འཕགས་པ་མ་ཏག་བརྩགས་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་གཟངས 3

3

“It is like this, Siṃhavikrīḍita. Those who perform the worship of a thus-gone one, whether present or departed into complete nirvāṇa, will attain complete nirvāṇa through one of the three vehicles—the vehicle of śrāvakas, the vehicle of pratyekabuddhas, or the great vehicle.¹¹ Moreover, Siṃhavikrīḍita, the fruition of merit is the same for a person whose mind becomes cleansed upon beholding the thus-gone, worthy, fully awakened, perfect buddha, and then with a cleansed mind¹² honors, reveres, worships, and venerates him with profits, clothing, alms, bedding, medicinal herbs, implements, and various kinds of comforts, as for a person who worships a caitya containing a relic even as small as a mustard seed from a thus-gone one who has departed into complete nirvāṇa. There is no difference, no distinction whatsoever between them.¹³

“Suppose, Siṃhavikrīḍita, that a householder bodhisattva were to donate a heap of precious materials as tall as Mount Meru to śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, or thus-gone, worthy, fully awakened, perfect Buddhas, and suppose a bodhisattva who has gone forth were to donate a single coin¹⁴ and then generate the aspiration for unsurpassed perfect awakening. The former roots of merit would not amount to even a hundredth of the latter—not a thousandth, not a hundred-thousandth. It would not even count as any part, any number worthy of consideration, simile, or approximation of any kind. It would not even be close; it would not even compare.

“Suppose, Siṃhavikrīḍita, that a person were to honor a thus-gone, worthy, fully awakened, perfect Buddha with various comforts for a year,