(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.

(19) It is called the Great Liberation by Hearing, because even those who have committed the five boundless sins are sure to be liberated if they hear it by the path of the ear. Therefore read it in the midst of vast congregations. Disseminate it. Through having heard it once, even though one do not comprehend it, it will be remembered in the Intermediate State without a word being omitted, for the intellect become th ninefold more lucid [there]. Hence it should be proclaimed in the ears of all living person; it should be read over the pillows of all persons who are ill; it should be read at the side of all corpses: it should be spread broadcast.

(2) “Furthermore, Subhuti, numberless ages ago, I recollect that before the advent of Dipankara Buddha, there were myriad Buddhas before whom I served and received religious instruction, my conduct being entirely blameless and without reproach. But, in the ages to come, if a disciple be enabled to rigorously observe and to study the text of this Scripture, the merit thus acquired will so far exceed the measure of my merit in the service of those myriad Buddhas, that it cannot be stated in terms of proportion, nor comprehended by means of any ‘analogy.’”

(11) Multitudes will be liberated by that recognition; [and] although multitudes obtain liberation in that manner, the number of sentient beings being great, evil karma powerful, obscurations dense, propensities o too long standing, the Wheel of Ignorance and Illusion becometh neither exhausted nor accelerated. Although [all be] set face-to-face in such detail, there is a vast preponderance of those who wander downwards unliberated.

(8) It is impossible that one should not be liberated thereby. Yet, though thus set face to face, sentient beings, unable through long association with propensities to abandon propensities, and, through bad karma and jealousy, awe and terror being produced by the sounds and radiances — the hook-rays of grace failing to catch hold of them — wander down also to the Fifth Day. [If one be such a sentient being], thereupon the Bhagavan Amogha-Siddhi, with his attendant deities and the light and rays of his grace, will come to receive one. A light proceeding from the Asura-loka, produced by the evil passion of jealousy, will also come to receive one.