妙法蓮華經 3.23

3.23

This disciple of mine, Mahāmaudgalyāyana,

Having abandoned this body,

Will meet eight thousand and then two hundred

Myriads of koṭis of Buddha Bhagavats.

For the sake of the buddha path

He will pay them homage and respect them,

And always practice holy conduct (brahmacarya)

Of discipline and integrity

In the presence of these buddhas.

He will uphold the Buddha-Dharma

For immeasurable kalpas.

After the parinirvāṇas of these buddhas

He will erect stupas

Constructed with the seven precious treasures

On which golden banners

Will be long displayed.

He will pay homage to

These stupas of the buddhas

With flowers, incense, and music. After having mastered The bodhisattva path step by step, In a land called Mano’bhirāma, He will become a buddha Called Tamālapatracandanagandha. The lifespan of this buddha Will be twenty-four intermediate kalpas. He will always expound the buddha path For the sake of devas and humans. There will be countless śrāvakas, As numerous as the sands of the Ganges River, Who will have perfected the three sciences, And six transcendent powers, And have great dignity and virtue. There will be innumerable bodhisattvas, Resolute and persevering, who will never turn away From the wisdom of the buddhas. After the parinirvāṇa of this buddha The True Dharma will last For forty intermediate kalpas, And the Semblance Dharma Will also be like this. All of my disciples, Five hundred in number, Who are endowed with dignity and virtue, Will also receive my prediction. In the future they will all become buddhas. I will now explain the relationships That you and I have formed in past lives. All of you, listen carefully!

The Apparitional City

The Buddha addressed the monks, saying: “Once upon a time, immeasurable, limitless, inconceivable, incalculable kalpas ago, there was a buddha called Mahābhijñājñānābhibhū Tathāgata, an Arhat, Completely Enlightened, Perfect in Knowledge and Conduct, Well-Departed, Knower of the World, Unsurpassed, Tamer of Humans, Teacher of Devas and Humans, Buddha, Bhagavat. His land was called Susaṃbhavā in the kalpa called Mahārūpa.

“O monks, it has been an extremely long time since this buddha entered nirvana. Suppose there were a man who ground the earth of the entire great manifold cosmos into powdered ink, and he were to then pass through a thousand worlds to the east, where he let fall a single particle of ink, the size of a speck of dust.

“After passing through another thousand worlds, he let fall another particle; and he continued in this way until he had completely used all the ink.

“What do you think about this? Do you think that a mathematician or a mathematician’s pupil would be able to count those worlds to the last particle or not?”

“O Bhagavat! No, they could not.”

“O monks! Suppose that all the worlds this man passed through, whether letting fall a particle or not, were all ground into dust, and one speck of this