佛說無量壽經 白話全本

Taishō T12n0360, first fascicle, from the fascicle-front title through Ānanda’s reply that he would gladly hear. The fascicle-front title and attribution are reproduced as they stand in the base text; no separate judgment about the historical attribution of the translation is made from them. The figures at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔一 · Fascicle-Front Title and Attribution〕（0265c03）First fascicle of The Sūtra of Measureless Life. The fascicle-front attribution reads: translated in the Cao Wei by the Tripiṭaka master Kang Sengkai from India.

〔二 · Establishing the Hearing: Time, Place, and Assembly〕（0265c06）What follows is what I personally heard.

At one time the Buddha was dwelling on Mount Gṛdhrakūṭa at Rājagṛha, together with twelve thousand great bhikṣus. They were all great sages accomplished in supernormal powers. Named among the leaders were the venerable Knower of the Original Limit, the venerable Right Aspiration, the venerable Right Speech, the venerable Great Renown, the venerable Benevolent Worthy, the venerable Free from Defilement, the venerable Renowned, the venerable Good and True, the venerable Complete, the venerable Ox King, the venerable Uruvilvā Kāśyapa, the venerable Gayā Kāśyapa, the venerable Nadī Kāśyapa, the venerable Mahākāśyapa, the venerable Śāriputra, the venerable Mahāmaudgalyāyana, the venerable Kapphiṇa, the venerable Great Dwelling, the venerable Great Pure Resolve, the venerable Mahācunda, the venerable Pūrṇa Maitrāyaṇīputra, the venerable Free from Obstructions, the venerable Flowing Stream, the venerable Firmly Subduing, the venerable Countenance King, the venerable Fruition Vehicle, the venerable Benevolent Nature, the venerable Joy and Delight, the venerable Well-Come, the venerable Rāhula, and the venerable Ānanda. Such persons were the leaders of the assembly.

〔三 · Mahāyāna Bodhisattvas and the Sixteen Noble Ones〕（0265c17）Also present were the Mahāyāna bodhisattva assembly: Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva, Maitreya Bodhisattva, and the other bodhisattvas of this Auspicious Kalpa.

There were also the sixteen noble ones headed by Worthy Protector. The sūtra then names the bodhisattvas Skillful Reflection, Trust and Wisdom, Empty Nonbeing, Flower of Supernormal Powers, Radiant Splendor, Supreme Wisdom, Banner of Wisdom, Serene Faculties, Vow and Wisdom, Fragrant Elephant, Precious Splendor, Abiding in the Middle, Disciplined Practice, and Liberation.

They all followed the virtues of the great being Samantabhadra, fully possessed the bodhisattvas’ immeasurable practices and vows, and abided in every Dharma of merit. They could move freely throughout the ten directions, teach sentient beings through provisional skillful means, enter the treasury of the Buddha-Dharma, reach the other shore completely, and manifest the attainment of perfect awakening in immeasurable worlds.

〔四 · Enacting the Whole Course of One Buddha’s Appearance〕（0265c26）These bodhisattvas manifested the teaching of the true Dharma in Tuṣita Heaven. They then left the heavenly palace, descended in spirit into their mother’s womb, were born from her right side, and took seven steps upon reaching the ground. They emitted brilliant light that universally illuminated immeasurable buddha-lands throughout the ten directions and made the earth quake in six ways. They proclaimed that they would become the unsurpassed honored ones in the world; Śakra and Brahmā came to attend them, while devas and humans together took refuge in them, revered them, and looked up to them.

They also manifested the study of calculation, literature and the arts, archery, and charioteering. They mastered a wide range of arts and techniques, thoroughly learned many kinds of texts, and displayed their martial skill in the rear garden. They then manifested dwelling in the royal palace and, after marriage, living amid sensual and erotic desire. Seeing old age, sickness, and death, they awakened to the impermanence of the world, gave up their kingdom, wealth, and throne, and entered the mountains to seek the path. They sent back the garments they had worn, the white horse they had ridden, and their jeweled crown, necklaces, and other ornaments. They put aside their exquisite clothing, changed into Dharma robes, shaved their hair and beard, and sat upright beneath a tree.

They practiced austerities diligently for six years, and everything they did accorded with the quest for the path. They also manifested conforming to sentient beings in the evil age of the five turbidities: appearing to be covered in dust and grime, they bathed in a golden river. A deva pressed down a branch so that they could grasp it and climb from the pool, while numinous birds followed on the wing as they proceeded together to the place of awakening. At that time, a grass cutter named Auspicious appeared in response, showing that the work of awakening was about to be accomplished. Taking pity on him, the bodhisattva accepted his offering of grass, spread it beneath the bodhi tree, sat cross-legged, and emitted great light to alert the hosts of Māra.

Māra, the king of demons, led his followers forward to threaten and test the bodhisattva. Through the power of wisdom, the bodhisattva subdued them and brought them all to submission. He thereby realized the subtle Dharma and attained the most perfect awakening. Śakra and Brahmā requested that he turn the Dharma wheel. He then walked with a buddha’s stride and roared a buddha’s roar; beat the Dharma drum, blew the Dharma conch, wielded the Dharma sword, raised the Dharma banner, shook the Dharma thunder, flashed the Dharma lightning, sent down the Dharma rain, and bestowed the Dharma. He constantly awakened the world with the sound of Dharma and universally illuminated immeasurable buddha-lands with his radiance.

All worlds again quaked in six ways. The realm of Māra was brought under control, the palaces of Māra shook, and the hosts of demons were terrified and all submitted. He tore apart the net of wrong views, removed every erroneous understanding, swept away the dust of the afflictions, and destroyed the deep trench of desire. He guarded the Dharma city closely, opened and made clear the Dharma gates, washed away defilement and revealed purity, spread the Buddha-Dharma widely, and caused right instruction to circulate throughout the world.

He entered towns and cities on the alms round and received abundant food. He accumulated merit, revealed the excellent field in which sentient beings could plant blessings, and smiled joyfully because he was about to teach the Dharma. With many kinds of Dharma medicine he treated the suffering of pain, the suffering of change, and the suffering of conditioned existence. He revealed an immeasurable aspiration for awakening and immeasurable merit, and conferred predictions of perfect awakening upon bodhisattvas. He also manifested final extinction, yet his rescue of sentient beings knew no end. He cut off every affliction and outflow, planted many roots of merit and goodness, and fully possessed subtle and immeasurable qualities. Traveling through the lands of the buddhas, he universally revealed the teaching of the Buddha’s path; his practice was pure and undefiled.

〔五 · The Simile of the Illusionist and Skillful Manifestation〕（0266a26）It is like an illusionist versed in the art of illusion, able to display many different forms, whether male or female, with nothing he cannot transform into. Because he clearly understands what he originally learned, he can apply it as he wishes. These bodhisattvas are the same: they study every Dharma of teaching and transformation, penetrating, integrating, examining, and mastering them. They are careful and certain about the Dharma in which they abide; wherever they go, there are none whom they do not transform, and they manifest universally throughout innumerable buddha-lands. They never become arrogant or self-indulgent and constantly feel compassion for suffering sentient beings.

〔六 · Meditative Wisdom, Samādhis, and the Dharma of Equality〕（0266b01）They fully possessed all these Dharmas. They penetrated the essentials of the bodhisattva scriptures, their renown reached throughout the ten directions, and they could guide sentient beings in the ten directions. They were jointly guarded and kept in mind by immeasurable buddhas. They had taken their stand where the buddhas abide and established what the great sages establish. They could proclaim the Tathāgata’s guidance along the path and serve as teachers to other bodhisattvas.

Through profound meditative concentration and wisdom, they instructed and guided the people. They penetrated the nature of all dharmas, discerned the many bodily forms and characteristics of sentient beings, understood every land, and made offerings to the buddhas. They manifested forms as swift as a flash of lightning, were skilled in fearless conduct, and understood the Dharma of illusory transformation. They could destroy Māra’s net, release every entanglement, transcend the grounds of the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, and attain the three samādhis of emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness. Skilled in establishing expedient means, they separately revealed the three vehicles of śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas; they also manifested final extinction in the middle vehicle of the pratyekabuddha and the lower vehicle of the śrāvaka. Yet causes do not possess a real activity that acts on its own, and manifested effects cannot produce themselves into real existence. Although pure dharmas increase, true reality does not increase with them; although defiled dharmas cease, true reality does not cease with them. They therefore realized the equal Dharma that neither arises nor ceases.

They fully possessed immeasurable dhāraṇīs and hundreds of thousands of samādhis. Their faculties and wisdom were vast, and their minds rested in universal stillness. They entered deeply into the bodhisattva treasury of the Dharma and attained the Buddha’s Flower-Adornment Samādhi. They could proclaim and explain all scriptures, abide in gates of profound concentration, and directly behold immeasurable buddhas of the present, pervading all without remainder in a single thought. They rescued beings from the eight difficulties and other gravely difficult circumstances, as well as from every other obstructed or unobstructed condition. They could also separately reveal ultimate truth, had attained the Tathāgata’s wisdom of eloquence, understood every language of sentient beings and taught accordingly, transformed all, and transcended every worldly dharma.

Their minds always abided in the supramundane path, and they were freely at ease with all things. Taking the initiative, they became friends who come unasked and shouldered the grave responsibility of rescuing the multitude of beings. They received and upheld the Tathāgata’s profound treasury of the Dharma, safeguarded the seed of buddhahood, and kept it from ever being cut off. They aroused great compassion and felt pity for sentient beings. Teaching with loving-kindness and eloquence, they gave sentient beings the Dharma eye. They closed the three evil destinies of hell beings, hungry ghosts, and animals and opened the gate to the good destinies. Without waiting to be asked, they bestowed the Buddha-Dharma upon everyone.

They loved and honored sentient beings as dutiful children love and honor their parents, and they also regarded every sentient being as themselves. They brought every root of goodness to the other shore, attained the immeasurable qualities of the buddhas, and possessed inconceivable wisdom and radiance. Immeasurable and innumerable bodhisattva great beings such as these, beyond all reckoning, came to the Dharma assembly at the same time.

〔七 · The World-Honored One Displays an Auspicious Sign; Ānanda’s Five Reflections〕（0266b27）At that time, the World-Honored One’s faculties—eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and the rest—appeared joyful and at ease. His complexion was pure, and his luminous countenance was lofty and majestic.

Receiving the Buddha’s sacred intent, the venerable Ānanda immediately rose from his seat, bared his right shoulder, knelt on both knees, joined his palms, and addressed the Buddha. He said that on this day the World-Honored One’s faculties were joyful, his complexion pure, and his luminous countenance majestic; like a clear mirror, light and image shone through within and without, while the brilliance of his bearing and appearance surpassed all measure. In all the time Ānanda had attended the Buddha, he had never before seen such an extraordinarily subtle sign.

Ānanda first answered in the affirmative and addressed the World-Honored One as a great sage. He then stated the five reflections in his mind: today the World-Honored One abides in a wondrous and exceptional Dharma; today the Hero of the World abides where the buddhas abide; today the Eye of the World abides in the practice of a guide; today the Champion of the World abides in the supreme path; today the Honored One among Devas practices the virtue of the Tathāgata. The buddhas of the past, future, and present recollect one another—was the Buddha of today likewise recollecting the buddhas? Why were his numinous power and radiance so magnificent today?

〔八 · Where the Question Came From〕（0266c08）The World-Honored One first asked Ānanda whether devas had instructed him to put this question or whether, seeing through his own wisdom, he had asked about the Buddha’s majestic countenance. Ānanda answered truthfully that no deva had instructed him; he had asked about this meaning on the basis of what he himself had seen.

The Buddha praised Ānanda for asking an excellent question: it revealed profound wisdom and true, subtle eloquence, and it was asked out of compassion for sentient beings. The Buddha said that the Tathāgata, moved by inexhaustible great compassion for the realms of desire, form, and formlessness, appeared in the world to open and reveal the teaching of the right path on a vast scale, so that all sentient beings might receive the true benefit of the Buddha-Dharma. Even over measureless koṭis of kalpas it is difficult to encounter a buddha appearing in the world, just as an auspicious numinous flower appears only after a very long time. Ānanda’s question that day could bring vast benefit and transform all devas and humans.

〔九 · The Tathāgata’s Samādhi and Wisdom; Permission to Teach〕（0266c16）The Buddha further told Ānanda that the wisdom of a perfectly awakened Tathāgata cannot be measured. It can guide immeasurable sentient beings; the vision of that wisdom is unobstructed, and no one can cut it off. On the strength obtained from a single meal, the Tathāgata could remain in the world for hundreds of thousands of koṭis of kalpas, for incalculable and immeasurable kalpas, and even beyond those spans of time. His joyful faculties would suffer no decline, his complexion would not change, and his luminous countenance would always remain the same.

This is because the Tathāgata’s samādhi and wisdom are ultimately penetrating and boundless, and he has attained complete freedom in all dharmas. The Buddha therefore instructed Ānanda to listen intently, for he would now teach him. Ānanda replied that he would gladly hear.

Taishō canon T12n0360, from the Buddha’s account to Ānanda of the buddhas of the distant past through Dharmākara’s announcement that he will set forth his vows in full. The figures at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔一 · The Succession of Buddhas in the Distant Past〕（0266c23）The Buddha told Ānanda: in the distant past, immeasurable, inconceivable, incalculable kalpas ago, Dingguang Tathāgata appeared in the world. He taught and delivered measureless beings, brought them all to attainment of the path, and only then entered extinction.

After Dingguang Tathāgata, the following tathāgatas appeared in succession: Far-Reaching Light, Moonlight, Sandalwood Fragrance, Good Mountain King, Sumeru Celestial Crown, Sumeru Equal Radiance, Moon Hue, Right Mindfulness, Free from Defilement, Unattached, Dragon Heaven, Night Light, Serene Bright Crown, Immovable Ground, Wondrous Beryl Flower, Beryl-Gold Hue, Gold Treasury, Blazing Light, Blazing Root, Earth Seed, Moon Image, Sun Sound, Flower of Liberation, Adornment Light, Ocean Awakening Supernormal Powers, Water Light, Great Fragrance, Free from Dust and Defilement, Mind of Renunciation, Jewel Blaze, Wondrous Crown, Courageous Standing, Merit-Holding Wisdom, Light Veiling Sun and Moon, Sun-Moon Beryl Light, Unsurpassed Beryl Light, Supreme Leader, Flower of Awakening, Moon Brightness, Sunlight, King of Flower Hue, Water-Moon Light, Dispelling Delusion’s Darkness, Practice Beyond the Hindrances, Pure Trust, Excellent Constellation, Majestic Power, Dharma Wisdom, Luan-Bird Voice, Lion Voice, Dragon Voice, and Dwelling in the World. All these buddhas had already passed away.

〔二 · World-Sovereign King Tathāgata and the King’s Renunciation〕（0267a14）Next a buddha appeared in the world named World-Sovereign King Tathāgata. He possessed the ten epithets: Tathāgata, Worthy of Offerings, Perfectly Awakened One, Perfect in Knowledge and Conduct, Well-Gone One, Knower of the World, Unsurpassed One, Tamer of Persons to Be Tamed, Teacher of Gods and Humans, and Buddha—and was the World-Honored One.

At that time there was a king who heard the Buddha teach and became deeply joyful. He immediately gave rise to the aspiration for unsurpassed perfect awakening. He abandoned his realm, relinquished his kingship, and left the household life to become a renunciant named Dharmākara. Dharmākara was extraordinarily gifted, courageous, and discerning, surpassing ordinary people in the world. He went before World-Sovereign King Tathāgata, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, circumambulated him three times to the right, knelt with both knees on the ground, joined his palms, and praised the Buddha in verse.

〔三 · Praise of the Buddha’s Three Activities of Body, Speech, and Mind〕（0267a21）Dharmākara praised him: the Buddha’s radiant countenance was lofty and resplendent, his majestic power without limit; no one could equal such blazing light. Although the sun, the moon, and maṇi jewels all shone brightly, before the Buddha’s radiance they were entirely obscured, dark as a mass of ink. The Buddha’s countenance surpassed the world and was beyond compare; the great Dharma-voice of the Perfectly Awakened One resounded throughout the ten directions.

The Buddha’s ethical discipline, learning, vigor, samādhi, and wisdom were unmatched in majestic virtue, supreme and rare. He examined deeply and maintained right mindfulness well. He had fathomed the deepest and most subtle reaches of the buddhas’ oceanic Dharma and penetrated to its furthest depths. Ignorance, desire, and anger were forever extinguished in the World-Honored One. This heroic one among humans, fearless as a lion, possessed measureless spiritual virtue, vast merit, profound and wondrous wisdom, and a radiant majesty that could shake the three-thousandfold great-thousand world-system.

〔四 · From the Vow to Become a Buddha to the Rescue of All Who Fear〕（0267b01）Dharmākara then vowed to become a buddha equal to the sacred Dharma Kings, so that all beings might cross beyond birth and death and none fail to attain liberation. He would cultivate the six perfections: giving to discipline the mind, ethical discipline, patience, vigor, samādhi, and wisdom as the supreme guide.

He vowed to attain buddhahood and universally carry out this great vow. For every being caught in fear, he would bring about vast peace and security. Even if there were hundreds of thousands of koṭis of buddhas, and measureless great sages as many as the sands of the Gaṅgā could make offerings to every one of those buddhas, this still would not equal his own unwavering, unretreating quest for the path.

Buddha-worlds were as numerous as the sands of the Gaṅgā and beyond all reckoning. He vowed that his light would shine throughout all these lands and that his vigor and majestic power would be immeasurable. When he became a buddha, his land would be foremost among all lands, its assembly wondrous and supreme, its site of awakening surpassing those of other lands. The land would be peaceful and blissful like nirvāṇa, without an equal. He would pity and deliver every being, so that those born there from the ten directions would have joyful and purified minds and, once they reached his land, would dwell in happiness and peace.

Dharmākara asked the Buddha to understand and attest that this was his true vow-mind; he would vigorously pursue all that he had vowed. The World-Honored Ones of the ten directions all possessed unobstructed wisdom, and he prayed that they would constantly enable World-Sovereign King Tathāgata to know his thoughts and conduct. Even if his body remained amid every kind of bitter suffering, he would practice with vigor, endure to the end, and never regret it.

〔五 · Asking the Buddha to Teach the Practice of a Pure Land〕（0267b19）The Buddha told Ānanda: when the bhikṣu Dharmākara had finished speaking this verse of praise, he first assented, addressing the Buddha as the World-Honored One; he then declared that he had given rise to the aspiration for unsurpassed perfect awakening and asked the Buddha to expound the scriptural Dharma for him at length. He would practice according to the teaching and select and adopt the pure adornments of measureless, wondrous buddha-lands, so that he might quickly accomplish perfect awakening in the world and uproot the source of beings’ toil and suffering in birth and death.

The Buddha further told Ānanda that World-Sovereign King Tathāgata then replied to Dharmākara: as for the practices by which one adorns a buddha-land, he should know them himself.

Dharmākara again said: this principle was vast and profound and did not lie within his present range. He asked only that the World-Honored One expound broadly for him the practices of the tathāgatas’ pure buddha-lands. Once he had heard them, he would certainly practice as the Buddha taught and bring his great vow to fulfillment.

〔六 · The Simile of Measuring the Ocean with a Dipper〕（0267b28）World-Sovereign King Tathāgata knew that Dharmākara’s wisdom was elevated and his resolve deep and vast, and so he taught him: suppose the ocean were immensely broad and a person kept measuring out its water with a dipper. After many kalpas, that person could still reach the ocean floor and obtain the wondrous treasures within it. In the same way, if a person seeks the path with utmost sincerity and vigor and never stops, he will ultimately accomplish the fruit. What right vow could fail to be fulfilled?

〔七 · The Display of Two Hundred and Ten Koṭis of Buddha-Lands〕（0267c03）World-Sovereign King Tathāgata then gave Dharmākara an extensive account of two hundred and ten koṭis of buddha-lands. He enabled him to know the good and evil conduct of the gods and humans in each land and the coarseness or subtlety of the lands themselves; in accord with Dharmākara’s heart’s aspiration, he displayed them all directly before him.

The bhikṣu Dharmākara both heard the Buddha’s teaching on the adornment and purification of lands and saw them all with his own eyes. He thereby gave rise to a still more surpassing, supreme vow. His mind was tranquil, his resolve attached to no dharma, and no one in any world could equal him. For a full five kalpas, he contemplated the pure practices that adorn a buddha-land, deciding which to select and adopt and then cultivating them.

〔八 · Five Kalpas of Selection and Adoption within a Forty-Two-Kalpa Lifespan〕（0267c08）Ānanda asked the Buddha how long the lifespan in the land of World-Sovereign King Tathāgata was. The Buddha answered that this buddha’s lifespan was forty-two kalpas.

During that time, the bhikṣu Dharmākara selected and adopted the pure practices of the two hundred and ten koṭis of wondrous buddha-lands. When he had completed this work, he again went before World-Sovereign King Tathāgata, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, circumambulated him three times to the right, stood with palms joined, and declared to the World-Honored One that he had already selected and adopted the pure practices that adorn a buddha-land.

〔九 · The Vows Are About to Be Proclaimed Publicly〕（0267c13）The Buddha told the bhikṣu Dharmākara that he could now speak: this was the proper time. By voicing these vows, he could awaken joy and glad assent throughout the assembly. Bodhisattvas who heard them would also be able to practice this Dharma and thereby bring measureless great vows to fulfillment.

The bhikṣu Dharmākara replied: may the World-Honored One listen and examine; he would now set forth his vows in full.

Taishō canon T12n0360, from Dharmākara’s statement of the first vow through the Forty-Eighth Vow. The figures at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔一 · Freedom from the Evil Destinies through Hearing and Retaining the Dharma〕（0267c17）

1. Bhikṣu Dharmākara vowed: If I attain buddhahood and hell beings, hungry ghosts, or animals still exist in my land, I will not attain perfect awakening.

2. If I attain buddhahood and the humans and devas in my land, after the end of their lives, again fall into the three evil destinies of hell beings, hungry ghosts, and animals, I will not attain perfect awakening.

3. If I attain buddhahood and the humans and devas in my land do not all possess bodies the color of pure gold, I will not attain perfect awakening.

4. If I attain buddhahood and the bodily forms and complexions of the humans and devas in my land differ, so that some are beautiful and others ugly, I will not attain perfect awakening.

5. If I attain buddhahood and the humans and devas in my land do not all know their own former lives—at the very least, the events of hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of kalpas in the past—I will not attain perfect awakening.

6. If I attain buddhahood and the humans and devas in my land do not obtain the divine eye—at the very least, the ability to see hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of buddha-lands—I will not attain perfect awakening.

7. If I attain buddhahood and the humans and devas in my land do not obtain the divine ear—at the very least, the ability to hear the Dharma taught by buddhas in hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of buddha-lands, and to receive and retain all they hear—I will not attain perfect awakening.

〔二 · Knowledge of Other Minds and Supernormal Travel through Praise of the Name by the Buddhas〕（0268a03）

8. If I attain buddhahood and the humans and devas in my land do not obtain the wisdom that knows the thoughts of others—at the very least, the thoughts of sentient beings in hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of buddha-lands—I will not attain perfect awakening.

9. If I attain buddhahood and the humans and devas in my land do not obtain the supernormal power of travel and, within a single thought, cannot at the very least pass beyond hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of buddha-lands, I will not attain perfect awakening.

10. If I attain buddhahood and the humans and devas in my land still give rise to discriminating thoughts and greedily grasp at the body, I will not attain perfect awakening.

11. If I attain buddhahood and the humans and devas in my land do not abide in the rightly fixed group and certainly reach extinction, I will not attain perfect awakening.

12. If I attain buddhahood and my light can still be measured—at the very least, if it does not illuminate hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of buddha-lands—I will not attain perfect awakening.

13. If I attain buddhahood and my lifespan can still be measured—at the very least, if it does not extend for hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of kalpas—I will not attain perfect awakening.

14. If I attain buddhahood and the śrāvakas in my land can still be counted—if all the sentient beings in the three-thousandfold great-thousand world-system were to become pratyekabuddhas and, for hundreds of thousands of kalpas, calculate together and still know their number—I will not attain perfect awakening.

15. If I attain buddhahood and the lifespans of the humans and devas in my land are not beyond anyone’s power to measure—except for those who, in accord with their own original vows, freely determine whether their lives will be longer or shorter—I will not attain perfect awakening.

16. If I attain buddhahood and the humans and devas in my land so much as hear the name of anything unwholesome, I will not attain perfect awakening.

17. If I attain buddhahood and the immeasurable buddhas throughout the worlds of the ten directions do not all praise and proclaim my Name, I will not attain perfect awakening.

〔三 · Birth There, the Welcoming Assembly, and Final-Birth Bodhisattvahood〕（0268a26）

18. If I attain buddhahood and sentient beings throughout the ten directions, with wholehearted trust and joy, desire to be born in my land—even with as few as ten thoughts—and yet are not born there, I will not attain perfect awakening. The sole exceptions are those who commit the five heinous acts or slander the right Dharma.

19. If I attain buddhahood and sentient beings throughout the ten directions give rise to the aspiration for awakening, cultivate many kinds of merit, and with a mind of utmost sincerity vow to be born in my land, yet at the final moment of their lives I do not appear before them surrounded by a great assembly, I will not attain perfect awakening.

20. If I attain buddhahood and sentient beings throughout the ten directions hear my Name, keep my land in mind, plant roots of virtue, and with a mind of utmost sincerity dedicate and direct their merit toward birth in my land, yet their aspiration is not fulfilled, I will not attain perfect awakening.

21. If I attain buddhahood and the humans and devas in my land do not all fully possess the thirty-two marks of a great person, I will not attain perfect awakening.

22. If I attain buddhahood and the bodhisattvas who come to be born in my land from other buddha-lands do not ultimately reach the rank of final-birth bodhisattvas, I will not attain perfect awakening. The exception is those who, in accord with their own original vows, freely teach and transform: for the sake of sentient beings they don the armor of vast vows, accumulate roots of virtue, and deliver all beings; they travel through the buddha-lands, cultivate bodhisattva practices, and make offerings to the buddha-tathāgatas of the ten directions; they instruct and transform measureless sentient beings as numerous as the sands of the Gaṅgā and establish them in the unsurpassed, true, and right path; they transcend the customary course of practice on the various grounds and directly cultivate the virtues of Samantabhadra. If this is not so, I will not attain perfect awakening.

〔四 · Offerings to Buddhas, Eloquence, and the Adornment of the Land〕（0268b15）

23. If I attain buddhahood and the bodhisattvas in my land, relying on the Buddha’s spiritual power, cannot make offerings to buddhas throughout immeasurable and innumerable koṭis of nayutas of buddha-lands within the time it takes to eat one meal, I will not attain perfect awakening.

24. If I attain buddhahood and the bodhisattvas in my land, when manifesting their roots of virtue before the buddhas, cannot obtain at will whatever implements and articles they wish to use as offerings, I will not attain perfect awakening.

25. If I attain buddhahood and the bodhisattvas in my land cannot expound all-knowledge, I will not attain perfect awakening.

26. If I attain buddhahood and the bodhisattvas in my land do not obtain bodies as firm as adamant and as strong as Nārāyaṇa, I will not attain perfect awakening.

27. If I attain buddhahood and the humans, devas, and all things in my land are not pure, radiant, and beautiful, their forms and colors surpassingly distinctive and subtle beyond measure—so that no one can describe or calculate them, and even sentient beings who have obtained the divine eye can clearly distinguish their names and number—I will not attain perfect awakening.

28. If I attain buddhahood and even bodhisattvas of little merit in my land cannot know and see the tree at the site of awakening, with its immeasurable lights and colors and a height of four million li, I will not attain perfect awakening.

29. If I attain buddhahood and the bodhisattvas in my land receive and read the scriptural Dharma, recite, retain, and explain it for others, yet do not obtain eloquence and wisdom, I will not attain perfect awakening.

30. If I attain buddhahood and the wisdom and eloquence of the bodhisattvas in my land can be measured, I will not attain perfect awakening.

31. If I attain buddhahood and my land is not utterly pure and does not illuminate and reveal all the immeasurable, innumerable, inconceivable buddha-worlds throughout the ten directions, as a clear mirror reflects the image of a person’s face, I will not attain perfect awakening.

32. If I attain buddhahood and, from the ground upward into the sky, all the palaces, towers, pools, streams, flowering trees, and everything else in the land are not together formed from immeasurable kinds of precious substances and hundreds of thousands of fragrances; if they are not wondrously adorned and do not surpass all things among humans and devas; and if their fragrance does not permeate the worlds of the ten directions so that every bodhisattva who smells it cultivates the practice of a buddha, I will not attain perfect awakening.

〔五 · The Touch of Light through the Reverence of the World〕（0268c15）

33. If I attain buddhahood and the many classes of sentient beings throughout the immeasurable, inconceivable buddha-worlds of the ten directions, when touched upon their bodies by my light, do not become gentle and at ease in body and mind—surpassing humans and devas in softness—I will not attain perfect awakening.

34. If I attain buddhahood and the many classes of sentient beings throughout the immeasurable, inconceivable buddha-worlds of the ten directions, upon hearing my Name, do not obtain the bodhisattva’s patience of non-arising and profound dhāraṇīs, I will not attain perfect awakening.

35. If I attain buddhahood and women in the immeasurable, inconceivable buddha-worlds of the ten directions hear my Name, rejoice in joyful trust, give rise to the aspiration for awakening, and become weary of the female form, yet after the end of their lives again take on a female form, I will not attain perfect awakening.

36. If I attain buddhahood and the bodhisattvas throughout the immeasurable, inconceivable buddha-worlds of the ten directions, upon hearing my Name, do not constantly cultivate pure conduct after the end of their lives until they attain the Buddha-path, I will not attain perfect awakening.

37. If I attain buddhahood and the devas and people throughout the immeasurable, inconceivable buddha-worlds of the ten directions, upon hearing my Name, do not cast all five limbs to the ground, bow their heads in homage, rejoice in joyful trust, and cultivate bodhisattva practice—or if they do not receive the reverence of devas and people—I will not attain perfect awakening.

〔六 · Garments and Ease through the Samādhi of Universal Equality〕（0269a03）

38. If I attain buddhahood and, when the humans and devas in my land wish for clothing, it does not appear as soon as they think of it; if wondrous garments commended by the buddhas and conforming to the Dharma do not naturally clothe their bodies, and instead must be cut and sewn, dyed and treated, or washed, I will not attain perfect awakening.

39. If I attain buddhahood and the ease enjoyed by the humans and devas in my land is not equal to that enjoyed by a bhikṣu whose outflows are exhausted, I will not attain perfect awakening.

40. If I attain buddhahood and the bodhisattvas in my land, whenever they wish to see the immeasurable adorned and pure buddha-lands of the ten directions, do not immediately see them all within the jeweled trees according to their wishes, as a clear mirror reflects the image of a person’s face, I will not attain perfect awakening.

41. If I attain buddhahood and the bodhisattvas in other lands, upon hearing my Name, possess faculties that are defective, disfigured, or incomplete at any time before their attainment of buddhahood, I will not attain perfect awakening.

42. If I attain buddhahood and the bodhisattvas in other lands, upon hearing my Name, do not all attain the Samādhi of Pure Liberation; or if, while abiding in this samādhi, they cannot within the arising of a single thought make offerings to immeasurable, inconceivable World-Honored Buddhas without losing their concentrated minds, I will not attain perfect awakening.

43. If I attain buddhahood and the bodhisattvas in other lands, upon hearing my Name, are not born into honored families after the end of their lives, I will not attain perfect awakening.

44. If I attain buddhahood and the bodhisattvas in other lands, upon hearing my Name, do not rejoice and leap with joy, cultivate bodhisattva practice, and fully possess roots of virtue, I will not attain perfect awakening.

45. If I attain buddhahood and the bodhisattvas in other lands, upon hearing my Name, do not all attain the Samādhi of Universal Equality; or if, while abiding in this samādhi, they do not constantly see all the immeasurable, inconceivable tathāgatas until they attain buddhahood, I will not attain perfect awakening.

〔七 · Hearing the Dharma According to One’s Vow through the Three Patiences〕（0269a29）

46. If I attain buddhahood and the bodhisattvas in my land do not naturally hear whatever Dharma they wish to hear according to their aspirations and vows, I will not attain perfect awakening.

47. If I attain buddhahood and the bodhisattvas in other lands, upon hearing my Name, do not immediately reach non-retrogression, I will not attain perfect awakening.

48. If I attain buddhahood and the bodhisattvas in other lands, upon hearing my Name, do not immediately attain the first, second, and third patiences and immediately reach non-retrogression in the Dharmas of the buddhas, I will not attain perfect awakening.

Taishō canon T12n0360, from Dharmākara’s verse on the transcendent vows through the end of the first fascicle. The figures at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔一 · Verse on the Transcendent Vows〕（0269b07）The Buddha told Ānanda: at that time, after Bhikṣu Dharmākara had proclaimed the Forty-Eight Vows, he spoke these verses:

I have established vows transcending the world and will certainly reach the unsurpassed path. If these vows are not fulfilled, I pledge not to attain perfect awakening. If, through measureless kalpas, I do not become a great donor who universally rescues all sentient beings in poverty and distress, I pledge not to attain perfect awakening. If, when I attain buddhahood, my renown does not transcend and spread throughout the ten directions, so that in the end there is still somewhere it has not been heard, I pledge not to attain perfect awakening.

Free of sensual defilement, I will cultivate pure conduct through profound right mindfulness and pure wisdom, resolve to seek the unsurpassed path, and become a teacher of all devas and humans. With spiritual power I will emit great light that universally illuminates boundless lands, dispels the darkness of the three defilements of greed, anger, and delusion, and brings clear rescue from every danger and hardship. I will open the eye of wisdom, end the darkness of blind ignorance, close the roads into all the evil destinies, and make the gates of the good destinies freely passable.

May my meritorious work be fulfilled and my majestic radiance illuminate the ten directions, causing the sun and moon to draw in their manifold rays and celestial lights to disappear. I will open the treasury of the Buddha-Dharma for sentient beings, widely bestow the jewels of merit, and constantly teach the Dharma in the midst of the assembly with a lion’s fearless roar. I will make offerings to every buddha, fully possess every root of virtue, bring both vow and wisdom to fulfillment, and become the most excellent hero of the three realms.

The buddhas possess immeasurable wisdom, penetrating everywhere without exception. May the power of my merit equal that of the most excellent honored one. If these vows truly bear fruit, the three-thousandfold great-thousand world-system should respond by trembling, and the devas in space should rain down precious and wondrous flowers.

〔二 · Auspicious Responses and Vow-Practice through Inconceivably Long Kalpas〕（0269c02）The Buddha told Ānanda: as soon as Bhikṣu Dharmākara finished speaking these verses, the earth trembled in six ways. Wondrous flowers rained from the heavens and scattered upon him. Music arose naturally in the sky, and a voice praised him: “He will certainly attain unsurpassed perfect awakening.” Bhikṣu Dharmākara then fully cultivated and fulfilled these great vows. He was truthful and free of falsity, transcended the world, and deeply delighted in quiescence.

Before World-Sovereign King Tathāgata and in the midst of devas, māras, brahmās, dragon spirits, and the eight classes of beings, Bhikṣu Dharmākara made these vast pledges. After establishing the vows, he single-mindedly devoted his resolve to adorning a wondrous land. The buddha-land he cultivated was open and vast, surpassingly excellent and uniquely wondrous, enduring always without decline or change.

Through inconceivably long kalpas reckoned in immense spans, he accumulated the immeasurable virtuous practices of a bodhisattva. He gave rise neither to thoughts of sensual desire, anger, and harm nor to perceptions of desire, anger, and harm. He did not become attached to forms, sounds, fragrances, flavors, or tangible objects. His power of patience was complete, and he did not dwell upon the many sufferings. He had few desires and knew contentment, free of greed, anger, and delusion. His samādhi was constantly still, and his wisdom unobstructed.

His mind held no falsity, flattery, or crookedness. His expression was gentle and joyful, his words soft; he understood another’s intention beforehand and took the initiative in asking after them. Courageous and vigorous, he never tired in his resolve and sought only the pure and undefiled Dharma. Through wisdom he benefited all sentient beings, revered the Three Jewels of Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha, and attended upon teachers and elders. With great adornment he fully cultivated all practices and enabled sentient beings to accomplish merit.

He abided in the three liberations of emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness, knew that dharmas are neither fabricated nor arisen, and contemplated every dharma as illusory transformation. He kept far from coarse and harmful speech, from harming himself, harming others, and harming both himself and others. He cultivated good speech that benefited himself, benefited others, and benefited both. He abandoned his land, relinquished kingship, and cut himself off from wealth and sensuality. He personally cultivated the six perfections of giving, ethical discipline, patience, vigor, samādhi, and wisdom, and taught others to cultivate them as well.

〔三 · Merit Accumulated through Kalpas and Teaching Wherever He Was Born〕（0269c21）Through innumerable kalpas Bhikṣu Dharmākara accumulated merit. Wherever he was born, whenever his mind required something, immeasurable treasuries of jewels naturally appeared in response. He taught and transformed innumerable sentient beings and established them in the unsurpassed, true, and right Buddha-path.

At times he appeared as an elder, householder, member of a powerful lineage, or honored person; at times as a kṣatriya king or wheel-turning sage king; at times as a lord of one of the six desire heavens, and even as a Brahmā king. He constantly made the four offerings of clothing, food, bedding, and medicine to all the buddhas and revered them. These merits cannot be described or measured.

His breath was fragrant and pure like an utpala flower, and the pores of his body emitted the fragrance of sandalwood, permeating measureless worlds. His countenance was upright and beautiful, and his marks and excellences surpassingly wondrous. His hands constantly produced inexhaustible jewels, clothing, food, precious wondrous flowers, fragrances, canopies, banners, and every kind of ornament. All these surpassed what exists among humans and devas, and he had sovereign freedom in every dharma.

〔四 · Dharmākara Has Attained Buddhahood; the Land of Peace and Bliss Is Accomplished〕（0270a02）Ānanda asked the Buddha: had Bodhisattva Dharmākara already attained buddhahood and then entered extinction, had he not yet attained buddhahood, or was he now present in the world?

The Buddha told Ānanda: Bodhisattva Dharmākara has now attained buddhahood. He is presently in the west, a hundred thousand koṭis of buddha-lands away. His buddha-world is called Peace and Bliss. Ānanda then asked how long it had been since that buddha attained the path. The Buddha answered that ten kalpas had passed since his attainment of buddhahood.

The ground of that buddha-land is naturally formed from the seven precious substances: gold, silver, beryl, coral, amber, mother-of-pearl, and agate. The land is broad, open, and without limit. The many precious substances mingle and enter one another, brilliant with radiance, subtle, rare, beautiful, pure, and adorned. They surpass the finest jewels in every world throughout the ten directions and are like the precious substances of the sixth heaven.

The land has no Mount Sumeru, adamantine encircling mountains, or any other mountains. Nor does it have great or small seas, streams, channels, wells, or valleys, though by the Buddha’s spiritual power one can see such scenes whenever one wishes. It has none of the difficult evil destinies of hell beings, hungry ghosts, or animals. Nor does it have the four seasons of spring, autumn, winter, and summer. It is neither cold nor hot, but always harmonious and comfortable.

At that time Ānanda asked the Buddha: World-Honored One, if that land has no Mount Sumeru, upon what do its Four Heavenly Kings and the devas of Trāyastriṃśa dwell? The Buddha asked Ānanda in return: upon what do the heavens from Yāma up through Akaniṣṭha dwell? Ānanda answered: the actions of sentient beings and the results they receive are inconceivable.

The Buddha told Ānanda: the results of action are inconceivable, and the worlds of the buddhas are likewise inconceivable. The sentient beings there dwell upon the ground established by their actions through the good power of their own merit, and therefore it can be so. Ānanda said to the Buddha: I do not doubt this Dharma. I ask about it only because I wish to remove the doubts of sentient beings in the future.

〔五 · The Twelve Names of Light and the Benefits of Encountering the Light〕（0270a23）The Buddha told Ānanda: the majestic spiritual light of the Buddha of Measureless Life is the most honored and foremost; the light of other buddhas cannot equal it. Some buddha-lights illuminate one hundred buddha-worlds and some illuminate one thousand. In brief, some illuminate buddha-lands as numerous as the sands of the Gaṅgā in the east, and likewise those in the south, west, and north, the four intermediate directions, above, and below.

The distances reached by the buddhas’ lights differ. Some illuminate only seven feet, some one yojana, some two, three, four, or five yojanas, doubling in this way until they illuminate an entire buddha-land. Therefore the Buddha of Measureless Life is also called the Buddha of Measureless Light, Buddha of Boundless Light, Buddha of Unobstructed Light, Buddha of Unequaled Light, Buddha King of Blazing Light, Buddha of Pure Light, Buddha of Joyful Light, Buddha of Wisdom Light, Buddha of Unceasing Light, Buddha of Inconceivable Light, Buddha of Ineffable Light, and Buddha of Light Surpassing the Sun and Moon.

Whenever sentient beings encounter his light, the three defilements of greed, anger, and delusion cease. Their bodies and minds become gentle, they rejoice and leap with joy, and wholesome minds arise. If sentient beings are undergoing intense suffering in the three evil destinies of hell beings, hungry ghosts, or animals, seeing this light gives them respite and ends their anguish. After their lives end, they all receive liberation.

The light of the Buddha of Measureless Life shines brilliantly throughout the buddha-lands of the ten directions, and nowhere is it unknown. It is not only Śākyamuni Buddha who now praises this light. All buddhas, śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattva assemblies likewise praise it together.

If sentient beings hear of the majestic spiritual merit of this light and praise and speak of it day and night with an unbroken mind of utmost sincerity, they attain birth in that land according to their wishes. Bodhisattvas and the great assembly of śrāvakas then praise their merit. When they later attain the Buddha-path, the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions will also praise their light, just as they now praise the Buddha of Measureless Life. The Buddha further said that even if he spoke day and night for an entire kalpa, he could not finish describing the majestic and wondrous spiritual light of the Buddha of Measureless Life.

〔六 · Lifespan Beyond Measure and an Assembly Like the Ocean〕（0270b16）The Buddha told Ānanda: the lifespan of the Buddha of Measureless Life is so long that it cannot be described or calculated. Do you know this? Suppose the measureless sentient beings throughout the worlds of the ten directions all obtained human bodies and were each brought to the attainment of śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha. Suppose they gathered together, entered meditation, unified their minds, and exhausted all their wisdom in joint calculation through hundreds of thousands of myriads of kalpas. Even then, they could not exhaust the long kalpas of his lifespan or know its limit.

The lifespans of the śrāvakas, bodhisattvas, devas, and humans in the land of Peace and Bliss are likewise beyond calculation or simile. Their numbers are equally difficult to measure and cannot be fully stated. These śrāvakas and bodhisattvas possess penetrating spiritual wisdom and sovereign majestic power; they can hold all worlds in the palms of their hands.

The Buddha further told Ānanda: the number of śrāvakas in the Buddha of Measureless Life’s first Dharma assembly cannot be calculated, and the same is true of the bodhisattvas. Suppose hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis, measureless and innumerable persons with wisdom and spiritual powers like Mahāmaudgalyāyana’s calculated together through asaṃkhya nayutas of kalpas until they entered extinction. They still could not determine how many beings attended that first assembly.

It is like the immeasurably deep and vast ocean. Suppose someone split one hair into one hundred parts and touched one drop of seawater with the tip of one of those hundredth parts. The Buddha asked Ānanda: which is greater, the drop on the hair-tip or the great ocean? Ānanda replied that the difference between that drop and the ocean cannot be expressed through skillful calendrical calculation, mathematics, words, or similes. The Buddha said: what beings like Mahāmaudgalyāyana could know by calculating the śrāvakas and bodhisattvas of the first assembly through hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of nayutas of kalpas would be like the drop on the hair-tip; what they could not know would be like all the water in the ocean.

〔七 · Trees of the Seven Precious Substances Filling the Land〕（0270c06）Trees of the seven precious substances fill the world of Peace and Bliss: trees of gold, silver, beryl, crystal, coral, agate, and mother-of-pearl. Some are formed from two precious substances, some from three, and some from as many as all seven together.

Some trees have trunks of gold with leaves, flowers, and fruit of silver; some have trunks of silver with leaves, flowers, and fruit of gold. Some beryl trees have leaves of crystal, with flowers and fruit likewise of crystal. Some rock-crystal trees have leaves of beryl, with flowers and fruit likewise of beryl. Some coral trees have leaves of agate, with flowers and fruit likewise of agate. Some agate trees have leaves of beryl, with flowers and fruit likewise of beryl. Some mother-of-pearl trees have leaves made of the many treasures, with flowers and fruit likewise formed from the many treasures.

There are also jeweled trees whose roots, trunks, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, and fruit are formed successively from the seven precious substances. The first kind has purple-gold roots, a silver trunk, beryl branches, crystal twigs, coral leaves, agate flowers, and mother-of-pearl fruit. The second has silver roots, a beryl trunk, crystal branches, coral twigs, agate leaves, mother-of-pearl flowers, and purple-gold fruit. The third has beryl roots, a crystal trunk, coral branches, agate twigs, mother-of-pearl leaves, purple-gold flowers, and silver fruit.

The fourth has crystal roots, a coral trunk, agate branches, mother-of-pearl twigs, purple-gold leaves, silver flowers, and beryl fruit. The fifth has coral roots, an agate trunk, mother-of-pearl branches, purple-gold twigs, silver leaves, beryl flowers, and crystal fruit. The sixth has agate roots, a mother-of-pearl trunk, purple-gold branches, silver twigs, beryl leaves, crystal flowers, and coral fruit. The seventh has mother-of-pearl roots, a purple-gold trunk, silver branches, beryl twigs, crystal leaves, coral flowers, and agate fruit.

Every row of trees stands opposite another row; trunk faces trunk, branch aligns with branch, leaf faces leaf, flower accords with flower, and fruit matches fruit. Their luxuriant colors and radiance surpass all seeing. When a clear breeze arises at the proper time, the jeweled trees produce the five tones, and the subtle musical modes naturally harmonize.

〔八 · The Tree at the Site of Awakening and the Three Patiences〕（0271a02）The tree at the site of awakening of the Buddha of Measureless Life is four million li high. Its trunk is five thousand yojanas in circumference, and its branches and leaves extend two hundred thousand li in the four directions. The entire tree is naturally formed from all the treasures and adorned with the king of jewels, the moonlight maṇi jewel that holds the ocean wheel.

Strands of jeweled pearls hang all around among the tree’s branches, showing hundreds of thousands of myriads of colors and many different transformations. Measureless rays of light blaze without limit. Nets woven from precious wondrous jewels cover the crown, and every adornment appears in accord with sentient beings’ needs. When a gentle wind moves the tree, it emits subtle Dharma-sounds that flow throughout every buddha-land in the ten directions.

Those who hear the tree’s sounds attain profound Dharma-patience, abide in non-retrogression until buddhahood, and no longer encounter suffering or harm. Their eyes see its colors, ears hear its sounds, noses know its fragrance, tongues taste its flavor, bodies touch its light, and minds take the Dharma it reveals as their object. Through the six faculties encountering these six objects, they all attain profound Dharma-patience, abide in non-retrogression until buddhahood, and possess faculties that are clear and pure, free of every affliction.

The Buddha told Ānanda: humans and devas in the land of Peace and Bliss who see this tree attain three Dharma-patiences: first, the patience arising from sound; second, the patience of pliant accord; third, the patience of non-arising. These all arise through the majestic spiritual power of the Buddha of Measureless Life, the power of his past original vows, the power of vows fulfilled, the power of vows clearly known, the power of vows made firm, and the power of vows brought to completion.

〔九 · Naturally Arising Music and Palaces of the Seven Precious Substances〕（0271a18）The Buddha told Ānanda: worldly rulers possess hundreds of thousands of kinds of music. From a wheel-turning sage king upward through the sixth heaven, the musical sounds at each level surpass the one below by thousands of koṭis of myriads of times. Yet the myriad kinds of music in the sixth heaven do not equal even one kind of sound from the trees of the seven precious substances in the land of the Buddha of Measureless Life by hundreds of thousands of koṭis of times.

The land of Peace and Bliss also has a myriad kinds of music that arise naturally. Every musical sound there is a Dharma-sound—clear and flowing, tender and bright, subtle, harmonious, and elegant, foremost among all sounds throughout the worlds of the ten directions.

Its Dharma halls, monasteries, palaces, and towers are all adorned with the seven precious substances and arise naturally through transformation. Nets woven from pearls, moon-bright maṇi jewels, and other precious substances cover them. Inside, outside, to the left, and to the right are bathing pools. Some measure ten yojanas, some twenty or thirty, and some as many as hundreds of thousands of yojanas. The length, width, depth, and shallowness of each are proportionate. Water of the eight excellent qualities fills them, still and clear, pure, fragrant, clean, and tasting like nectar.

Pools of gold have beds of silver sand; pools of silver have beds of golden sand. Pools of crystal have beds of beryl sand; pools of beryl have beds of crystal sand. Pools of coral have beds of amber sand; pools of amber have beds of coral sand. Pools of mother-of-pearl have beds of agate sand; pools of agate have beds of mother-of-pearl sand. Pools of white jade have beds of purple-gold sand; pools of purple gold have beds of white-jade sand. Some pools are formed from two or three precious substances, and some from as many as all seven together.

Sandalwood trees grow along the banks, their flowers and leaves hanging down and spreading, their fragrance permeating everywhere. Celestial utpala, padma, kumuda, and puṇḍarīka flowers, radiant in many colors, grow thickly across the water’s surface.

〔十 · Pools of Whatever Depth Is Wished and Measureless Dharma-Sounds〕（0271b09）When bodhisattvas and the assembly of śrāvakas enter the jeweled pools and wish the water to reach only their feet, it reaches their feet. If they wish it to reach their knees, it reaches their knees; if their waists, their waists; if their necks, their necks. If they wish it to pour over their bodies, it naturally does so; if they wish it to return, it immediately returns.

Its warmth and coolness naturally harmonize with each person’s wish. It opens and delights the spirit, gives joy to the body, and washes away defilement of mind. The water is lucid and clear, as though without form. The jeweled sand on the bottom shines through it, so that no depth remains unseen. Small waves circle and flow, pouring into one another. The water passes gently and at ease, neither too slowly nor too quickly.

The waves naturally produce measureless subtle sounds, and all sentient beings hear whatever Dharma accords with their capacities. Some hear the sound of Buddha, Dharma, or Saṅgha. Some hear the sound of quiescence, emptiness and no-self, great loving-kindness and compassion, or the perfections. Some hear the sound of the Buddha’s ten powers, fearlessnesses, and exclusive qualities, the sound of spiritual penetration and wisdom, the sound of no fabrication, the sound of neither arising nor ceasing, the sound of the patience of non-arising, and even many kinds of wondrous Dharma-sounds such as the anointment of nectar.

Those who hear the Dharma-sound that accords with them rejoice without measure. They accord with the true meanings of purity, freedom from desire, quiescence, and reality; with the Three Jewels, the ten powers, the fearlessnesses, and exclusive qualities; and with the spiritual wisdom and paths cultivated by bodhisattvas and śrāvakas. Not even the names of the suffering and difficulty of hell beings, hungry ghosts, and animals exist in the land. There are only sounds of natural joy. Therefore that land is called Ultimate Bliss.

〔十一 · Naturally Appearing Food, Equality of Form, and Measures Drawn from the World〕（0271b25）The Buddha told Ānanda: beings born in that buddha-land fully possess pure bodies, wondrous sounds, spiritual powers, and merit. Their palaces, clothing, food, wondrous flowers and fragrances, and implements of adornment all appear naturally like the things of the sixth heaven.

When they wish to eat, suitable vessels of the seven precious substances naturally appear before them. Bowls of gold, silver, beryl, mother-of-pearl, agate, coral, amber, and moon-bright pearls arrive according to their wishes, naturally filled with foods of a hundred flavors. Although the food appears, no one actually swallows it. By seeing its color and smelling its fragrance, they take it as food in their minds and are naturally satisfied. Their bodies and minds become gentle, and they do not become attached to flavor. When the meal is over, the vessels and food disappear through transformation; when the proper time arrives again, they reappear.

That buddha-land is pure and secure, subtle and joyful, second only to the unconditioned path of nirvāṇa. Its śrāvakas, bodhisattvas, humans, and devas possess lofty wisdom and penetrating spiritual powers. Their bodies are all of one kind, without difference of form. They are called humans and devas only in accommodation to the names used in other worlds. Their countenances are upright and beautiful, rare and beyond the world; their forms are subtle and cannot be limited as celestial or human. They all receive naturally arisen bodies of openness and bodies without limit.

The Buddha asked Ānanda: suppose the poorest beggar in the world stood beside a king. Could their figures and appearances be compared? Ānanda replied that beside the king, the person would be weak, lowly, and ugly beyond comparison, differing by hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of incalculable times.

Ānanda continued: the poor beggar occupies the lowest condition. His clothing does not cover his body and his food barely sustains life. He endures hunger, cold, hardship, and suffering until his basic human condition is almost lost. This occurs because in former lives he did not plant roots of virtue. He accumulated wealth but refused to give; the richer he became, the more miserly he grew. He desired gain without work, sought greedily without satisfaction, did not trust in or cultivate the good, and piled up evil deeds like a mountain.

At the end of such a person’s life, all the wealth is scattered. What he painfully gathered through life brings him only anxiety, gives him no benefit, and in the end passes uselessly to others. With no goodness to rely upon and no virtue to support him, after death he falls into an evil destiny and suffers there for a long time. When the offense is exhausted and he is born again, he remains lowly, ignorant, and base in the extreme, only outwardly resembling a human being.

A worldly king is uniquely honored among humans because of virtue accumulated in former lives. In the past he gave with kindness, extended benevolence and aid widely, kept faith, cultivated goodness, and did not act contrary to principle or engage in contention. At the end of his life his merit brought him into a good destiny, where he was born in a heaven and enjoyed its happiness. The remaining blessing of his goodness continued, and when he was again born human, he entered a royal family and was naturally honored. His bearing was upright and beautiful, the multitude revered and served him, and fine clothing and precious food were his to use at will. Past merit followed him and brought about these results.

The Buddha told Ānanda: what you say is correct. Though a king is honored among humans and upright in form, beside a wheel-turning sage king he is extremely coarse and lowly, like a beggar beside a king. The majestic marks of a wheel-turning sage king are surpassingly wondrous and foremost in the world, yet beside the lord of Trāyastriṃśa he appears ugly beyond comparison by tens of thousands of koṭis of times. The lord of Trāyastriṃśa differs from the king of the sixth heaven by hundreds of thousands of koṭis of times. Even the king of the sixth heaven falls immeasurably short of the radiant countenances of the bodhisattvas and śrāvakas in the land of the Buddha of Measureless Life, by hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of incalculable times.

〔十二 · Necessities Appearing in Response to Thought, the Virtuous Wind, and Flowers Scattered Six Times〕（0272a06）The Buddha told Ānanda: the clothing, food, flowers, fragrances, necklaces, canopies, banners, subtle sounds, houses, palaces, and towers of the devas and humans in the land of the Buddha of Measureless Life accord with the form, height, and size of each person. Some are formed from one treasure, some from two, and some from measureless treasures. Whatever they wish appears as soon as they think of it.

Wondrous cloth made from the treasures covers the ground, and all humans and devas walk upon it. Measureless jeweled nets cover the buddha-land, woven and adorned with golden threads, pearls, hundreds of thousands of different treasures, and rare and wondrous jewels. Jeweled bells hang on all four sides, and brilliant colors shine in utter magnificence.

A naturally arising virtuous wind moves softly. It is harmonious, neither cold nor hot, gently warm and cool, neither too slow nor too fast. As it moves the jeweled nets and trees, they produce measureless subtle Dharma-sounds and spread a myriad gentle and elegant fragrances of virtue. In those who smell them, the dust and ingrained habits of defilement naturally cease to arise. When the wind touches their bodies, all experience joy like a bhikṣu entering the Samādhi of Cessation.

The wind also scatters flowers throughout the buddha-land. The flowers are arranged by color in order and do not mingle in confusion. Their petals are soft and lustrous, their fragrance rich. When someone steps upon them, the carpet of flowers sinks four inches; when the foot is lifted, it returns to its former state. When the flowers’ use is complete, the earth naturally opens, and they disappear through transformation in sequence, leaving no trace. At the proper times the wind scatters flowers in this way six times.

〔十三 · Jeweled Lotuses Emit Light; Buddhas Appear within the Light〕（0272a23）Jeweled lotuses fill the whole world. Each flower has hundreds of thousands of koṭis of petals, and the petals emit immeasurable colors of light: blue petals emit blue light, white petals emit white light, and black, yellow, red, and purple petals each emit light of their own color. They blaze in radiant splendor, brighter than the sun and moon.

Each flower emits thirty-six hundreds of thousands of koṭis of rays of light. Within every ray appear thirty-six hundreds of thousands of koṭis of buddhas. Every buddha’s body is purple-gold, with surpassingly wondrous marks and excellences. Each buddha in turn emits hundreds of thousands of rays and universally teaches the subtle Buddha-Dharma to sentient beings throughout the ten directions. These buddhas each establish measureless sentient beings in the Buddha’s right path.

Here the first fascicle of The Sūtra of Measureless Life ends.

Taishō canon T12n0360, second fascicle, from the fascicle-front title and attribution through hearing the Name, birth in that land, dwelling in non-retrogression, and the statement of exceptions. The figures at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔一 · Fascicle-Front Title and Attribution〕（0272b05）The Sūtra of Measureless Life, second fascicle. The fascicle front gives the attribution: translated by Kang Sengkai, Tripiṭaka master from India, during the Cao-Wei dynasty.

〔二 · All Born in That Land Dwell in the Rightly Fixed Group〕（0272b08）The Buddha told Ānanda: all beings born in that land dwell in the rightly fixed group. Why is this? In that buddha-land there is no group of beings directed toward what is wrong and no group whose advance or retreat remains unfixed.

〔三 · The Buddhas of the Ten Directions Praise Together〕（0272b10）All buddha-tathāgatas throughout the worlds of the ten directions, as numerous as the sands of the Gaṅgā, together praise the inconceivable majestic power and merit of the Buddha of Measureless Life.

〔四 · Hearing the Name, Trust and Joy, Dedication, and the Vow for Birth〕（0272b11）Any beings who hear the Name of the Buddha of Measureless Life, give rise to trust and rejoice—even for as little as a single thought—and, with utmost sincerity, dedicate and direct what they have cultivated and vow for birth in that land immediately attain birth in that land and dwell in non-retrogression.

〔五 · Exceptions Listed at the End of the Passage〕（0272b13）Excepted are only those who commit the five heinous acts or slander the right Dharma.

Taishō canon T12n0360, from the Buddha’s general announcement to Ānanda of the three grades through the concluding exhortation on the highest grade. The figures at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔一 · General Announcement of the Three Grades〕（0272b15）The Buddha told Ānanda: among all gods and humans throughout the worlds of the ten directions, those who vow with utmost sincerity for birth in the land of the Buddha of Measureless Life fall into three grades.

〔二 · Five Causal Practices of the Highest Grade〕（0272b16）Those of the highest grade leave household life behind, abandon desire, and become renunciants. They give rise to the aspiration for awakening and single-mindedly recollect the Buddha of Measureless Life. They also cultivate many kinds of merit and vow for birth in the land of the Buddha of Measureless Life.

〔三 · At Life’s End, the Buddha and the Great Assembly Appear〕（0272b18）As the lives of these beings are about to end, the Buddha of Measureless Life appears before them together with the great assembly.

〔四 · Following the Buddha to Birth and Transformation-Birth in a Flower of the Seven Precious Substances〕（0272b19）They immediately follow the Buddha of Measureless Life and are born in his land, where they spontaneously undergo transformation-birth within a flower of the seven precious substances.

〔五 · Three Attainments after Birth〕（0272b20）After birth in that land, they dwell in non-retrogression, are courageous in wisdom, and freely exercise supernormal powers.

〔六 · Concluding Exhortation on Seeing the Buddha in This Life〕（0272b21）The Buddha therefore again told Ānanda: beings who wish to see the Buddha of Measureless Life in this very life should give rise to the aspiration for unsurpassed awakening, cultivate merit, and vow for birth in his land.

Taishō canon T12n0360, from the Buddha’s identification of the middle grade to his account of what is attained through birth in that land. The figures at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔一 · Wholehearted Aspiration for Birth and the Principal Causes to Be Practiced〕（0272b24）The Buddha told Ānanda: the middle grade comprises those among the gods and people of the worlds throughout the ten directions who wholeheartedly aspire to be born in that land. Although they cannot renounce the household life, become śramaṇas, and cultivate merit extensively, they should still give rise to the aspiration for unsurpassed awakening and single-mindedly recollect the Buddha of Measureless Life without interruption.

〔二 · Practicing Good as One Is Able and Making Each Offering〕（0272b27）They should also practice good according to their ability, whether much or little: observe the fasting precepts, establish stūpas and images of the Buddha, provide food for śramaṇas, hang silken banners, light lamps, scatter flowers, and burn incense. They should then dedicate and direct all these good deeds toward the aspiration to be born in the land of the Buddha of Measureless Life.

〔三 · The Manifested Buddha Comes to Welcome Them, and What They Attain after Birth〕（0272b29）When such a person approaches the end of life, the Buddha of Measureless Life manifests a body. This manifested Buddha is complete in radiance and excellent marks, just like the true Buddha, and appears before the person together with a great assembly. The person immediately follows the manifested Buddha and is born in that land, where they abide in non-retrogression. Their merit and wisdom rank immediately after those of the highest grade.

Taishō canon T12n0360, from the Buddha’s account to Ānanda of the causes of the lowest grade through its merit and wisdom ranking after the middle grade. The figures at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔一 · Wholehearted Aspiration for Birth〕（0272c04）The Buddha told Ānanda: the lowest grade comprises those among the gods and people of the worlds throughout the ten directions who wholeheartedly desire to be born in the land of the Buddha of Measureless Life.

〔二 · Though Unable to Perform Good Deeds, They Still Give Rise to the Aspiration and Recollect Single-Mindedly〕（0272c05）Even if they cannot perform various deeds of merit, they should still give rise to the aspiration for unsurpassed awakening and single-mindedly direct the mind. Even if they possess only ten thoughts, they recollect the Buddha of Measureless Life and aspire to be born in his land.

〔三 · Hearing the Profound Dharma with Joyful Trust, Free of Doubt〕（0272c07）If, upon hearing the profound Dharma, they rejoice, receive it with joyful trust, delight in it, and give rise to no doubt—even if they recollect that buddha for only a single thought, they still aspire with a mind of utmost sincerity to be born in his land.

〔四 · The Dream, Birth, and the Rank of What Is Attained〕（0272c09）When such a person approaches the end of life, they see that buddha in a dream and likewise are born there. After birth in that land, their merit and wisdom rank immediately after those of the middle grade.

Taishō canon T12n0360, following the source in sequence from the arrival of bodhisattvas out of the ten directions through the immeasurable virtues of the bodhisattvas of that land. The figures at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔一 · Bodhisattvas from the Ten Directions Arrive Together〕（0272c11）

The Buddha told Ānanda: the majestic virtue and spiritual power of the Buddha of Measureless Life have no limit. Among the immeasurable, boundless, inconceivable buddha-tathāgatas of the worlds throughout the ten directions, none fails to praise him. In buddha-lands of the east as numerous as the sands of the Gaṅgā, measureless and innumerable bodhisattvas all come before the Buddha of Measureless Life and respectfully make offerings to him. Together with the assemblies of bodhisattvas and śrāvakas, they listen to and receive the scriptural Dharma, then proclaim and spread the path they have heard. The same occurs in the south, west, and north, in the four intermediate directions, and above and below.

〔二 · Offering, Hearing the Dharma, and Giving Rise to the Vow〕（0272c17）

The World-Honored One then spoke in verse: buddha-lands of the east are as numerous as the sands of the Gaṅgā, and their bodhisattvas all come to visit the Buddha of Measureless Awakening. The same is true in the south, west, north, the four intermediate directions, above, and below. The bodhisattvas of every land come to visit the Buddha of Measureless Awakening.

All the bodhisattvas bring sublime heavenly flowers, precious incense, and priceless robes as offerings to the Buddha of Measureless Awakening. Together they play heavenly music, producing harmonious and graceful sounds. In song they praise the supremely honored one and make offerings to the Buddha of Measureless Awakening. They completely penetrate supernormal powers and wisdom, travel through and enter profound Dharma gates, possess the entire treasury of merit, and have subtle wisdom without equal. With the sun of wisdom they illuminate the world and dispel the clouds of birth and death that cover sentient beings. Respectfully they circle the Buddha three times and bow their heads to the unsurpassed honored one. Seeing that land, pure and adorned, subtle and inconceivable, they give rise to a vast and measureless mind and aspire that the lands they will accomplish in the future may be the same.

〔三 · The Buddha Smiles and Emits Light; Avalokiteśvara Asks〕（0273a02）

At that very moment, the countenance of the Buddha of Measureless Life became joyful and he smiled. From his mouth issued innumerable rays of light that illuminated lands throughout the ten directions. The light turned back, circled his body three times, and entered again through the crown of his head. All the gods and humans who saw it leaped with joy.

The great being Avalokiteśvara adjusted his robe, bowed his head to the Buddha, and asked why he smiled, entreating him to explain its meaning. The Buddha’s pure voice resounded like thunder, its eight qualities flowing forth in harmonious and graceful tones. As the Buddha was about to confer predictions upon the bodhisattvas, he urged Avalokiteśvara to listen closely.

〔四 · Knowing Emptiness While Fulfilling Vows; Receiving Predictions and Accomplishing Lands〕（0273a10）

The Buddha said: he knows every vow of the noble ones who have come from the ten directions. Resolving to seek pure and adorned buddha-lands, they will receive predictions and certainly become buddhas in the future. Although they awaken to all dharmas as dreams, illusions, and echoes, they will fulfill their many sublime vows and certainly accomplish pure lands like the land of Peace and Sustenance. They know all dharmas to be like lightning and images, bring the bodhisattva path to completion, and possess every root of merit; they will receive predictions and become buddhas. Penetrating the many Dharma gates and knowing all things to be empty and without self, they devote themselves to seeking pure buddha-lands and certainly will accomplish such lands.

The buddhas of the ten directions all tell the bodhisattvas in their lands that they should visit the Buddha in the land of Peace and Sustenance, hear the true Dharma, rejoice in it, receive it, and put it into practice. They will then swiftly accomplish a place of purity. Once they reach that pure and adorned land, they will quickly attain supernormal powers and certainly receive before the Buddha of Measureless Life a prediction of perfect awakening.

〔五 · Non-Retrogression through the Original Vow, Then Journeying Again through the Ten Directions〕（0273a22）

Through the power of the original vow of the Buddha of Measureless Life, all who hear his Name and aspire to be born there reach that land and naturally enter non-retrogression. Bodhisattvas further give rise to a profound resolve, aspiring that their own future lands will not differ from the land of Peace and Sustenance. They keep universally in mind the deliverance of all sentient beings; when they become buddhas, their names will be renowned throughout the ten directions. They attend hundreds of millions of tathāgatas, fly freely in manifested bodies through all buddha-fields, and complete their respectful offerings. They then depart joyfully and return to the land of Peace and Sustenance.

〔六 · The Dharma Is Difficult to Hear, and Trust and Wisdom Are Also Difficult〕（0273a28）

Those without roots of goodness cannot hear this sūtra. Only those pure in body and mind who observe the precepts obtain the opportunity to hear the true Dharma. Those who have previously seen World-Honored Ones can trust this matter; hearing and practicing with humility and respect, they leap with great joy. The arrogant, corrupt, and indolent find it difficult to trust this Dharma. Those who have seen buddhas in previous lives delight in hearing such a teaching.

Neither śrāvakas nor bodhisattvas can completely fathom the Buddha’s sacred mind, just as one blind from birth might attempt to guide others. The Tathāgata’s ocean of wisdom is deep and vast, without shore or bottom. The wisdom of the two vehicles cannot measure it; only a buddha fully understands it. Even if every person had attained the path and possessed pure wisdom like original emptiness, contemplated buddha-wisdom for a hundred million kalpas, and repeatedly expounded it with all their strength until life ended, they still could not know it exhaustively. Buddha-wisdom has no boundary; through such wisdom purity is accomplished.

Human life is difficult to obtain, the appearance of a buddha in the world is difficult to encounter, and trust and wisdom among humans are likewise difficult to gain. Those able to hear the Dharma should seek it vigorously. If they hear without forgetting and behold with reverence, they obtain great good fortune. Such people are the Buddha’s good friends, and therefore should give rise to the resolve to seek the path. Even if the whole world were filled with fire, they would surely cross it to seek and hear this Dharma. In time they will accomplish the Buddha-path and widely rescue sentient beings from the current of birth and death.

〔七 · Final-Birth Bodhisattvas and the Two Great Beings〕（0273b19）

The Buddha told Ānanda: all bodhisattvas of that land ultimately become final-birth bodhisattvas, except those who, for the sake of sentient beings, possess an original vow of their own. Such bodhisattvas use the adornments of merit born of vast vows to adorn themselves and universally aspire to deliver every sentient being.

In that buddha-land, the bodily radiance of the śrāvakas shines for one fathom, while the bodhisattvas’ radiance shines for a hundred yojanas. Two bodhisattvas are foremost and supremely honored; their majestic spiritual power and light illuminate the three-thousandfold great-thousand world-system. Ānanda asked the names of these two bodhisattvas. The Buddha answered: one is named Avalokiteśvara and the other Mahāsthāmaprāpta. Both cultivated bodhisattva practice in this land and, at the end of life, were born in that buddha-land.

All sentient beings born in that land possess the thirty-two marks. Their wisdom is complete; they enter deeply into the dharmas and penetrate their essential and subtle reaches. Their supernormal powers are unobstructed and their faculties keen. Those of dull faculties accomplish two patiences, while those of keen faculties attain innumerable patiences of non-arising. Until they attain buddhahood, the bodhisattvas of that land do not enter the evil destinies again. Their supernormal powers are sovereign, and they constantly know former lives. The sole exception occurs when an original vow leads them to be born in another world of the five turbidities, where they manifest in the same form as the beings there, just as they appear in this land.

〔八 · Making Offerings to All Buddhas within the Time of a Meal〕（0273c04）

The Buddha further told Ānanda: sustained by the Buddha’s majestic spiritual power, the bodhisattvas of that land can go within the time of a single meal to measureless worlds throughout the ten directions and respectfully make offerings to every buddha, the World-Honored Ones. Whatever they think of—flowers, incense, musical instruments and music, silken canopies, banners, standards, and measureless, innumerable vessels for offering—arises naturally by transformation and arrives as soon as it is thought of. Each is precious, sublime, and extraordinary, unlike anything in the world.

The bodhisattvas scatter these offerings over the buddhas and the assemblies of bodhisattvas and śrāvakas. In the air the offerings form flower canopies whose luminous colors shine brilliantly and whose fragrance perfumes every place. Some flower canopies measure four hundred li around; others successively double until they cover the three-thousandfold great-thousand world-system. In accordance with the order in which the offerings were made, the canopies successively disappear. The bodhisattvas all rejoice. Together in the air they play heavenly music, praise the virtues of the buddhas in subtle sounds, listen to and receive the scriptural Dharma, and experience measureless joy. Once their offerings to the buddhas are complete, before they have eaten they suddenly rise lightly through the air and return to their own land.

〔九 · Teaching in the Hall and Spontaneous Offerings〕（0273c15）

When the Buddha of Measureless Life proclaims the true Dharma to the assemblies of śrāvakas and bodhisattvas, they all gather in the hall of the seven precious substances. The Buddha expounds the teaching of the path extensively and unfolds the subtle Dharma. Everyone who hears rejoices, understands inwardly, and attains the path.

At that moment, a gentle wind naturally rises from the four directions and blows through all the jeweled trees, producing five kinds of sound. Measureless sublime flowers fall with the wind throughout the land, and such spontaneous offerings continue without interruption. All the gods bring hundreds of thousands of heavenly flowers and fragrances and ten thousand kinds of musical instruments and music as offerings to the Buddha of Measureless Life and the assemblies of bodhisattvas and śrāvakas. They scatter flowers and incense everywhere and play all kinds of music; those coming and going yield to one another in turn. The harmony and joy of that time cannot be fully expressed in words.

〔十 · Non-Attachment, Compassion, and the Five Eyes〕（0273c23）

The Buddha told Ānanda: whatever the bodhisattvas born in that buddha-land teach, they always proclaim the true Dharma, follow wisdom, and neither violate it nor go astray. Toward all things in that land they possess no mind that claims them as “mine” and no mind of attachment. Whether coming or going, advancing or stopping, their feelings remain unbound. Free and sovereign in accordance with their intent, they cling to neither intimacy nor distance, neither acceptance nor rejection. They establish no opposition between other and self, engage in no competition, and enter no dispute.

Toward all sentient beings they possess great loving-kindness, compassion, and a mind intent on benefit. Their minds are gentle and well disciplined, without anger or resentment. Free from the five hindrances, they are pure and neither weary nor indolent. They possess a mind of equality, an excellent mind, a profound mind, a concentrated mind, and minds that love, delight in, and rejoice in the Dharma. They extinguish all afflictions and abandon minds directed toward evil destinies. They complete all bodhisattva conduct and perfectly accomplish measureless merit. They attain profound meditative concentration, supernormal powers, the three knowledges, and wisdom; their minds range within the seven factors of awakening as they cultivate the Buddha-Dharma.

Their physical eye is clear, seeing everything distinctly. Their divine eye penetrates and sees without measure or limit. Their Dharma-eye observes and exhausts all paths. Their wisdom-eye sees truth and can cross to the other shore. Their buddha-eye is complete and fully awakens to the Dharma-nature. With unobstructed wisdom they teach others, equally contemplating the three realms as empty and without possession. They aspire to the Buddha-Dharma, possess all forms of eloquence, and eliminate the afflictive ailments of sentient beings.

〔十一 · Born from Suchness, Bearing All through Compassion〕（0274a08）

They are born from the Tathāgata’s Dharma, understand dharmas in their suchness, know well origination and cessation, and skillfully employ the means of teaching through sound. They do not delight in worldly talk but rejoice in true discourse. They cultivate roots of goodness and honor the Buddha-path as their aim. Knowing all dharmas to be wholly quiescent, they exhaust the two remaining consequences of bodily birth and afflictions. Hearing profound Dharma, their minds neither doubt nor fear, and they constantly sustain the practice.

The great compassion they cultivate is profound, far-reaching, and subtle, covering and carrying every sentient being without exception. They bring the one vehicle to completion and reach the other shore. They cut through the net of doubts. Wisdom arises from the true mind, and nothing in the Buddha’s teaching lies outside their encompassing understanding. Their wisdom is as deep and broad as the ocean; their samādhi is as high and firm as the king of mountains. The radiance of their wisdom is pure and surpasses the sun and moon, and their stainless pure dharmas are complete and perfect.

〔十二 · Twenty Similes〕（0274a16）

The bodhisattvas of that land are like Snow Mountain, illuminating the equal purity to which all merits return; like the great earth, possessing no differing mind toward pure or impure, good or bad; like clear water, washing away the dust of toil and every defilement; like the king of fire, burning up all the fuel of affliction; like a great wind, moving through all worlds without obstruction; like empty space, attached to nothing that exists; and like a lotus flower, dwelling in the worlds without being stained.

They are also like the great vehicle, carrying all living beings out of birth and death; like heavy clouds, resounding with the thunder of the great Dharma and awakening those not yet awakened; like great rain, sending down the nectar of Dharma to moisten sentient beings; like a vajra mountain, unmoved by māras and non-Buddhist teachers; like Brahmā, foremost among all good dharmas; like a great nyagrodha tree, universally sheltering all; like an udumbara flower, rare and difficult to encounter; like a garuḍa, whose majestic power subdues non-Buddhist teachers; like roaming birds, storing up nothing; like a bull-king, whom none can surpass; like an elephant-king, skillfully disciplined; like a lion-king, fearless; and again like vast space, embracing sentient beings universally through equal great loving-kindness.

〔十三 · Giving the Dharma, the Many Powers, and the Ultimate Practice〕（0274b01）

They destroy jealousy and do not seek to surpass others. They delight exclusively in seeking the Dharma and are never satisfied; they constantly wish to teach it widely and their resolve never tires. They beat the Dharma drum, raise the Dharma banner, illuminate the sun of wisdom, dispel the darkness of delusion, cultivate the six principles of harmony and respect, and constantly practice the giving of Dharma. Their resolve is courageous and vigorous, their minds neither retreat nor weaken. They are lamps for the world, supreme fields of merit, and constant guides for sentient beings, equal and without hatred or attachment. Delighting only in the true path, they are not made glad or sorrowful by anything else. They pull out the thorns of desire and bring peace to all living beings. Their merit is so excellent that all honor them. They eliminate the three defiling obstacles of greed, anger, and delusion and move freely through the supernormal powers.

They possess the power of causes, the power of conditions, the power of intention, the power of vows, the power of skillful means, the power of constant cultivation, the power of good dharmas, the power of concentration, the power of wisdom, and the power of extensive learning. They possess the powers of the six perfections—giving, ethical discipline, patience, vigor, meditative concentration, and wisdom—as well as the powers of right mindfulness, calm and insight, the supernormal powers and knowledges, and the power to discipline sentient beings in accordance with the Dharma. Every power of these kinds is complete in them.

Their bodily appearance and excellent marks, merit, and eloquence are fully adorned, and none equals them. They respectfully make offerings to measureless buddhas and constantly receive the shared praise of the buddhas. They bring all the bodhisattva perfections to completion; cultivate the samādhis of emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness and the many samādhi gates of neither arising nor ceasing; and remain far from a station limited to śrāvakas or pratyekabuddhas.

〔十四 · A Summary That Cannot Exhaust Them〕（0274b15）

The Buddha finally told Ānanda: the bodhisattvas of that land accomplish such measureless virtues. He had given Ānanda only a concise account. If he were to speak of them extensively, even hundreds of thousands of millions of kalpas could not exhaust them.

Taishō canon T12n0360, following the source’s fourteen paragraphs from the exhortation to practice good through the general statement of the five evils, five pains, and five burnings. The figures at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔一 · Why Not Exert Oneself in Doing Good?〕（0274b18）

The Buddha told the bodhisattva Maitreya and the assemblies of gods and humans: the merit and wisdom of the śrāvakas and bodhisattvas in the land of the Buddha of Measureless Life are beyond description, and that land is subtle, peaceful, blissful, and pure. Why do you not exert yourselves in doing good, thought by thought facing the naturally attained virtues of cultivating the path, without distinction of higher or lower station, and penetrating its boundless reaches? Each of you should practice diligently and vigorously and strive to seek this for yourselves. You will surely transcend birth and death and be born in the land of Peace and Sustenance. You will cut across the five evil destinies, whose gates will naturally close, and ascend the inexhaustible Buddha-path.

That land is easy to reach, yet few truly go. It does not oppose those who aspire to be born there, but people are still naturally drawn away by worldly affairs. Why not relinquish the matters that bind the worldly mind and diligently cultivate and seek the virtue of the path? You can thereby attain exceedingly long life and experience bliss without end.

〔二 · Possessing Wealth and Lacking Wealth Bring the Same Anxiety〕（0274b26）

Yet worldly customs are shallow and debased. People contend together over matters that are not urgent. Amid the extreme evil and severe suffering of this world, they labor bodily and manage their affairs merely to sustain themselves. Honored or humble, poor or rich, young or old, male or female, all alike worry over money. Those who have it fear losing it; those without it seek to obtain it. The anxiety of both is the same. Burdened with accumulated thoughts, people suffer and grieve, driven about by their own minds without a moment of peace.

Those who have fields worry over their fields; those with houses worry over their houses. Cattle, horses, livestock, servants, money, clothing, food, and every kind of possession all become causes of anxiety. People think repeatedly, sigh at length, and remain worried and afraid. Unexpectedly they may meet impermanence, flood, fire, thieves, enemies, or creditors. Their possessions are burned, swept away, seized, dispersed, and destroyed. Poisonous worry agitates the mind without release. Anger knots itself within; thought becomes rigid and cannot let go. Sometimes these things even shatter the body and end one’s life. At death everything is abandoned, and not one possession follows.

〔三 · Rich and Poor Each Carry a Heavy Load〕（0274c07）

The honored and wealthy undergo these same anxieties. Ten thousand fears beset them, and they labor without peace as cold, heat, and pain press upon the body together. The poor and lowly remain in want: without a field they worry and desire a field; without a house they desire a house; without cattle, horses, livestock, servants, money, clothing, food, or possessions, they likewise worry and desire to have them.

As soon as one thing is obtained, another is lacking; when these are present, those are missing. People always want to equal those with wealth. Just as they hope to have everything, what they already possess decays and disperses. They suffer and seek once more. When they cannot obtain what they seek, imagination brings no benefit. Body and mind both become exhausted; sitting or standing, they find no peace. Anxiety accompanies them at every moment, while cold, heat, and pain press upon them. Some even die prematurely through these pursuits. Throughout life they refuse to do good, practice the path, or increase virtue. At death they depart alone toward a good or evil destiny without knowing where they will go.

〔四 · Relatives Should Honor and Love One Another, Not Let Slight Resentment Become Great Enmity〕（0274c17）

People in the world—parents and children, siblings, spouses, households, and relatives within and beyond the family—should honor and love one another, without hatred or jealousy. Those who have and those who lack should support one another, without stinginess. Speech and expression should remain harmonious and gentle, without mutual opposition or conflict.

At times contention arises in the mind and gives rise to anger. A slight resentment or jealousy in this life may deepen in later lives until it becomes great enmity. Why? People in the world injure one another. Although they do not always retaliate immediately, concealed poison and accumulated anger become knotted in the consciousness and leave an imprint that does not separate from the mind. When conditions bring them together again, they repay each other in turn.

Amid the desires of the world, each person is born alone and dies alone, leaves alone and returns alone. Each reaches a place of suffering or joy in accordance with their own actions and must undergo it personally; no one can take another’s place. Good and evil actions ripen into different calamities and blessings already prepared through past karma, and each person must enter them alone. Having gone far away, relatives can no longer see one another. Good and evil karma naturally follow into birth. In darkness and obscurity, separation lasts long; the roads diverge, there is no date for meeting again, and renewed encounter is exceedingly difficult.

Why not relinquish entangling affairs while the body is still strong, diligently cultivate good, and vigorously aspire to cross beyond the world and attain exceedingly long life? Why not seek the path? What remains to be waited for, and what fleeting pleasure is still sought?

〔五 · Disbelief in Cause and Effect Does Not Stop Birth and Death from Continuing〕（0275a03）

People in the world do not trust that doing good yields good results, that cultivating the path brings attainment of the path, that after death there is further birth, or that giving brings merit. They reject all cause and effect of good and evil, declaring that such things do not exist. For this reason they trust only what they presently see, observe one another, and follow the same attitude from generation to generation. Fathers receive the instructions left by grandfathers and pass them to those who follow. Their ancestors did not practice good or know the virtue of the path. Body and mind were dark, obstructed, and closed. They could not themselves see the destinations of death and birth or the roads of good and evil, nor did anyone explain them. Auspicious and disastrous events continued to occur; everyone competed to create them, yet no one found this strange.

The succession of birth and death becomes ordinary in the world as one generation follows another. Sometimes a father weeps for his child, sometimes a child for a parent, and siblings and spouses weep for one another. Death observes no order of old and young, high and low. Impermanence has no fixed foundation; all must pass and none can be preserved forever. Although some teach and guide, few trust them. Thus the turning of birth and death never rests.

〔六 · Desire, Anger, and Grief Cover the Mind〕（0275a13）

Such people are darkened, obstinate, and reckless. They do not trust the scriptural Dharma and possess no far-reaching reflection, seeking only present gratification. Bewildered within desire, they do not penetrate the virtue of the path. Submerged in anger, they ravenously pursue wealth and sexual attraction. Consequently they cannot attain the path and will again suffer in the evil destinies. Birth and death continue without end—lamentable and grievous indeed.

Within a household, parents and children, siblings, or spouses may be divided between the dead and the living, grieving and pitying one another. Affection, longing, and worry bind the mind. Painful attachment and repeated yearning continue day after day and year after year without release. Even when taught the virtue of the path, the mind does not open. Remembering former affection, it cannot leave desire. Darkened and obstructed, covered by delusion, people cannot reflect deeply and carefully, make their minds upright, cultivate the path with full attention, or resolve their worldly entanglements. In a turn of time the end of life arrives; they have not attained the path, and nothing more can be done.

〔七 · Evil Thoughts Break into Action, and Painful Results Endure〕（0275a24）

The world is chaotic and crowded, and all cling to desire. Those lost from the path are many and those awake are few; everyone rushes about with nowhere to rely. Honored or humble, high or low, poor or rich, people toil in confusion while harboring thoughts of harm. Dark and evil energy causes them to initiate deluded actions that violate right principle and run against human feeling. Unwholesome conditions naturally produced by evil karma arrive first and follow them.

People indulge evil until their offenses become grave. Sometimes life is suddenly taken before its allotted end. They fall into evil destinies and undergo resentful suffering life after life, turning within it for thousands of millions of kalpas without a time of escape. That pain cannot be expressed; it is profoundly worthy of compassion.

〔八 · Reflect Deeply, Leave Evil, Choose Good, and Ask When in Doubt〕（0275b02）

The Buddha told the bodhisattva Maitreya and the assembly of gods and humans: the worldly matters he had just described are the reasons people fail to attain the path. They should reflect deeply and carefully, leave every evil act far behind, choose good, and practice it diligently. Desire and worldly glory cannot be preserved; all must finally separate, and nothing within them is truly delightful.

While the Buddha is still in the world, they should practice diligently and vigorously. Those who sincerely vow to be born in the land of Peace and Bliss can attain lucid wisdom and excellent merit. They must not simply follow their desires, violate the scriptural teaching and precepts, and fall behind others. If anyone doubts or does not understand the meaning of the sūtra, that person may ask the Buddha fully, and the Buddha will explain it.

〔九 · Maitreya Receives the Buddha’s Teaching〕（0275b09）

The bodhisattva Maitreya knelt and said to the Buddha: the Buddha’s majestic spiritual power was exalted and weighty, and what he taught was joyous and good. Those who heard the Buddha’s sūtra should let the teaching penetrate their minds and reflect upon it carefully. The condition of people in the world truly was as the Buddha had said. Now the Buddha, in loving-kindness and compassion, revealed the great path, opened the ears and eyes of sentient beings, and enabled them to attain lasting deliverance. None who heard the Buddha’s teaching failed to rejoice. Gods, humans, and even all crawling forms of life received the Buddha’s compassionate kindness and escaped their grief and suffering.

The Buddha’s instruction was exceedingly profound and good. With wisdom he saw the eight directions, above and below, and events of past, present, and future, penetrating them all without remainder. Maitreya and the assembly received deliverance now because of the Buddha’s humility and arduous practice while seeking the path in former lives. The Buddha’s kindness covered all, his merit was lofty, and his light penetrated the boundless reaches of space. He opened the entrance into nirvāṇa, held the governing principles of the teaching, and with majestic virtue subdued and transformed those who were difficult to guide, stirring the ten directions without end. The Buddha was the Dharma King, honored above all sages, universally serving as teacher of every god and human, and guiding sentient beings to the path in accordance with their aspirations. Now the assembly had encountered the Buddha and heard the Name of the Buddha of Measureless Life. None failed to rejoice; every mind opened and became clear.

〔十 · A Buddha Is Difficult to Encounter, and the Teaching Cuts Doubt and Uproots Desire〕（0275b22）

The Buddha told Maitreya that what he had said was so. If someone possessed loving reverence for a buddha, this truly was a great good. Only after an immensely long time did another buddha appear in the world. The Buddha had now attained buddhahood in this world, taught the scriptural Dharma, spread the true path, severed sentient beings’ net of doubts, uprooted desire, and blocked the source of every evil action.

The Buddha moved sovereignly through the three realms without obstruction. He held wisdom and the essentials of every path, grasped the governing strands of the teaching, made right and wrong luminously clear, revealed the five destinies, delivered those not yet delivered, and decisively showed the road out of birth and death and into nirvāṇa.

〔十一 · After Long Kalpas of Wandering, the Dharma Is Finally Heard Today〕（0275b28）

The Buddha further told Maitreya: for numberless kalpas Maitreya had cultivated bodhisattva practice and long aspired to deliver sentient beings. The beings who attained the path through him and reached nirvāṇa were beyond counting. Maitreya, the gods and humans of the ten directions, and the entire fourfold assembly had likewise wandered through the five destinies for long kalpas. Their grief, fear, and toil could not be completely described; birth and death had continued without interruption up to this very life.

Now sentient beings had finally encountered the Buddha, heard and received the scriptural Dharma, and also heard of the Buddha of Measureless Life. This was a joyous and supremely good condition, and the Buddha rejoiced together with Maitreya and the assembly.

〔十二 · Make the Body Upright and Wash the Mind; Deliver Oneself and Rescue One Another〕（0275c05）

The Buddha urged Maitreya to become disenchanted with birth, death, old age, illness, pain, impurity, and uncleanness, knowing that nothing therein was truly delightful, and to decide firmly for himself. One should make bodily conduct upright and increase every good deed; cultivate oneself, keep the body pure, and wash away the mind’s defilements; make speech and conduct loyal and trustworthy, so that outward expression and inward intention correspond. People should first be able to deliver themselves and then support and rescue one another. With clarity and single-mindedness they should seek what they aspire to and continue accumulating roots of goodness.

Even if cultivation brings toil in this one life, it lasts only a brief moment. Afterward, birth in the land of the Buddha of Measureless Life brings bliss without end and lasting accord with the path’s virtue and wisdom. The root of birth and death is forever pulled out, and greed, anger, delusion, and anguish no longer remain. Whether one wishes to live one kalpa, a hundred kalpas, or thousands of millions of kalpas, it can be attained freely and at will. What is realized is unconditioned and naturally so, immediately approaching the path of nirvāṇa.

Each person should practice vigorously and fulfill the aspiration of the mind. They must not create their own fault by doubting and then regretting, thereby being born in a palace of the seven precious substances in the borderland and undergoing hindrances for five hundred years.

〔十三 · Maitreya Resolves to Practice without Doubt〕（0275c15）

Maitreya told the Buddha that he had received the Buddha’s weighty instruction. He would cultivate and study with single-minded vigor, practice in accordance with the teaching, and no longer dare to doubt.

〔十四 · Making the Mind Upright in an Evil World Is Supremely Rare〕（0275c17）

The Buddha told Maitreya: to make the mind upright and the intention correct in this world and refrain from the many evils is the highest virtue, unsurpassed and without equal among the worlds throughout the ten directions. Why? Gods and humans in other buddha-lands naturally practice good, do not commit much evil, and are easy to teach and transform.

The Buddha had now attained buddhahood in this world amid the five evils, five pains, and five burnings, where suffering was most severe. He taught and transformed sentient beings so that they relinquished the five evils, removed the five pains, and escaped the five burnings. He subdued and transformed their minds so that they maintained the five good deeds, attained the corresponding merit, crossed beyond the world, gained long life, and entered the path of nirvāṇa.

Taishō T12n0360, from the Buddha’s question concerning the five evils, five pains, five burnings, and five good deeds through Maitreya’s reception of the Buddha’s grave instruction. The figures at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔一 · The General Question concerning the Five Evils, Five Pains, Five Burnings, and Five Good Deeds〕（0275c24）The Buddha said: what are the five evils? What are the five pains? What are the five burnings? How are the five evils to be transformed and eliminated so that people may uphold the five good deeds, gain the corresponding merit, and move toward the path that transcends the world, brings long life, and leads to nirvāṇa?

〔二 · The First Evil: Harming Living Beings〕（0275c27）The Buddha said that the first evil is like this. Devas and humans, extending to every creeping creature, tend to act alike when they wish to commit the many evils. The strong subdue the weak, and living beings attack and harm one another. They injure, kill, and devour one another in turn. They do not know how to cultivate goodness. Their conduct is perverse and without a true path, and later they undergo calamity and punishment, moving by the force of their own actions toward the corresponding destination. Numinous beings record and discern what has been done and do not pardon the offender.

Thus the world contains people who are impoverished, low in status, reduced to begging, isolated, deaf, blind, unable to speak, deluded, or harsh in character. Some are physically frail and stunted, mentally disordered, or impaired in their capacities. On the other hand, there are people of honored status, great wealth, high ability, clear intelligence, and discerning understanding. The sūtra says that these conditions arise from loving-kindness and filial care, the cultivation of goodness, and the accumulation of virtue in former lives.

The world has customary moral ways, as well as the laws and prisons of the state. Some refuse to be cautious or afraid, commit evil, violate the law, and then undergo the corresponding calamity and punishment. By the time they seek release, it is extremely difficult to escape. These are events already visible in the world before our eyes. After life ends, what is undergone in later lives is still deeper and more severe. The conscious spirit enters hidden realms and assumes another birth, just as under worldly law a person may undergo the most painful punishment.

Thus there are also the three evil destinies of hell beings, hungry ghosts, and animals, which follow through causal consequence, and immeasurable suffering. Sentient beings exchange one bodily form for another and move from one mode of birth into another, with lives that may be long or short. Their conscious continuum proceeds toward its corresponding destination. Each meets the circumstances that accord with what has been done, is born among the relevant beings, and enters cycles of retaliation without end. Until the calamity and evil karma are exhausted, they cannot leave one another. Turning repeatedly within this course, they find no time of escape and are very difficult to free; the pain cannot be expressed in words.

This pattern of causality operates between heaven and earth. Even when consequences do not arrive suddenly or at once, the paths of good and evil finally lead each action to its corresponding result. This is called the first great evil, the first pain, and the first burning. Such is its affliction.

〔三 · The First Great Good Deed〕（0276a15）This condition is like a great fire burning a person’s body. If someone within it can single-mindedly restrain the mind, conduct the body uprightly, perform good deeds alone, and refrain from the many evils, that person alone becomes free from the evil karma, gains the corresponding merit, and moves toward transcendence of the world, birth in a heaven, and nirvāṇa. This is the first great good deed.

〔四 · The Second Evil: Deception and Appropriation〕（0276a19）The Buddha said that the second evil is like this. Among the people of the world, fathers and children, siblings, families, husbands, and wives entirely lack moral responsibility toward one another and do not follow proper order. People are extravagant, sexually indulgent, proud, and unrestrained. Each wishes only for personal gratification, acts at will, and deceives others. What the mind holds differs from what the mouth says; words and thoughts contain no truth. Some are treacherous and flattering, without loyalty or trust. They speak artfully to please others, envy the worthy, slander good people, and cause the innocent to be wronged.

Those in authority lack discernment yet appoint ministers beneath them. The ministers then act as they please, use many forms of deceit, and know how to exploit the situation. When the one in office is not upright, that person is deceived by them, unjustly injures the loyal and good, and acts against what is right. Ministers deceive rulers, children deceive parents, and siblings, spouses, relatives, associates, and people both inside and outside the household deceive one another. Everyone harbors greed, anger, and delusion, wishing only to enrich themselves and possess more. Whether honored or lowly, above or below, their minds are alike. They destroy households and lose their lives without regard for what has come before or what will follow. Relatives inside and outside the family are implicated, and whole clans may be destroyed.

At times, people within and outside a household, acquaintances, neighbors, and those in towns and markets—ignorant and coarse people alike—form groups to act together. They strip and injure one another, and anger solidifies into enmity. The wealthy are stingy and possessive, unwilling to give. Their attachment to what they guard exhausts mind and body. At the end of life they still have nothing on which they can truly rely. They come alone and go alone, and not one possession follows them. The causes of good and evil and the fruits of misfortune and blessing follow the course of life. Some enter places of pleasure; others enter pain and poison. Only then do they regret what they have done, but how can regret come in time?

There are also people in the world whose minds are deluded and whose wisdom is slight. When they see good conduct, they hate and slander it instead of wishing to emulate it. They want only to do evil and recklessly violate what is right. They constantly harbor thoughts of theft and covet the profits and possessions of others. Once what they have gained is dispersed and exhausted, they seek again. Their minds are crooked. Fearing that others may read the truth in their expressions, they make no plan beforehand and regret only when events have overtaken them.

The laws and prisons of the present world stand plainly before them, yet they follow their crimes into those prisons and undergo the corresponding punishment. Because in former lives they did not trust the path of virtue or cultivate roots of goodness, and because they continue doing evil now, numinous beings discern what they have done and enter their names in records. When life ends and consciousness leaves the body, they fall into an evil destiny. Thus there are the three evil destinies and immeasurable suffering that follow through causal consequence. Sentient beings turn repeatedly within them, life after life and kalpa after kalpa, with no time of escape. Release is difficult, and the pain cannot be told. This is called the second great evil, the second pain, and the second burning. Such is its affliction.

〔五 · The Second Great Good Deed〕（0276b14）This is like a fire burning a person’s body. If someone within it can single-mindedly restrain the mind, conduct the body uprightly, perform the many good deeds, and refrain from the many evils, that person alone attains release, gains merit, and moves toward transcendence of the world, birth in a heaven, and nirvāṇa. This is the second great good deed.

〔六 · The Third Evil: Misguided Desire and Harm〕（0276b18）The Buddha said that the third evil is like this. The people of the world depend upon one another and dwell for a time between heaven and earth, but the span of a human life is not long. Above are wise elders and people of honor and wealth; below are the poor and lowly, the weak, and the ignorant. Between them are unwholesome people who constantly harbor crooked purposes and think only of sexual desire, their chests filled with affliction. Desire crosses and disorders the mind until they cannot sit or stand at ease. Greedy and possessive, they want to obtain things without effort. Their eyes turn toward attractive forms, and their improper intentions show outwardly. They grow tired of their own spouses, come and go secretly without restraint, consume the household’s wealth, and act contrary to what is right.

Such people form groups, raise armies against one another, raid, kill, and seize by force without justice. Their harmful thoughts pursue outward objects, and they refuse to tend to their rightful work. Through theft they seek gain, and through violence they try to accomplish their aims. They threaten and coerce by force, then bring what they take home to provide for their spouses. Giving their minds free rein, they seek only bodily pleasure. Even among relatives they recognize no boundaries of seniority or respect, causing suffering throughout the household and extended family; nor do they fear the laws and prohibitions of the state.

These wrongs are manifest before humans and spirits alike. The sun and moon illuminate them, and numinous beings record and discern them. Thus there are the three evil destinies and immeasurable suffering that follow through causal consequence. Sentient beings turn repeatedly within them, life after life and kalpa after kalpa, with no time of escape. Release is difficult, and the pain cannot be told. This is called the third great evil, the third pain, and the third burning. Such is its affliction.

〔七 · The Third Great Good Deed〕（0276c03）This is like a great fire burning a person’s body. If someone within it can single-mindedly restrain the mind, conduct the body uprightly, perform the many good deeds, and refrain from the many evils, that person alone attains release, gains merit, and moves toward transcendence of the world, birth in a heaven, and nirvāṇa. This is the third great good deed.

〔八 · The Fourth Evil: Harmful Speech, Breach of Trust, and Pride〕（0276c08）The Buddha said that the fourth evil is like this. The people of the world do not think of cultivating goodness. Instead, they incite one another and commit many evils together. They use divisive speech that separates people, harsh speech that wounds, false words that have no truth, and ornate speech without meaning. Through slander they harm others and provoke conflict. They hate and envy good people, destroy the reputation and work of the worthy and wise, and delight as they watch from the side.

They are unfilial toward their parents and contemptuous of teachers and elders. They are untrustworthy toward friends and rarely possess sincerity or truthfulness. Some grow arrogant through rank and status and claim that they possess the path. Relying upon power, they behave violently, oppress and belittle others, and remain unable to see themselves clearly. They commit evil without shame, rely upon physical strength, and demand that others fear and respect them. They do not stand in awe of heaven and earth, numinous beings, the sun, or the moon. They refuse to do good and are difficult to teach. Obstinately trusting only themselves, they suppose that things will always remain as they are. Without anxiety or fear, they continually harbor pride.

Numinous beings record and discern these many evils. Because such people performed some meritorious deeds in former lives, a small amount of good karma may temporarily support and protect them. Yet as they continue doing evil in this life, that merit is exhausted. The benevolent spirits depart, and the person is left standing alone with nothing on which to rely. At the end of life, the evils committed gather around the person and press urgently upon them. Their name has been recorded by numinous beings, and calamity and fault draw them toward the corresponding destination. Causal recompense follows from what has been done and cannot be cast aside. The person can only move forward into the fiery cauldron, body and mind broken, consciousness undergoing pain. When that time comes, how can regret arrive in time?

The causal order of karmic recompense corresponds unfailingly to conduct. Thus there are the three evil destinies and immeasurable suffering that follow through causal consequence. Sentient beings turn repeatedly within them, life after life and kalpa after kalpa, with no time of escape. Release is difficult, and the pain cannot be told. This is called the fourth great evil, the fourth pain, and the fourth burning. Such is its affliction.

〔九 · The Fourth Great Good Deed〕（0276c26）This is like a great fire burning a person’s body. If someone within it can single-mindedly restrain the mind, conduct the body uprightly, perform the many good deeds, and refrain from the many evils, that person alone attains release, gains merit, and moves toward transcendence of the world, birth in a heaven, and nirvāṇa. This is the fourth great good deed.

〔十 · The Fifth Evil: Idleness, Confusion, and Evil in All Three Activities〕（0277a01）The Buddha said that the fifth evil is like this. The people of the world loiter in idleness. They refuse to do good, discipline themselves, or attend to their work, and their families suffer hunger, cold, and hardship. When their parents instruct them, they glare angrily and answer in rage. Their speech is discordant, and they resist and rebel as though parents and children were enemies; the parents may even think it would have been better to have no child.

They have no restraint in taking or giving, and everyone grows weary of them. They betray kindness and violate what is right, without any wish to repay what they have received. They become poor and deprived and can no longer gain what they need, yet still seize things recklessly, roam in dissipation, and repeatedly expect something for nothing to support themselves. They are addicted to wine and rich flavors and eat and drink without measure. Giving the mind free rein, they become debauched, violent, and confrontational. They do not understand human feeling but try by force to control other people. When they see goodness in others, they hate and envy it. Without justice or courtesy, they care for nothing. They recognize only their own conduct as correct and cannot be admonished or brought to understanding.

They cannot concern themselves with whether the six classes of relatives have what they need. They do not remember the kindness of their parents or preserve the bonds of teachers and friends. Their minds constantly think evil, their mouths constantly speak evil, and their bodies constantly commit evil; they never perform a single good deed. They do not trust the scriptural Dharma taught by the former sages and buddhas, do not trust that practicing the path can bring transcendence of the world, do not trust that consciousness takes birth again after death, and do not trust that good deeds bear good results and evil deeds evil results. They may even wish to kill accomplished sages, disrupt the community of monks, and injure parents, siblings, and relatives. All six classes of relatives hate them and wish them dead.

The minds of such people are darkened by delusion, yet they believe themselves wise. They do not know where life comes from or where death leads. They are inhumane and disobedient and act perversely against heaven and earth, yet still hope for lucky escape and seek long life. In the end they must die. Someone may teach them with a compassionate heart, cause them to recollect goodness, and reveal the paths of birth and death and of good and evil, which follow through causal correspondence. Still they do not trust. Others speak to them with painful care, but the words bring no benefit because the heart remains closed and the mind cannot open to understanding.

As life approaches its end, regret and fear arrive together. Having failed to cultivate goodness beforehand, they regret only at the point of exhaustion, but how can such regret come in time? The five destinies between heaven and earth stand distinct across vast, obscure, immeasurable reaches. The recompense of good and evil and the succession of misfortune and blessing must be borne in one’s own body; no one else can take another’s place. The causal order corresponds to the conduct of each person, and calamity and fault follow the course of life without being arbitrarily released.

Good people perform good deeds and proceed from pleasure into pleasure, from light into light. Harmful people perform evil deeds and proceed from suffering into suffering, from darkness into darkness. Who can know this completely? Only the Buddha knows. Although the Buddha teaches and reveals it, few trust what they hear. Birth and death therefore do not cease, and the evil destinies do not end. The people of this world and their offenses cannot all be described. Thus there are the three evil destinies and immeasurable suffering that follow through causal consequence. Sentient beings turn repeatedly within them, life after life and kalpa after kalpa, with no time of escape. Release is difficult, and the pain cannot be told. This is called the fifth great evil, the fifth pain, and the fifth burning. Such is its affliction.

〔十一 · The Fifth Great Good Deed〕（0277b04）This is like a great fire burning a person’s body. If someone within it can single-mindedly restrain the mind, carry the body uprightly, and abide in right mindfulness; bring speech and conduct into accord, act with sincerity, speak truthfully, and keep inner intent and spoken words from turning against one another; perform the many good deeds alone and refrain from the many evils, that person alone attains release, gains merit, and moves toward transcendence of the world, birth in a heaven, and nirvāṇa. This is the fifth great good deed.

〔十二 · The Five Evils, Five Pains, and Five Burnings Generate One Another in Turn〕（0277b09）The Buddha told Maitreya: such is the affliction of the five evils in the world, and the five pains and five burnings generate one another in turn. Some people perform only the many evils and do not cultivate roots of goodness. Through the causal force of their own conduct, they enter the various evil destinies. At times, calamity and disease first strike during this life, and they can neither obtain death nor continue living in ease; suffering drawn by their wrongdoing becomes visible to everyone. After death they follow their own karma into the three evil destinies, undergo immeasurable pain and poison, and burn within it.

After a long time, sentient beings again form enmities together, and from some small matter a great evil gradually takes shape. These evils all arise from attachment to wealth and sensual form, unwillingness to give, and pressure from delusion and desire that leads the mind wherever it wishes. The afflictions bind them without end. Each person favors the self, contends for profit, and has no reflective care. Wealth, honor, glory, and splendor give pleasure only for a time. Because they cannot be patient and refuse to cultivate goodness, their power soon disappears. The toil borne by the body becomes still more severe in the future.

The causal order unfolds and brings actions to account through its own correspondence, like an encompassing net whose higher and lower strands answer one another. Those who have acted enter it alone and afraid. This has been so in the past and present; it is painful and worthy of sorrow.

〔十三 · The Buddha’s Compassion Leads Beings from Evil into Goodness〕（0277b22）The Buddha told Maitreya: this is what the world is like, and all buddhas pity sentient beings. Through majestic spiritual power, a buddha crushes and eliminates the many evils and causes beings to move entirely toward goodness, abandon harmful thoughts, preserve the sūtras and precepts, receive and practice the true path without violation, and finally transcend the world and proceed toward nirvāṇa.

〔十四 · Upright Mind and Conduct, Benefit for Oneself and Others〕（0277b25）The Buddha further said: the devas and humans present now and those living in future ages should carefully reflect upon the Buddha’s scriptural teaching and within it make mind and conduct upright. When those in authority perform good deeds, they lead and teach those below them. People instruct one another and each keeps to the right path, honors sages and goodness, and acts with loving-kindness and wide care for living beings. They do not fail the Buddha’s instruction. In this way they seek transcendence of the world, uproot the basis of birth and death and the many evils, and forever leave the immeasurable fear and pain of the three evil destinies.

They should widely plant roots of virtue, give kindness and benefit, refrain from violating the prohibitions of the path, and cultivate patience, vigor, collectedness, and wisdom while teaching one another. In this way they establish virtue and goodness, make thought and intention upright, and keep the observance pure.

〔十五 · The Difficulty of Cultivating Goodness Here and the Excellence It Reveals〕（0277c03）The Buddha said: one day and night of pure observance in this world surpasses a hundred years of performing good deeds in the land of the Buddha of Measureless Life. Why? In that buddha-land, conditions are uncontrived and effortless. Its inhabitants have accumulated many good deeds, and not even an evil as fine as a hair exists. Ten days and nights of performing good deeds in this land surpass a thousand years in the other buddha-lands. Why? In other buddha-lands, many perform good deeds and few perform evil; meritorious conditions and provisions arise without toil, and there is no place in which to commit evil. Only this realm contains much evil, and necessities do not appear of themselves with ease. People labor painfully to pursue desire, deceive and endanger one another, exhaust their minds and bodies, and eat and drink what is like bitterness and poison. They remain hurried day and night and never know rest.

〔十六 · The Buddha’s Teaching while Present in the World〕（0277c10）The Buddha said that he pities devas and humans and painstakingly exhorts them to cultivate goodness. According to the capacities of each, he guides them and gives them the scriptural Dharma. Those who receive the teaching are able to practice accordingly, and the aspirations in their hearts are led toward the path.

Wherever the Buddha travels—through countries, towns, and villages—every place receives his teaching. The world becomes harmonious, the sun and moon shine clearly, wind and rain come in season, and disasters and epidemics do not arise. The land is abundant and the people secure; weapons and war have no use. People honor virtue, give rise to humane care, and value courtesy and humility.

〔十七 · After the Buddha’s Extinction and the Five Virtues〕（0277c16）The Buddha further said: I pity devas and humans more deeply than parents remember their children. Now I have become a buddha in this world. I subdue and transform the five evils, eliminate the five pains, and bring the five burnings to an end. I counter evil with goodness, uproot the suffering of birth and death, cause sentient beings to gain the five virtues, and raise them to the peace of the unconditioned.

After I leave the world, the scriptural path will gradually decline. The people will again become flattering and deceitful and return to the many evils. The five burnings and five pains will reappear as before and become increasingly severe; their full extent cannot be stated. I have now given only a brief account.

〔十八 · Maitreya Receives and Understands〕（0277c22）The Buddha told Maitreya: everyone in this assembly should reflect well, instruct one another, and avoid violating what the Buddha’s scriptural Dharma teaches.

Maitreya Bodhisattva then joined his palms and addressed the Buddha: the Dharma taught by the Buddha is exceedingly good. The condition of people in the world is truly like this. With universal loving-kindness and compassion, the Tathāgata pities sentient beings and causes them all to attain release. Maitreya and the assembly received the Buddha’s grave instruction and did not dare violate or lose it.

Taishō T12n0360, from the Buddha’s instruction that Ānanda bow to the Buddha of Measureless Life through the summary of the bodhisattvas from the ten directions who will be born there. The figures at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔一 · Ānanda Bows to the Buddha and Asks to See〕（0277c26）The Buddha told Ānanda: rise and arrange your robes once more. Join your palms respectfully and bow to the Buddha of Measureless Life. The buddha-tathāgatas throughout the lands of the ten directions constantly join in proclaiming and praising that Buddha without obstruction or impediment.

Ānanda rose and arranged his robes, straightened his body, and faced west. Joining his palms respectfully, he placed both knees, both elbows, and his forehead upon the ground and bowed to the Buddha of Measureless Life. He then addressed the Buddha: World-Honored One, I wish to see that Buddha, the land of Peace and Bliss, and the assemblies of bodhisattvas and śrāvakas there.

〔二 · The Buddha’s Light Shines Everywhere, and the Two Lands See One Another〕（0278a02）As soon as Ānanda had spoken, the Buddha of Measureless Life emitted great light that universally illuminated all buddha-worlds. The adamantine encircling mountains, Mount Sumeru, and every mountain large and small were all suffused with a single color of light.

It was like the flood at the end of a kalpa filling the world: all things sank beneath it and were no longer visible, and over the vast, surging expanse only the great waters could be seen. The light of the Buddha of Measureless Life was the same. All the light of the śrāvakas and bodhisattvas disappeared within it, and only the Buddha’s light remained, brilliant, manifest, and resplendent.

At that moment Ānanda personally saw the Buddha of Measureless Life. The Buddha’s majestic virtue towered like Mount Sumeru, rising high above all worlds; his excellent marks and light illuminated everything. All four groups in this Dharma assembly, monastic and lay alike, saw him at the same time. The assembly in the land of Peace and Bliss saw this land just as those here saw that land.

〔三 · The Buddha Asks What Has Been Seen and Heard〕（0278a11）The Buddha then asked Ānanda and Maitreya Bodhisattva: have you seen everything in that land from the ground upward to the Heaven of the Pure Abodes—all the subtle, adorned, pure things that appear there of their own accord? Ānanda answered: yes, we have seen them all.

The Buddha asked: have you also heard the Buddha of Measureless Life proclaiming the Dharma in a great voice throughout all worlds and teaching sentient beings? Ānanda answered: yes, we have heard him.

The Buddha asked further: have you seen the people of that land riding in palaces made of the seven precious substances, hundreds of thousands of yojanas in extent, traveling without obstruction throughout the ten directions to make offerings to the buddhas? Ānanda answered: we have seen them.

The Buddha asked: have you also seen that some among the people of that land undergo womb-birth? Ānanda answered: we have seen them.

The Buddha said that the palaces inhabited by those of womb-birth extend in some cases for one hundred yojanas and in others for five hundred. Within them, they enjoy every kind of pleasure, just as in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, and everything they use appears of its own accord.

〔四 · The Causes and Conditions of Womb- and Transformation-Birth〕（0278a20）Maitreya Bodhisattva then asked the Buddha: World-Honored One, for what causes and conditions do the people of that land undergo womb-birth and transformation-birth?

The Buddha told Maitreya: some sentient beings cultivate many kinds of merit with a mind of doubt and wish to be born in that land. They do not understand Buddha-wisdom, inconceivable wisdom, ineffable wisdom, the vast wisdom of the Great Vehicle, or the unsurpassed supreme wisdom without peer or equal. They doubt these kinds of wisdom and cannot trust them. Yet they still trust the causal relation of wrongdoing and merit, cultivate roots of goodness, and aspire to birth in the land of the Buddha of Measureless Life.

These sentient beings are born in palaces in that land. For five hundred years they regularly cannot see the Buddha, hear the scriptural Dharma, or see the sacred assembly of bodhisattvas and śrāvakas. For this reason, they are called those of womb-birth in that land.

Other sentient beings clearly understand and trust Buddha-wisdom through the unsurpassed supreme wisdom. They perform many kinds of meritorious deeds and, with trust, dedicate and direct the merit toward birth in that land. These sentient beings naturally undergo transformation-birth within lotus flowers made of the seven precious substances, seated cross-legged. In only a brief moment, their bodily marks, light, wisdom, and merit become fully accomplished like those of the bodhisattvas.

〔五 · The Excellence of Wisdom and the Loss Brought by Doubt〕（0278b03）The Buddha further told Maitreya: many great bodhisattvas from other lands give rise to the aspiration to see the Buddha of Measureless Life, respectfully make offerings to that Buddha, and make offerings to the bodhisattvas and śrāvakas there. At the end of their lives, those bodhisattvas are born in the land of the Buddha of Measureless Life and naturally undergo transformation-birth within lotus flowers made of the seven precious substances.

Maitreya, you should know that those who undergo transformation-birth do so because their wisdom is excellent. Those of womb-birth lack wisdom. For five hundred years they regularly cannot see the Buddha, hear the scriptural Dharma, or see the assemblies of bodhisattvas and śrāvakas. They have no opportunity to make offerings to the Buddha, do not know the modes of bodhisattva practice, and cannot continue cultivating merit. You should know that these people lacked wisdom in former lives. This is the result of doubt.

〔六 · The Simile of Princes Confined in a Palace〕（0278b12）The Buddha told Maitreya: suppose a wheel-turning sage-king had a separate palace adorned with the seven precious substances. Within it were beds and canopies, while banners of silk hung all around.

If young princes offended the king, he would have them placed inside that palace and bound with golden chains. Food, clothing, bedding, flowers, incense, and music would all be supplied in full. Their provisions would lack nothing in comparison with those of the wheel-turning king himself. What do you think? Would those princes enjoy remaining there?

Maitreya answered: no. They would seek help from people of great power and try by every means to free themselves and leave.

〔七 · Recognizing the Fault, Deeply Taking Oneself to Task, and Reopening Sight and Hearing〕（0278b18）The Buddha told Maitreya: these sentient beings are the same. Because they doubted Buddha-wisdom, they were born in those palaces. There is no punishment there, not even a single thought of evil. But for five hundred years they cannot see the Three Jewels—the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha—make offerings, or cultivate roots of goodness. They take this as suffering; although they have other pleasures, they do not enjoy remaining there.

If these sentient beings recognize their original fault, deeply take themselves to task, and seek to leave that place, their wish will at once be fulfilled. They can go before the Buddha of Measureless Life and respectfully make offerings. They can also travel universally to the places of immeasurable, innumerable tathāgatas and cultivate many kinds of merit.

Maitreya, you should know that if bodhisattvas give rise to doubt about Buddha-wisdom, they lose great benefit. They should therefore clearly understand and trust the unsurpassed wisdom of the buddhas.

〔八 · Bodhisattvas from the Sahā World Who Will Be Born There〕（0278b27）Maitreya Bodhisattva then asked the Buddha: World-Honored One, how many non-retrogressive bodhisattvas from this world will be born in that buddha-land?

The Buddha told Maitreya: sixty-seven koṭis of non-retrogressive bodhisattvas from this world will be born in that land. Every one of them has already made offerings to innumerable buddhas and stands at a stage comparable to yours. Bodhisattvas of lesser practice and those who have cultivated only a little merit are beyond counting; they too will all be born there.

〔九 · Numbers of Bodhisattvas from Thirteen Other Buddha-Lands〕（0278c04）The Buddha further told Maitreya: not only the bodhisattvas and others from my land will be born in that buddha-land. The same is true of other buddha-lands.

The first buddha is named Far-Shining. One hundred and eighty koṭis of bodhisattvas from that buddha’s land will all be born there. The second buddha is named Jewel Treasury. Ninety koṭis of bodhisattvas from that land will all be born there. The third buddha is named Measureless Sound. Two hundred and twenty koṭis of bodhisattvas from that land will all be born there. The fourth buddha is named Nectar Flavor. Two hundred and fifty koṭis of bodhisattvas from that land will all be born there.

The fifth buddha is named Dragon Victory. Fourteen koṭis of bodhisattvas from that land will all be born there. The sixth buddha is named Victorious Power. Fourteen thousand bodhisattvas from that land will all be born there. The seventh buddha is named Lion. Five hundred koṭis of bodhisattvas from that land will all be born there. The eighth buddha is named Light Free from Defilement. Eighty koṭis of bodhisattvas from that land will all be born there.

The ninth buddha is named Foremost Virtue. Sixty koṭis of bodhisattvas from that land will all be born there. The tenth buddha is named Mountain of Wondrous Virtue. Sixty koṭis of bodhisattvas from that land will all be born there. The eleventh buddha is named King of Humans. Ten koṭis of bodhisattvas from that land will all be born there.

The twelfth buddha is named Unsurpassed Flower. An immeasurable and incalculable assembly of bodhisattvas lives in that land. All of them have attained non-retrogression, are courageous in wisdom, and have already made offerings to immeasurable buddhas. Within seven days they can embrace the steadfast Dharma cultivated by great beings over hundreds of thousands of koṭis of kalpas. These bodhisattvas will all be born there.

The thirteenth buddha is named Fearless. That buddha’s land has seven hundred and ninety koṭis of great bodhisattvas. Its lesser bodhisattvas, bhikṣus, and other members of the assembly are beyond counting; they too will all be born there.

〔十 · Birth There throughout the Ten Directions Cannot Be Fully Told〕（0278c25）The Buddha told Maitreya: it is not only the bodhisattvas and others from these fourteen buddha-lands who will be born there. In the immeasurable buddha-lands throughout the worlds of the ten directions, those born in the land of the Buddha of Measureless Life are likewise exceedingly numerous and without number.

If I were only to state the names of the buddhas throughout the ten directions and enumerate the bodhisattvas and bhikṣus from those lands who will be born in the land of the Buddha of Measureless Life, I could continue day and night for an entire kalpa and still not finish. What I have now given you is only a brief account.

Taishō T12n0360, from the Buddha’s teaching to Maitreya on the great benefit gained through a single thought upon hearing the Name through the rejoicing of the entire assembly and the closing title of the second fascicle. The figures at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔一 · A Single Thought upon Hearing the Name and Non-Retrogression upon Hearing the Sūtra〕（0279a01）The Buddha told Maitreya: if someone is able to hear the Name of the Buddha of Measureless Life and becomes joyful and elated, even for so little as a single thought, know that this person has gained great benefit and thereby fully possesses unsurpassed merit.

Therefore, Maitreya, even if a great fire were to fill the entire three-thousandfold great-thousand world-system, one should still cross through that fire to come and hear the Dharma taught in this sūtra. Having heard it, one should give rise to joy and joyful trust, receive and uphold it, read and recite its words, and practice as it teaches.

Why is this so? Many bodhisattvas wish to hear this sūtra but cannot obtain the conditions for hearing it. If sentient beings are able to hear this sūtra, they will never retrogress from the unsurpassed path. Therefore, they should single-mindedly trust and receive it, uphold it, recite it, explain it, and practice according to its teaching.

〔二 · Dispelling Doubt after the Buddha’s Extinction and Compassionately Preserving the Sūtra〕（0279a08）The Buddha further said: I now teach this scriptural Dharma for all sentient beings, enabling them to see the Buddha of Measureless Life and everything in that land. Whatever ought to be accomplished may be sought through it. Do not give rise to doubt again after I have entered extinction and no longer dwell in the world.

In the future, when the Buddha-Dharma and the scriptural teaching come to extinction, out of compassion and pity for sentient beings I will specially cause this sūtra to remain in the world for another hundred years. Sentient beings who encounter this sūtra at that time will be able to attain deliverance in accordance with the aspirations of their hearts.

〔三 · The Most Difficult among Difficulties〕（0279a14）The Buddha told Maitreya: it is difficult to encounter a tathāgata appearing in the world and difficult to behold one. The scriptural Dharma and right path taught by the buddhas are difficult to obtain and difficult to hear. It is also difficult to hear the bodhisattvas’ supreme Dharma gates and the various perfections. To meet a good spiritual friend, hear the Buddha-Dharma, and truly put it into practice is likewise difficult.

If someone hears this sūtra and then gives rise to joyful trust and receives and upholds it, this is the most difficult among all difficult things; no other difficulty surpasses it. For this very reason, my Dharma has been accomplished in this way, taught in this way, and given as instruction in this way. Those who hear it should trustingly follow it and practice in accordance with the Dharma.

〔四 · The Different Benefits Received by the Assembly〕（0279a19）When the World-Honored One taught this scriptural Dharma, immeasurable sentient beings all gave rise to the aspiration for unsurpassed perfect awakening. Twelve thousand nayutas of people attained the pure Dharma eye. Two hundred and twenty million devas and humans attained the fruit of a non-returner. Eight hundred thousand bhikṣus exhausted all the outflows of affliction and attained liberation of mind. Four hundred million bodhisattvas attained non-retrogression, arrayed themselves in adornments of merit arising from vast vows, and would attain perfect awakening in future lives.

〔五 · Earthquake, Light, Music, and Wondrous Flowers〕（0279a23）At that moment, the three-thousandfold great-thousand world-system quaked in six ways. Great light universally illuminated the lands throughout the ten directions. Hundreds of thousands of kinds of music sounded of their own accord, and immeasurable wondrous flowers descended in profusion from the sky.

〔六 · Rejoicing upon Hearing the Dharma and the Fascicle’s End〕（0279a26）When the Buddha had finished teaching this sūtra, Maitreya Bodhisattva, all the bodhisattvas who had come from the ten directions, the elder Ānanda, the great śrāvakas, and everyone else in the assembly heard what the Buddha had taught, and not one of them failed to rejoice.

Second fascicle of The Sūtra of Measureless Life.