འཕགས་པ་སྒྲ་ཆན་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 3

3

Between these two, whose merit would increase the most?’ This is the issue I present to the Blessed One.”

“Excellent, Ānanda. Excellent indeed,” responded the Blessed One to the venerable Ānanda. “Ānanda, you have asked, ‘What if someone were to build a palace like that one and offer it to the saṅgha of monks throughout the four directions, while someone else were to either create a statue of the Thus-Gone One the size of a thumb, or take a relic the size of a mustard seed after a thus-gone one’s parinirvāṇa and place it within a stūpa with a dome the size of an amalaki fruit, insert a central pole the size of a needle, and affix to it a canopy the size of a jujube leaf? Between these two, whose merit would increase the most?’ Your question is excellent and well articulated, and your inquiry virtuous. This being so, Ānanda, listen well and keep in mind what I am about to teach.

“Ānanda, what if someone were to build a palace like that one and offer it to the saṅgha of monks throughout the four directions, while someone else were to either create a statue of the Thus-Gone One the size of a thumb, or take a relic the size of a mustard seed after a thus-gone one’s parinirvāṇa and place it within a stūpa with a dome the size of an amalaki fruit, insert a central pole the size of a needle, and affix to it a canopy the size of a jujube leaf? Ānanda, the merit of the former would not even come close to a hundredth of the merit of the latter. It would not even come close to a thousandth, a hundred-thousandth, any number or fraction, or anything comparable or relative to that. Why? Because the thus-gone, worthy, and completely perfected buddhas possess these immeasurable qualities: they possess immeasurable discipline, immeasurable samādhi, immeasurable insight, immeasurable liberation,