Karunapundarikasutra 335

335

གྲངས་འདི་ཟུང་ལ། ལྔ་བརྒྱ་པ་ཐ་མ་ལ་ཕྱིར་མི་ལྡོག་པའི་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཡུལ་གཞན་དུ་སོང་བའི་བར་དག་གི་རྣ་ལམ་དུ་སྒྲོགས་ཤིག །དེ་དག་ཀྱང་ཕྱིར་མི་ལྡོག་པའི་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་དུ་ཆུག་ཤིག །གསོལ་པ། བཙུན་པ་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་དེ་བཞིན་དུ་བགྱི་སྟེ། བཙུན་པ་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་བདག་སྨོན་ལམ་གྱིས་བསྐལ་པ་ཆེན་པོ་བརྒྱད་ཅུ་རྩ་བཞི་འདས་པ་ནས་གནོད་སྦྱིན་གྱི་དྲང་སྲོང་གིས་བླ་ན་མེད་པ་ཡང་དག་པར་རྫོགས་པའི་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སྤྱད་པ་སྤྱོད་པ་ན། བདག་གིས་སེམས་ཅན་བགྲང་བ་ལས་ཡང་དག་པར་འདས་པ་དག་ཚངས་པའི་གནས་པ་བཞི་པོ་དག་ལ་རབ་ཏུ་བཀོད་ཅིང་ཕྱིར་མི་ལྡོག་པའི་ས་ལ་ཡང་རབ་ཏུ་བཀོད་ལགས་ཏེ། བདག་གིས་སེམས་ཅན་གང་དག་ལྔ་བརྒྱ་པ་ཐ་མ་ལ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གྲངས་འདི་འཛིན་པར་བགྱིད་པ་དང་། གང་དག་འདི་ལས་ཚིག་བཞི་པའི་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་ཙམ་གྱི་བར་དག་འཛིན་པར་བགྱིད་པ་དེ་དག་ཀྱང་བདག་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ཡོངས་སུ་སྨིན་པར་བགྱི་ལགས་སོ། །བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ཀྱིས་དེ་སྐད་ཅེས་བཀའ་སྩལ་ནས། ཐམས་ཅད་དང་ལྡན་པའི་འཁོར་དེ་དང་། ལྷ་དང་། མི་དང་། ལྷ་མ་ཡིན་དང་། དྲི་ཟར་བཅས་པའི་འཇིག་རྟེན་ཡི་རངས་ཏེ། བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ཀྱིས་གསུངས་པ་ལ་མངོན་པར་བསྟོད་དོ།། །།འཕགས་པ་སྙིང་རྗེ་པད་མ་དཀར་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ་རྫོགས་སོ།། །།རྒྱ་གར་གྱི་མཁན་པོ་ཛི་ན་མི་ཏྲ་དང་། སུ་རེན་དྲ་བོ་དྷི་དང་། པྲཛྙཱ་བརྨ་དང་། ཞུས་ཆེན་གྱི་ལོཙྪ་བ་བན་དེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་ལ་སོགས་པས་བསྒྱུར་ཅིང་ཞུས་ཏེ་གཏན་ལ་ཕབ་པ།། །།

It is called The Great Gathering. It is called The Prophecies to the Bodhisattvas. It is called Liberation on the Path of Fearlessness. It is called Entering the Understanding of Samādhi. It is called Revealing All Buddha Realms. It is called Like an Ocean. It is called Innumerable. It is called The White Lotus of Compassion.”

Then Vaiśāradya­samuddhāraṇi asked, “Bhadanta Bhagavat, how much merit is created by a noble son or noble daughter who listens to this Dharma teaching, obtains it, keeps it, reads it, expounds it aloud to others at length, writes it out, or has others write it out, even if it is just one verse?”

“I have described this merit before, so now I shall describe it in brief,” replied the Bhagavat. “Whoever listens to this Dharma teaching, obtains it, keeps it, reads it, or expounds it aloud to others, either at length or even just one verse, and the one who in the future, during the last five hundred years of the Dharma, writes it out and keeps it, will generate vast merit. Even the merit accumulated by a bodhisattva who has practiced the six perfections for ten great eons cannot equal it. Why is that? It calms anger in the minds of all in the world, including the realms of the devas, the realm of Māra, the realm of Brahmā, the mendicants and brahmins, and the yakṣas, nāgas, gandharvas, mahoragas, pretas, piśācas, kinnaras, and asuras.

“It ends all illnesses, fighting, conflict, argument, and disputes. It stops untimely wind, rain, death, and illness; it ends all famine; it brings happiness; it brings good harvests; it brings complete health; it makes those who are afraid free from fear and happy; it ends the kleśas; it increases good roots; it liberates from the three lower existences; it teaches the path of the three yānas; it brings the attainment of samādhi, retention, and acceptance; it sustains all beings; it causes sitting on the vajra throne; it causes the defeat of the four māras; it brings buddhahood through the factors for enlightenment; it causes the turning of the wheel of the Dharma; it gives the power of the factors for enlightenment to those beings who do not have the seven noble riches; and it brings a great following and entrance into the city of fearlessness. That is why I have given this Dharma teaching.

“Into whose hands shall I entrust this Dharma teaching? Who will protect this Dharma teaching in the last five hundred years of the Dharma? Who will expound it so that those who are not on the level of the Dharma, and the bhikṣus who have lost their correct conduct, will hear it? Will there be anyone who will completely eliminate the sadness⁴⁶¹ of those who have the attachment of attachment to that which is not the Dharma, who are overwhelmed by powerful desires, who are in bondage to false Dharma, and who are completely unripened beings?”

That entire assembly understood the intention in the Bhagavat’s mind. Seated among that assembly was a yakṣa ṛṣi named Merupuṇya. The bodhisattva mahāsattva Maitreya took the yakṣa ṛṣi Merupuṇya and brought him before the Bhagavat.

The Bhagavat said to him, “Great ṛṣi, you keep this Dharma teaching! During the last five hundred years of the Dharma, when the irreversible bodhisattvas have gone to other worlds, recite it aloud so people can hear it, and make them develop the aspiration for irreversibility.”⁴⁶²

“Bhadanta Bhagavat, I will do so,” replied Merupuṇya. “Bhadanta Bhagavat, because of the prayers I made in the past I have been, Bhadanta Bhagavat, a yakṣa ṛṣi for more than eighty-four great eons, during which time I have practiced the bodhisattva conduct that leads to the highest, most complete enlightenment. I have established innumerable beings in the four brahmavihāras and brought them to the level of irreversibility. I will myself ripen those beings who, during the last five hundred years of the Dharma, keep this Dharma teaching, even those who keep just a four-line verse from it.”

That is what the Bhagavat taught. The entire assembly, and the whole world with its devas, humans, asuras, and gandharvas, rejoiced and praised the Buddha’s words.

Colophon

This was translated and revised by the Indian preceptors Jinamitra, Surendrabodhi, Prajñāvarman, and the chief editor Lotsawa Bendé Yeshé Dé and others.