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(4) Therefore, O king of deities, he who holds, recites, and reveres the scripture is said to honour all the Buddhas of the past, the present, and the future. "O king of deities, if there be many Tathagatas so many in number even as the bushes, whether of sugar-cane, bamboo, reed, paddy, or hemp, and the three great Chiliocosms may be full of them, and a son or daughter of a noble family will honour, revere, praise, and pay homage to them and dedicate their dwellings to them for the space of one kalpa or thereabout, and after the passing of those Buddhas, he or she will elect a Stupa of seven jewels containing the perfect body of each of the Tathagatas as wide as the four worlds and as high as the heaven of Brahman, erecting a pole adorned with all magnificence and do homage to them with all the rarest flowers, all kinds of incense, garlands, banners and music, for the space of one kalpa or thereabout; what dost thou think, O king of deities, is the merit planted by this man much or little?”

(15) Buddha again spoke to Indra, the king of deities, and said: “ Candracchatra the prince, having heard such doctrines as these from the Buddha Bhaishajyaraja, attained to acquiescence in meekness; then he having removed the jewelled raiment and ornaments from his body, offered them to Buddha and spoke to him saying: ‘ O Blessed One, after the complete passing of Tathagata I will pay homage to the law and protect the true law; I pray that thou through thy power, wouldst show me thy compassion and raise me that I may be able to repress the enmity of evil and realise the life of a Bodhisattva.’

(17) O Indra, king of deities, then Candracchatra the prince, seeing the purity of the law and hearing the prophecy from Buddha, became a mendicant because of his faith; diligently practised the true law, and in due course obtained the five supernatural powers, and walking in the path of Bodhisattva, attained the unimpeded eloquence of Dharani, after the passing of the Buddha, through his supernatural power and the power of eloquence of Dharani, during ten shorter kalpas, propagated the wheel of the law which the Tathagata Bhaishajyaraja caused to roll.

(19) “O Indra king of deities, thou shouldst not think that Ratnacchatra the [Cakravartin] king, is the other than the Tathagata Ratnatejas who has attained to the Buddhahood; the thousand princes are but the thousand Buddhas in the Bhadra-kalpa, beginning with Krakucchanda down to the last Tathagata Ruci. The Bhikshus Candracchatra is no other than myself. “Thus, O Indra king of deities, thou shouldst know the essence of this [doctrine] that paying homage to the law is superior to all other homages, and unique and incomparable. Therefore, O Indra king of deities, by paying homage to the law thou shouldst honour the Buddha.”

(3) With the Lord Buddha, there were assembled together twelve hundred and fifty mendicant disciples, all of whom had attained to eminent degrees of spiritual wisdom.

(35) Then those Bodhisattvas, having heard this law preached [by Buddha], were filled with great joy, strewed beautiful flowers of many colours and many perfumes all over the three great Chiliocosms, and having honoured Buddha, his doctrine, and the Bodhisattvas, worshipped the Buddha by touching his feet with their bowed heads, praised him saying they had never heard the like before, and spoke thus; “Sakyamuni Buddha has here well exhibited his necessary means.”

(37) O Sariputra, any [beings], either Sakra, or Brahman, or the four guardian gods, or deities, or serpents, or goblins, all entering this chamber, hear only tins excellent man preaching the law; and when they go out, they all cherish the thought of supreme enlightenment, finding pleasure in the odour of the virtues of Buddha.

(1) The Lord Buddha, continuing, said unto Subhuti: “Wherever this Scripture is proclaimed, even though it were but a stanza comprising four lines, you should realise that that place would be sanctified by the presence of the whole realm of gods, men, and terrestrial spirits, who ought unitedly to worship, as if before a sacred shrine of Buddha. But what encomium shall express the merit of a disciple who rigorously observes, and diligently studies, the text of this Scripture? Subhuti, you should realise that such a disciple will be endowed with spiritual powers commensurate with initiation in the supreme, incomparable, and most wonderful Law. Whatever place constitutes a repository for this sacred Scripture, there also the Lord Buddha may be found, together with disciples worthy of reverence and honour.”

(9) Then those thousand princes according to their father’s command honoured the Tathagata Bhaishajyaraja during five kalpas dedicating a dwelling to him and other things. There was one among those princes named Candracchatra who [one day] sat alone and thought to himself: ‘ Can any homage be superior to this [homage] ?’ Then through the supernatural power of that Buddha there appeared in the sky a deity who declared: ‘No homage is superior to homage to the law.’

(2) “Honoured of the Worlds! having heard this unprecedented Scripture, faith, clear understanding, and firm resolve to observe its precepts, follow as a natural sequence. If, in future ages, disciples destined to hear this Scripture, likewise believe, understand, and observe its precepts, their merit will incite the highest wonder and praise. And why? Because, the minds of those disciples will have outgrown such arbitrary ideas of phenomena as an entity, a being, a living being, or a personality. And why? Because, the entity is in reality non-entity; and a being, a living being, or a personality, are ideas equally nebulous and hypothetical. Wherefore, discarding every arbitrary idea of phenomena, the wise and wholly enlightened were severally designated Buddha.”

(1) Reverently bowing before the Blessed Ones, their Sons, the Body of the Law, and all the worshipful ones, I will briefly set forth in accordance with Holy Writ the way whereby the sons of the Blessed Ones enter the godly life. Nothing new will be told here, nor have I skill in writing of books; therefore I have done this work to hallow my own thoughts, not designing it for the welfare of others. By it the holy impulse within me to frame righteousness is strengthened; but if a fellow-creature should see it, this my book will fulfil another end likewise.

(195) He who pays homage to those who deserve homage, whether the awakened (Buddha) or their disciples, those who have overcome the host (of evils), and crossed the flood of sorrow, he who pays homage to such as have found deliverance and know no fear, his merit can never be measured by anybody.

(12) Buddha replied: ‘O noble youth, homage of the law is this: the profound scriptures preached by Buddha are so subtle and so difficult to understand that all the world is unwilling to accept and believe them; so they are pure without blemish; they are unobtainable by mere discrimination or thought; they are enclosed in the treasury of virtues of a Bodhisattva; they are sealed with the seal of Dharani; they lead to the state from which one never retreats; they perfect the six Paramitas; they rightly discriminate the meaning [of all things] ; they are in accordance with the law of Bodhi; they are superior to all other scriptures; they lead to great mercy and compassion; they are far above all the temptation of evils and heresies; they are in harmony with the law of causation; they transcend self, individuality, personality and durability; they are empty, formless, aimless and causeless; they are capable of elevating beings to a seat in the Bodhimandala and roll the wheel of the law; praised by all deities, serpent gods, and Gandharvas; they are capable of leading beings to the mine of virtues of Buddha ; they comprehend all wisdom of the wise and the holy; they preach the paths walked by Bodhisattvas; they are based on the doctrine that all things are real; they unmistakably proclaim the doctrine of transiency, sorrow, emptiness, selflessness, and annihilation; they are capable of saving all who are guilty of trespassing the precepts ; they are capable of causing fear to evil ones; heretics and those who are greedy; they are praised by all the Buddhas and saints; they turn against the sorrows of birth and death, and show the happiness of Nirvana; they are preached by all the Buddhas of the three worlds in the ten quarters —

(3) The Lord Buddha rejoined, saying: “If a disciple adhered with implicit faith to a stanza of this Scripture, and diligently explained it to others, the intrinsic merit of that disciple would be relatively greater. And why? Because, Subhuti, the holy Buddhas, and the Law by which they attained to supreme spiritual wisdom, severally owe their inception to the truth of this sacred Scripture. Subhuti, what is ordinarily termed the Buddhic Law, is not really a Law attributive to Buddha.”

(9) The Buddha replied and said: “In the lower region beyond the Buddha-countries even equal to the number of the sands of forty-two Ganga rivers there is a world called Saha; and there dwells a Buddha called Sakyamuni now in the wicked age of five corruptions; he teaches the doctrine for the sake of those who find pleasure in the inferior law only. There is a Bodhisattva called Vimalakirti, who, abiding in the Inconceivable Emancipation, preaches the law for the sake of the Bodhisattvas; now he specially sends this incarnate Bodhisattva to us, to praise my name and this land in order to help the Bodhisattvas there to increase virtue and merit.

(27) Then those Bodhisattvas who have come from Sarvagandha-sugandha spoke to Buddha with folded hands and said: “O Blessed One, when we saw this land we cherished the thought that it -was inferior to ours; but now we repent and renounce this thought. And why? The necessary means of all the Buddhas are so inconceivable that they manifest in order to save all beings different lands of their own according to the needs of all beings. O Blessed One, we pray that thou shouldst give some few words on the law that we may think of [thee] Tathagata when we return to our land. ’ ’

(2) they cultivated their minds with virtues and wisdom; endowed with grandeur and beauty, they were supreme in mien and form ; they abandoned all worldly ornaments ; their reputation reached far and wide; surpassing even Mount Sumeru; their faith was profound and as strong as a diamond; the Treasure of the Law [in their possession] showering rain of ambrosia; illumined all the world over, their voice was so exquisite that no other could excel;

(3) The Lord Buddha, assenting, said unto Subhuti: “If, in future ages, disciples destined to hear this Scripture, neither become perturbed by its extreme modes of thought, nor alarmed by its lofty sentiments, nor apprehensive about realising its high ideals —these disciples also, by their intrinsic merit, will incite superlative wonder and praise.”

(17) O Ananda there is a Buddha country which performs religious work by means of the light of Buddha; there is another which performs religious work by means of the Bodhisattvas who are therein there is another which performs religious work by means of the beings whom the Buddha teaches; there is another which performs religious work by means of a Bodhi tree; there is another which performs religious work by means of clothes and beds there is another which performs religious work by means of food; there is another which performs religious work by means of gardens, forests and terraces; there is another which performs religious work by means of the thirty-two signs of perfection and the eighty minor marks of excellence; there is another which performs religious work by the body of Buddha; there is another which performs religious work by means of the sky;

(4) they gathered the treasures of the law like the sea-leaders; they thoroughly understood the deep significance of all things; they were acquainted with all the places occupied by all beings and their mental dispositions; they approached the omnipotent knowledge of peerless Buddha who is in possession of the Ten Powers, [four kinds of] Fearlessness, and the Eighteen Special Faculties; capable of closing the gates of all the evil regions, yet they manifested themselves in the five paths of existence; they healed, as great physicians did, all who suffered, bestowing medicine on them as their circumstances demanded and making them obedient to their orders; completing immeasurable qualities, adorning the innumerable Buddha-lands, they made all those who saw or heard them share in their benefits; all their works never were in vain;