དམ་པའ་ཆས་པད་མ་དཀར་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.65

intro.65

The bodhisattvas who have come from other world realms make the commitment to teach this sūtra in the future. The Buddha says that it will not be necessary as he has so many bodhisattvas in his realm. Immediately the ground splits open and out from the ground come countless bodhisattvas who dwell in the space below the world. The four main ones among these—Vi­śiṣṭa­cāritra, Anantacāritra, Vi­śuddha­cāritra, and Su­pratiṣṭhita­cāritra—ask after his welfare. Maitreya asks the Buddha who these bodhisattvas are whom no one has ever seen before. The Buddha says that they were all brought onto the path of enlightenment by himself after he attained buddhahood. Maitreya states that these bodhisattvas have been practicing for many eons, and this is like a young man introducing hundred-year-old men as his sons. Even though all present believe whatever the Buddha says, future bodhisattvas on hearing this will doubt it and as a result be reborn in the lower realms, and so he asks the Buddha to explain how this can be so.