འཕགས་པ་གསར་གྱ་བྱ་མ་ལྟ་བ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 4

4

Ānanda, if a poisonous snake were to appear from that pool and coil itself around the chariot eight times before the chariot had left the lake, well, Ānanda, in the time it took to coil itself just once around that chariot, you can give eight kinds of Dharma teaching and make them understood. But in the time it takes you, Ānanda, to utter one word, Mahāmaudgalyāyana can give eight kinds of Dharma teaching and make them understood. However, Ānanda, in the time it takes Mahāmaudgalyāyana to utter one word, the elder Śāradvatīputra can give eight kinds of Dharma teaching and make them understood. Similarly, in the time it takes the elder Śāradvatīputra to utter one word, a pratyekabuddha can give innumerable kinds of Dharma teaching. And in the time it takes a pratyekabuddha to utter one word, a bodhisattva can give unutterably and inconceivably innumerable kinds of Dharma teaching and make them understood.⁶ Well, Ānanda, in the time it takes a bodhisattva to utter just one word, the elder Mahāmaudgalyāyana can traverse eighty thousand world systems.

“Ānanda, imagine if one who has developed such a miraculous ability traveled in this way in the eastern direction for seven days and nights without rest, through however many world systems there may be; and then, in the same way, traveled to the south, to the west, and to the north; and likewise for seven days and nights without rest to the southeast, to the southwest, to the northwest, the northeast, and likewise in the upward and downward directions. Then, imagine someone enclosed all of those world systems in the ten directions within a fence, and, having leveled the ground and cleared it of rocks, stones, gravel, and debris,