འཕགས་པ་ཀླའ་རྒྱལ་པ་མ་དྲས་པས་ཞས་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 67

67

this ineffable true nature is not lost. Friends, this is known as a bodhisattva’s turning of the wheel of Dharma.”

When the Blessed One gave this teaching on turning the wheel of Dharma, gods, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, and mahoragas let out cries of surprise and joy, exclaiming, “This wheel of Dharma turned by the Thus-Gone One is an act of perfect insight, a task difficult to perform. Blessed One, by turning this wheel of space, the wheel of Dharma has been turned. Those who seek it seek sameness, and their generation of the mind of awakening, Blessed One, is to be celebrated. Those who generate the mind of awakening upon hearing this turning of the wheel of Dharma will themselves turn this wheel of Dharma in the same way.” And so, upon hearing this teaching, ten thousand beings from among the assembly developed the intention to reach unsurpassed and perfect awakening.

“Friends, how does a bodhisattva maintain the sacred Dharma? Friends, maintaining the sacred Dharma encompasses all phenomena. This encompassing of all phenomena is what is referred to as maintaining the sacred Dharma.

“Furthermore, friends, to maintain the sacred Dharma encompasses the eighty-four thousand activities of a thus-gone one and the eighty-four thousand collections of Dharma teachings that explain the eighty-four thousand aspects of the Dharma. This is known as maintaining the sacred Dharma.

“Friends, just as a thus-gone one awakens to perfect buddhahood, so do they turn the wheel of Dharma, and so do they pass into parinirvāṇa.