དམ་པའ་ཆས་པད་མ་དཀར་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 8.23

8.23

“Bhagavān, if a noble man or noble woman rejoices after hearing this Dharma teaching explained, how much merit, Bhagavān, does that noble man or noble woman create?” And at that time the bodhisattva mahāsattva Maitreya also addressed to him this verse:

“After the nirvāṇa of the great Hero,
How much merit will there be
For someone who listens to this kind of sūtra,
And having heard it, rejoices?” {1}

The Bhagavān then answered the bodhisattva mahāsattva Maitreya, “Ajita, when the Tathāgata has passed into nirvāṇa, suppose there are noble men or noble women, bhikṣus or bhikṣuṇīs, upāsakas or upāsikās, wise adults, boys or girls who listen to this Dharma teaching being given, and having heard it, rejoice. And having listened to the Dharma they get up and leave, and whether they go to a temple, a house, a forest, a street, a town, or the countryside, they explain those causes, those causal factors, that Dharma, to other beings just as they have heard it, just as they remember it, to the extent of their ability, whether it be to their father, mother, or relative, and to anyone else who will be pleased, with whom they are acquainted. Then suppose those other beings rejoice on having heard it, and having rejoiced they tell it to others who will rejoice on hearing it, and then those tell it to others, so that this Dharma teaching is passed on from one to another until it reaches a fiftieth person.

“Ajita, thus suppose there is a person who is the fiftieth to hear it and rejoice after it has been passed on from one to another. Ajita, I shall describe the merit that is accumulated through such a noble man or noble woman’s rejoicing, so listen well and remember.