འཕགས་པ་ད་བཞན་གཤགས་པ་བདན་གྱ་སྔན་གྱ་སྨན་ལམ་གྱ་ཁྱད་པར་རྒྱས་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.2

intro.2

The Detailed Account of the Previous Aspirations of the Seven Thus-Gone Ones opens in Vaiśālī, where the Buddha Śākyamuni is seated with a saṅgha of eight thousand monks, thirty-six thousand bodhisattvas, and a large gathering of gods, spirit beings, and humans. As Śākyamuni concludes his teaching, the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī rises from his seat and requests that the Buddha give a Dharma teaching that will benefit all the human and nonhuman beings who are present in the assembly, and he asks Śākyamuni to teach them about the previous aspirations of the seven thus-gone ones, their buddhafields, and the benefits that they can bring to beings who live in the final five hundred years, when the holy Dharma is nearly gone. Śākyamuni then declares that he will give a detailed account of the previous aspirations of those seven thus-gone ones to benefit beings who are veiled by karmic obscurations, tormented by illnesses, and plagued by mental anguish and suffering. The medical applications of the text are thus made explicit in its introduction, though of course the ends to which the text may be used surpass its medical applications in curing illness and protecting devotees from demonic possession.