do not know it, have not realized it, and so they will be
burned in this great fire, and will experience great suffering. But they are
not dismayed at the thought of being touched by that great fire, they do not
think of that suffering, and do not think of escaping from the house.’

“Śāriputra, the man was very strong and had very strong arms. He
thought, ‘I am strong and I have strong arms. I shall gather all the
children together and carry them on my hips out from the house.’ Then he
thought, ‘The house has only one door and that door is narrow. These young
ones don’t stay still, are always running around, so I won’t be able to
bring them out, and there will be the disaster of their agony in the great
fire. So I should call out to them.’

“Then he called out to the children, ‘There is a massive fire
burning the house! Everything inside is going to be burned in this great
fire! You will suffer disastrously! Children, come here! Come out!’

“The man gave that command wishing to help them, but the children,
not knowing what ‘burning’ meant were not dismayed, not frightened, and not
terrified.
They did not think about it and did not come out, but ran and scampered
around here and there, repeatedly looking out at their father. Why was that?
They were like that because they were children.

“Then the man thought, ‘A great fire is burning this house. My
children and I are going to be afflicted disastrously by this great fire.
But if I use a skillful method I will be able to bring the children out of
the house.’

“The man knew what his children thought. He understood that they
would wish for many different kinds of amusements, and many different kinds
of things: a variety of delightful, desirable, pleasing, beautiful, and
charming and pleasant things, which would be difficult to find.

“Then the man, knowing their thoughts, called to the children,
‘Those toys that you delight in and marvel at, and that you are unhappy not
to have obtained, which have many different colors and shapes, such as an
ox-drawn cart, a goat-drawn cart, and a deer-drawn cart, which you think are
delightful, desirable, pleasing, beautiful, charming, and pleasant, those I
have placed outside at the entrance door of the house outside so that you
can play with them. So come, run outside, and I will give each of you
whatever you want. So come quickly for that reason!’

“Those children, hearing that and the names of those things that
they wished for, that they longed for, which they thought delightful,
desirable, pleasing, beautiful, charming, and pleasant, in order to play
with those things, quickly and zealously ran out from the burning house with
great speed, calling out to each other, ‘Who will be first? Who will be
first of all?’ And as one body they quickly came running out of the burning
house.

“Then the man saw that they had come out safe and well, and were no
longer in danger. Then they came to the village square, in the open air. He
was delighted and joyful. He was free of sorrow, untroubled and unafraid.

“Then the children went to their father and said, ‘Father, give to
us the various kinds of toys for playing with, such as an ox-drawn cart, a
goat-drawn cart, and a deer-drawn cart.’

“Then, Śāriputra, the man gave all his sons carts drawn by powerful
oxen that were as fast as the wind. The carts were made of the seven
precious materials. They had seats. They had strings of small bells
attached. They were high and stable. They were adorned with marvelous,
amazing jewels. They were beautified by strings of jewels. They were
decorated with flower garlands. They had cotton-filled cushions covered with
calico and silk, and red backrests on both sides. Yoked to them were
dazzling white oxen that were swift and that were held by many men. They had
banners. He gave to each of his children an ox-drawn cart that was as fast
as the wind.

“Śāriputra, what was the reason for that? The man was rich,
wealthy, and had many treasuries. He thought, ‘There is no reason why I
should give inferior carts
to my children. Why is that? All these children are my sons. All of them are
dear and precious to me. If I have such great carts, I should treat them all
equally, and not unequally. I have many treasuries, so not to speak of my
own sons alone, I should give all beings this kind of great cart.’ Then at
that time those children, astonished and amazed, climbed onto those great
carts.

“Śāriputra, what do you think? In that way, the man first promised
three carts to those children, but afterward gave them all such great
carts, magnificent carts. Does that
mean that the man would be a liar?”

“No, Bhagavān, he would not be,” answered Śāriputra. “Sugata, it is
not like that. The man through employing that skillful method brought those
children out from the burning house in order to save their lives. That would
not be a reason for his being a liar. Why is that? Bhagavān, it was only
through saving their own bodies that they could obtain all those toys, and,
Bhagavān, the man did not give just one cart to his children. Therefore,
Bhagavān, the man was not a liar. Why is that? Bhagavān, first the man
thought, ‘Using a skillful method I shall save the children from immense
suffering.’ Because of that approach, the man would not be a liar. That man
had many treasuries and he thought of his children with affection, and
wished to delight them. Not to speak of just giving them a great cart, he
gave each one a cart with the same colors. Therefore, Bhagavān, the man
would not be a liar.”

When he had said that, the Bhagavān commended Śāriputra,
“Excellent, excellent, Śāriputra! It is so, Śāriputra! It is exactly as you
have said! In that same way a tathāgata, arhat, perfectly enlightened buddha
saves from all dangers, all violence, troubles, harm, suffering,
unhappiness, the darkness of ignorance, the obscuration of the dark of
blindness, and being in bondage.

“A tathāgata has wisdom, strengths, fearlessnesses, and the unique
qualities of a buddha. He has great power through miraculous powers. He is a father to the world. He has reached
the perfection of the supreme wisdom of skill in great methods. He has great
compassion. He has an untiring mind. He wishes to benefit. He is
compassionate. He appears in the three realms that are like a house with a
ruined upper story and roof burning with a great mass of suffering, and he
liberates from desire, anger, and ignorance those beings who undergo birth,
aging, illness, death, misery, wailing, suffering, unhappiness, the darkness
of ignorance, the obscuration of the dark of blindness, and being in
bondage, in order to bring them to the highest, complete enlightenment.

“As soon as he appears he sees the beings who are being burned,
roasted, pained, and tormented by birth, aging, illness, death, misery,
wailing, suffering, and unhappiness. For the sake of pleasures, with their
desire as the cause and basis, they experience many forms of suffering. In
this lifetime their grasping is the basis for experiencing in their next
life many kinds of sufferings in the hells, as animals, and in the realm of
Yama.

“The devas and humans experience the suffering of being poor,
encountering what is unpleasant, and being separated from what is pleasant.
While circling within a great mass of suffering, they take pleasure in
amusements, are not afraid, are not terrified, and cannot be made to be
terrified; they do not understand, are not aware, are not troubled, and do
not wish to leave.

“They amuse themselves in the three realms, which are like a
burning house, running back and forth. Even though they are afflicted by
that great mass of suffering, they do not see it or identify it as
suffering.

“This, Śāriputra, is how a tathāgata sees: I am the father of these
beings. I will liberate these beings from this mass of suffering. I shall
give to these beings the inconceivable, incalculable bliss of the wisdom of
buddhahood, which they will delight in, enjoy, take pleasure in, and amuse
themselves with.

“This, Śāriputra, is how a tathāgata sees: it is said I have the
strength of wisdom, the strength of miraculous powers, but if I had no method and instructed these beings to
attain a tathāgata’s wisdom, strengths, and fearlessnesses, those beings
would not become liberated through those dharmas. Why is that? Those beings
are attached to the five sensory pleasures, and delight in the three realms.
They would not become liberated from birth, aging, illness, death, misery,
wailing, suffering, unhappiness, and disturbance. They would not escape from
the three realms, which are like a house with a dilapidated roof and rafters
that are on fire, and in which they will be burned, roasted, pained, and
tormented. So how could they enjoy the wisdom of buddhahood?

“Śāriputra, the man with strong arms did not use the strength of
his arms but used a skillful method to bring his children out from the
burning house, and afterward gave them magnificent great carts. In the same
way, Śāriputra, a tathāgata, arhat, perfectly enlightened buddha has the
wisdom, strengths, and fearlessnesses of a tathāgata, but instead of using
the tathāgata’s wisdom, strengths, and fearlessnesses, through the wisdom of
skill in methods he teaches three yānas in order to free beings from the
three realms, which are like a dilapidated house with its roof and rafters
on fire. He guides beings through the three yānas, which are the
Śrāvakayāna, the Pratyekabuddhayāna, and the Bodhisattvayāna.

“He says to them, ‘Do not take pleasure in the forms, sounds,
smells,
tastes, and physical sensations of the three realms, which are like a house
on fire. Through taking pleasure in these three realms and through craving
for the five sensory pleasures, you will be burned, roasted, pained, and
tormented. This is how one escapes from the three realms: obtain the three
yānas—the Śrāvakayāna, Pratyekabuddhayāna, and Bodhisattvayāna. This I
promise you. I shall give you these three yānas. Dedicate yourself to them
in order to escape from the three realms. Beings! These yānas are those of
the āryas, they are praised by the āryas, and they bring great joy.
Perfectly amuse yourself with them, enjoy them, and delight in them.
Experience great joy through the powers, the strengths, the aspects of
enlightenment, the dhyānas, the liberations, the samādhis, and the
samāpattis. You will become possessed of perfect happiness of mind.

“Śāriputra, those beings who are wise will believe in the
Tathāgata, the father of the world. Having that belief they will be
dedicated to the teachings of the Tathāgata. Some beings long to follow the
way of listening to what is spoken. They are dedicated to
the teachings of the Tathāgata in order to realize the four truths of the
āryas as the cause of attaining nirvāṇa for themselves. They are called
those who long for the Śrāvakayāna and they escape from the three realms.
They are like the children in the parable who come out of the burning house
because of their longing for a deer-drawn cart.

“There are others who long for wisdom, self-control, and
tranquility without having a teacher. They are dedicated to the teachings of
the Tathāgata in order to realize causes and conditions as
the cause of attaining nirvāṇa for themselves. They are called those who
long for the Pratyekabuddhayāna and they escape from the three realms.
They are like the children in the parable who come out of the burning house
because of their longing for a goat-drawn cart.

“Some beings long for omniscient buddhahood, for the wisdom of
buddhahood, for self-arising wisdom, for wisdom without a teacher. They are
dedicated to the teachings of the Tathāgata in order to benefit many beings,
for the happiness of many beings, and—through great compassion for the
world—for the sake of, the benefit of, and the happiness of devas, humans,
and ordinary beings, as the cause for all beings attaining nirvāṇa, and in
order to realize the wisdom, strengths, and fearlessnesses of a tathāgata.
They are called those who long for the Mahāyāna and they escape from the
three realms. That is why they are called bodhisattva mahāsattvas. They are
like the children in the parable who come out of the burning house because
of their longing for an ox-drawn cart.

“Śāriputra, in the parable the man sees that he has brought the
children out from the burning house, and that they are happy, fortunate, and
saved. He knows that he is very wealthy, and so he gives each of the
children an identical magnificent cart.

“Śāriputra, in that way the Tathāgata, the Arhat, the perfectly
enlightened Buddha sees many millions of beings liberated from the three
realms, which are filled with danger, fear, terror, and calamity. These
beings come out through the doorway of the tathāgatas’ teachings, and are
freed from danger, fear, terror, and calamity and attain the bliss of
nirvāṇa.

“Śāriputra, at the time when he becomes a tathāgata, arhat,
perfectly enlightened buddha, he knows that he possesses many treasuries of
wisdom, strengths, and fearlessnesses, he sees all beings as his children, and
therefore brings all of them to complete nirvāṇa through the Buddhayāna. He
does not teach any being to attain nirvāṇa for themselves. He brings all
those beings to nirvāṇa through the great nirvāṇa, the tathāgatas’ nirvāṇa.

“Śāriputra, the Tathāgata gives to those beings that are liberated
from the three realms the enjoyable, delightful dhyānas, liberations,
samādhis, samāpattis, and the supreme bliss of
the āryas. All of these are of the same kind.

“Śāriputra, it is like the man who promised three kinds of carts to
his children and then gave each of them an identical great cart. He gave
them all carts that were better than any other, that were made of the seven
precious materials, adorned by all adornments, of the same color, and
magnificent. Therefore he was not a liar.

“In the same way, Śāriputra, the Tathāgata, the Arhat, the
perfectly enlightened Buddha, with this skill in methods, first teaches three yānas, and afterward brings beings to nirvāṇa
through a single yāna. Therefore he is not a liar. Why is that? Śāriputra,
the Tathāgata possesses many treasuries of wisdom, strengths, and
fearlessnesses and he has the power to teach all beings the Dharma of
omniscient wisdom.

“Śāriputra, it should be known that it is through this teaching,
through the accomplishment of the wisdom of various skillful methods, that
the Tathāgata teaches the single Mahāyāna.”

Then the Bhagavān at that time recited these verses:

“A man possesses a house

That is large, decaying, and dilapidated,

Its terrace crumbling,

The bases of its pillars rotten, {39}

And the windows and pavilions bent out of shape.

The reeds and plaster of the walls are falling apart,

The old, decayed balconies have collapsed,

And the straw roof is disintegrating and falling. {40}

“No fewer than five hundred beings

Are living inside

In numerous narrow rooms,

Filled with excrement, and disgusting. {41}

“The rafters have all fallen apart,

The walls’ reeds and panels have fallen apart,

And ten million vultures live inside,

And similarly pigeons and owls. {42}

“There are vicious poisonous snakes

With virulent great poison everywhere.

Various kinds of scorpions and rats

And malevolent creatures live in there. {43}

“There are many nonhumans everywhere

And it is fouled by feces and urine.

There are venomous insects, fireflies, and ants,

And dogs and jackals are howling. {44}

“Dreadful hyenas are there

Devouring human corpses.

Many dogs and jackals are also there,

Coming out and staring at them. {45}

“They are always weak and hungry,

Devouring here and there.

They are fighting and yowling.

That is the kind of terrifying house it is. {46}

“Extremely ferocious yakṣas live there

Who are gnawing on human corpses.

Everywhere in every place there live

Centipedes, snakes, and vicious creatures. {47}

“They make their nests everywhere

As dwellings for their offspring.

The numerous yakṣas devour

Those that are placed here and there. {48}

“When the yakṣas are engorged,

Having ferociously eaten other beings,

Their bodies nourished by the flesh of other beings,

They begin to fight violently. {49}

“Dreadful, ferocious kumbhāṇḍas

Live there in that ruined abode,

Some a hand-span tall, some a cubit,

And some two cubits, wandering around. {50}

“They seize the legs of dogs

And hold them, backs to the ground,

And squeeze their throats, menacing them

And delighting in injuring them. {51}

“There are black, naked, thin,

Great pretas that have lived there long,

Extremely hungry, searching for food,

Here and there crying in pain and weeping. {52}

“Some have a needle-sized mouth and some an ox’s head.

Some are the size of humans and some the size of dogs.

Their hair is in disarray and they wail,

Tormented by their craving for food. {53}

“The yakṣas, piśācas, and pretas

Are brutes searching for food,

Looking in all four directions,

Always looking in through windows. {54}

“The house is terrifying in that way.

It is huge, tall, and very weakened,

Dilapidated and almost a ruin,

And it is owned by a single person. {55}

“That man has come out of his house

When the dwelling catches on fire,

Suddenly everywhere in all four directions,

With thousands of flames rising up. {56}

“The bamboo and wood are burned by
fire

And they make a terrifying, powerful sound.

The pillars and the wall panels are also burning

And the yakṣas and pretas are emitting cries. {57}

“The many hundreds of vultures are burned,

The kumbhāṇḍas run around with burned faces,

And the many hundreds of snakes that are there

Scream and wail as they are being burned. {58}

“The numerous piśācas are running around

And those without merit are burned by the fire.

Their teeth bite into each other

And they scatter their blood as they are being burned. {59}

“The hyenas, their time to die having come,

Are eating beings and eating each other.

The awful smell of burning vomit

Spreads through the four directions of the world. {60}

“The kumbhāṇḍas are eating

The fleeing centipedes.

The pretas run around with burning hair,

Tormented by hunger and thirst. {61}

“That kind of terrifying residence

Is being burned by thousands of flames.

The man who is the owner of that house

Is gazing upon it, standing at the door. {62}

He hears his sons who are inside,

Their minds fixed upon their games.

The children continue to be unaware

As they play, intoxicated by their games. {63}

“Hearing them he quickly enters

In order to rescue his sons, thinking,

‘I shall not let my children, all these boys,

Be quickly burned and annihilated.’ {64}

“He tells them of the evils of the house:

‘Oh noble sons, this suffering is terrible.

Many kinds of beings are experiencing in this fire

Great sufferings, one after the other. {65}

“ ‘Many ferocious yakṣas, venomous snakes,

Kumbhāṇḍas, and pretas are living here.

Packs of hyenas, dogs, and jackals,

And also vultures are here seeking food. {66}

“ ‘There are many like that living in here.

Even without fire, it would be completely terrifying.

There is nothing here but this kind of suffering

And all around us a fire is burning.’ {67}

“He thus encourages those with child’s minds to leave.

But the children are intoxicated by their games.

They do not think about what their father has said

And neither do they pay it any attention. {68}

“Then at that time the man thinks,

‘I am suffering in thinking of my sons,

I shall not allow this fire to burn them

So that I am without sons and lineage.’ {69}

“Then at that time he thinks of a method:

‘These children have a great longing for toys,

But they do not have any toys in there to enjoy.

Such is the foolishness of these children. {70}

“He calls to them, ‘Listen, children!

I have three different kinds of carts,

To which are yoked excellent goats, oxen, or deer,

And which are large, tall, and perfectly adorned. {71}

“ ‘They are outside the house.

Run outside and use them!

I have had them made for you.

Go out and you will be delighted!’ {72}

“The children, hearing of these kinds of carts,

Become eager and make haste.

And at that very moment they all run out

And stand in the open air, freed from suffering. {73}

“When the man sees his children have come out

He goes to the square in the center of town.

There he sits on a lion throne and says to them,

‘Oh, today I have been made perfectly happy. {74}

“ ‘I have saved with difficulty these who were in distress.

My beloved sons, these twenty children of mine,

They were in a dreadful, awful house

That was filled with many terrifying beings. {75}

“ ‘It was burning, filled with a thousand flames,

And they were delighting in their games.

I have today saved them all

And therefore today I am perfectly happy.’ {76}

“Seeing their father sitting happily

The children come to him and say,

‘Give us that which you have described—

Those three delightful carts! {77}

“ ‘You said to us in the house,

“I will give you three kinds of carts.”

Even if you do not have all these

The time has now come for you to give them.’ {78}

“That man has the power of treasuries

Of gold, silver, jewels, and pearls,

And a great deal of money and slaves.

And he has identical carts made for them. {79}

“They are excellent ox-drawn carts made of jewels,

With railings and strings of little bells,

Adorned with parasols and banners,

And covered with a network of pearls and jewels. {80}

“They are hung all over, here and there,

With garlands made of golden flowers.

They are covered with excellent cloth

And spread over with the best white calico. {81}

“Those carts are spread with the best cotton

And likewise with the softest silks.

They are covered with excellent rugs

Decorated with geese, that are worth billions. {82}

“White, well-fed, strong oxen,

Of great size and beauty,

Are yoked to those precious carts

And are held by many people. {83}

“This kind of excellent, superior cart

Is what the man gives to all his children,

And they feel delight and joy,

And amuse themselves going in every direction. {84}

“In that way, Śārisuta, I am a great rishi.

I am the protector and the father of beings.

All of these beings are my sons,

Children attached to pleasures in the three realms. {85}

“The three realms are like that house

Dreadful and filled with suffering.

It is entirely burning everywhere

With hundreds of births, old age, and illness. {86}

“I am liberated from the three realms and at peace.

I reside in the forests and remain in solitude.

These three realms are my possession

And those who are burning within it are my sons. {87}

“Knowing that I am their protector,

I teach them of the distress that is in there.

All these children, they do not listen to me,

Because their minds are fixated upon pleasures. {88}

“I employ skillful methods

And teach them three yānas.

I teach them a method so that by knowing the many evils

In the three realms they may escape from them. {89}

“Those sons who have relied upon me have gained

Great power, the six higher knowledges, and the three insights,

And have become the pratyekabuddhas

And irreversible bodhisattvas who are here. {90}

“To those who are like my sons, at this time

I teach this single Buddhayāna, O wise ones,

Through the best of parables.

Follow it, and you will all become jinas. {91}

“The wisdom of the buddhas, the supreme humans,

Is superior and beautiful,

Unique in all these worlds,

And a magnificent form that is worthy of homage. {92}

“The strengths, the dhyānas, and likewise the liberations,

And numerous millions of samādhis,

They are the most excellent cart,

Which the Buddha’s sons continually enjoy. {93}

“They spend nights enjoying it,

And days, half-months, and months,

And likewise years and intermediate eons.

They spend ten billion eons doing so. {94}

“It is this excellent cart made of jewels

That goes from here to the Bodhimaṇḍa,

Which the Sugata’s śrāvakas listen to

And which many bodhisattvas enjoy. {95}

“Tiṣya, you should know this today:

You may search in all ten directions,

But there is no second yāna whatsoever

Other than as a skillful method of the superior beings. {96}

“I am your father and you are my sons.

I have saved you from the suffering

Of being burned for many millions of eons

Within the terrifying three realms. {97}

“I have thus taught you nirvāṇa.

You are freed from the suffering of saṃsāra,

But you have still not attained nirvāṇa.

You need to seek the yāna of buddhahood. {98}

“You bodhisattvas who are gathered here,

Listen to my way to buddhahood.

Through this many bodhisattvas are trained.

This is the skillful method of the jinas. {99}

“When beings take delight

In the lower, inferior yāna,

At that time the Guide of the World teaches nothing

Other than the ārya’s truth of suffering. {100}

“There are those with foolish minds

Who, being ignorant, do not see the source of suffering.

To them I teach the path that craving

Is the origin of the arising of suffering. {101}

“The cessation of craving
is perpetual nonattachment.

This truth of cessation is my third truth.

Humans are liberated by that and by nothing else;

It is through meditation on the path that they are liberated. {102}

“From what, Śārisuta, are they liberated?

They are liberated from fixation on the unreal,

But they are still not liberated from everything.

The guides state that they have not attained nirvāṇa. {103}

“Why do I say that this is not liberation?

Because this supreme, highest enlightenment is not attained.

I was born in this world in order to bring happiness.

That is the wish that I, the King of Dharma, have. {104}

“This, Śāriputra, is my Dharma seal

That I teach today, at this later time.

You should teach this in every direction

In order to benefit the world and its devas. {105}

“If, when you teach it, there are beings

Who say the words ‘This makes me rejoice’

And place this sūtra upon their head,

You should hold such people to be irreversible. {106}

“The ones who have faith in this sūtra

Have seen the tathāgatas of the past.

And they are those who have honored them

And heard from them this kind of Dharma. {107}

“The ones who have faith in this teaching of mine

Have seen me and have seen you,

Have seen this entire bhikṣu saṅgha of mine

And have seen all of these bodhisattvas. {108}

“I have taught with great higher knowledge

This sūtra, which would bewilder foolish beings.

It is not within the scope of the śrāvakas,

And is not in the course of the pratyekabuddhas. {109}

“Śāriputra, if you have no aspiration for this,

What could be said for the other śrāvakas of mine?

These follow because they have faith in me,

Without having knowledge through their own wisdom. {110}

“You should not teach this to those who are proud,

Who are arrogant, and who are unsuitable.

The foolish are constantly intoxicated by desires.

Ignorant, they will reject the Dharma that is taught. {111}

“They will reject this skillful method of mine,

This way of the buddhas that is always in the world.

They will frown and then reject this yāna.

Listen to what is the dreadful ripening of their karma. {112}

“Whether I am present or have passed into nirvāṇa,

When they have rejected a sūtra such as this

Or speak harshly to the bhikṣus,

This is the result that ripens for them; listen to me! {113}

“When they die and depart from the human world

They will remain in Avīci for an entire eon.

And then for many intermediate eons

Those fools will die and fall into that place. {114}

“When they die and depart from the hells

Then they will be reborn as animals.

They will become weak dogs and jackals,

And become playthings for others. {115}

“Having contempt for my supreme enlightenment,

They will be black in color,

Have spots, sores, and itching,

Lose their body hair, and be very weak. {116}

“They will always be abhorred among beings;

They will howl as they are hit by clods and stones.

Here and there they will be terrified by sticks;

Hungry and thirsty, they will be emaciated. {117}

“Those with foolish minds who reject the way of the Buddha

Will become camels or donkeys

Who only think thoughts about food,

Carry loads, and are beaten by sticks and whips. {118}

“Those fools will then become jackals,

Loathsome, one-eyed, and maimed,

Tormented by the village children

Who throw stones and clods at them. {119}

“Then when those with foolish minds pass away

They will become creatures of great length,

Measuring five hundred yojanas,

And they will be stupid and dull, rolling back and forth. {120}

“Having rejected this kind of sūtra

They will be legless, moving on their stomachs.

They will be eaten by many millions of creatures

And will experience extremely dreadful sensations. {121}

“They who have no faith in my sūtra,

Whenever they obtain a human existence,

They will be maimed
and crippled,

Humpbacked, one-eyed, stupid, and inferior. {122}

“Those who have no faith in this enlightenment of the buddhas

Will encounter antipathy in this world.

A rotten smell will come from their mouths

And they will be possessed by yakṣas that enter their bodies. {123}

“They will be poor, menial workers.

They will always be powerless servants of others.

They will have many illnesses and harms

And will live in the world without any protector. {124}

“The one that they serve

Will not wish to pay them.

Even if paid, it will soon be lost.

Such will be the result of their bad karma. {125}

“Any medicine that they obtain,

Even if given by an expert in its preparation,

Will only cause their illness to increase

And they will never be free of their sickness. {126}

“Others will steal from them.

There will be disorder, riots, and strife.

Others will take away their wealth,

And they fall into this through their bad karma. {127}

“The ones who reject my way to buddhahood

Will live in inopportune existences.

They will not see the appearance of a world protector,

A king who is the lord of men, teaching in this world. {128}

“Such fools will not hear the Dharma;

They will be deaf and without thought.

Rejecting this kind of enlightenment,

They will never find peace. {129}

“As the result of the bad karma of rejecting this sūtra

They will be paralyzed and crippled

For many thousand trillions of eons,

As numerous as the sand grains in the Ganges. {130}

“Their gardens will be the hells.

Their homes will be the lower realms.

And they will always be in the form of

A donkey, pig, jackal, or dog. {131}

“Even if they become a human,

At that time their adornments will be

Being blind, deaf, and stupid,

Always poor, and a servant to others. {132}

“Illness will be their clothing:

There will be quintillions of sores on their bodies,

And likewise abscesses, itching, and pustules,

And likewise leprosy, white leprosy, and a rotten smell. {133}

“They will have a strong belief in a self

And the strength of their anger will be great.

Their desires will be very powerful

And they will take pleasure in the vaginas of animals. {134}

“Śārisuta, if I were from today to describe

For an entire eon the harm that comes

To those who reject this sūtra,

I could not finish describing that harm. {135}

“Śārisuta, I have truly taught to you

This very meaning that I see.

You should not teach such a sūtra as this

In the presence of foolish beings. {136}

“You should teach this ultimate truth

To those who are learned, have heard much Dharma,

And who have mindfulness, are wise, have knowledge,

And are set upon supreme enlightenment. {137}