འཕགས་པ་བཞ་པ་སྒྲབ་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.5

intro.5

After Mañjuśrī has delivered his teaching, Śrībhadra and his retinue scatter celestial flowers on the assembly as an offering. The Buddha then uses his magical powers to reveal a sky full of bodhisattvas seated upon lotuses, and Mañjuśrī explains to Śrībhadra that all of these bodhisattvas are a magical emanation, just like his celestial flower offering. This brings a smile to the Buddha’s lips, and the text introduces its next topic: why, exactly, do buddhas smile? The question, a recurring motif in sūtra literature, echoes in the refrains of a set of poetic verses that Śrībhadra recites before the Buddha, who then answers it by predicting the imminent awakening of the bodhisattvas gathered in the sky to hear the teaching.