འཕགས་པ་ཀླའ་རྒྱལ་པ་མ་དྲས་པས་ཞས་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 37

37

The nāga king Anavatapta then said to the Blessed One, “Thus-Gone One, please teach us the Dharma so that the beings gathered here who have not yet generated the mind intent on awakening may generate it; so that those who have already generated the mind of awakening may reach irreversibility; so that those who fear saṃsāra and who follow neither the path of training nor the path of no more training may follow the path of training and the path of no more training; so that those who are inclined toward saṃsāra may become averse to it; so that this congregation of nāgas and yakṣas may become free from inferior rebirths and instead reach exalted rebirths; so that bodhisattvas who are inclined toward the profound may develop pure minds and thoughts; and so that I may uphold the sacred Dharma, both while the Thus-Gone One is living and after he has passed into parinirvāṇa!”

The Blessed One said to the nāga king Anavatapta, “Lord of nāgas, listen carefully and pay attention. I shall tell you.”

“Yes, Blessed One, I will,” he replied, and the nāga king Anavatapta listened as the Blessed One had instructed.

The Blessed One continued, “Lord of nāgas, when bodhisattvas have a single quality, they enthrall the entire world with its gods. What is that quality? It is heedfulness that holds fast to the profound Dharma. What is this heedfulness that holds fast to the profound Dharma? Lord of nāgas, it is when bodhisattva great beings engage with dependent origination and, by being without the two extreme views and asserting neither existence nor nonexistence, see that all phenomena depend on conditions.²⁴ Understanding that no phenomena can be considered as arising without causes,