妙法蓮華經 5.51

5.51

Thereupon the Buddha addressed the bodhisattvas and the entire great assembly, saying: “O sons of a virtuous family! You should believe the true words of the Tathāgata.”

He addressed the great assembly again, saying: “You should believe the Tathāgata’s true words.”

He repeated this to them, saying: “You should believe the Tathāgata’s true words.”

Then the great assembly of bodhisattvas, headed by Maitreya, addressed the Buddha with their palms pressed together, saying: “O Bhagavat! We entreat you to explain it. We will accept the Buddha’s words.”

After they had spoken in this way three times, they again said: “We entreat you to explain it. We will accept the Buddha’s words.”

Then the Bhagavat, realizing that the bodhisattvas continued to entreat him after those three times, addressed them, saying: “Listen carefully to the Tathāgata’s secret and transcendent powers. The devas, humans, and asuras in all the worlds all think that the present Buddha, Śākyamuni, left the palace of the Śākyas, sat on the terrace of enlightenment not far from the city of Gayā, and attained highest, complete enlightenment. However, O sons of a virtuous family, immeasurable, limitless, hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of nayutas of kalpas have passed since I actually attained buddhahood.

“Suppose there were a man who ground five hundreds of thousands myriads of koṭis of nayutas of incalculable great manifold cosmos into particles. While passing through five hundred thousands of myriads of koṭis of nayutas of incalculable lands to the east, he dropped just a single particle; and in this way he continued to drop the particles as he went toward the east, until they were all gone.

“O sons of a virtuous family! What do you think about this? Can all of these worlds be calculated or not? Can one imagine all of these worlds, calculate, and know their number or not?”

Bodhisattva Maitreya and the others together addressed the Buddha,

saying: “O Bhagavat! These worlds are immeasurable, limitless, incalcula-

ble, and beyond our powers of conception. Even all the śrāvakas and pratyeka-

buddhas, with their knowledge free from corruption, are not able to com-

prehend them, or know their number. Although we abide in the stage of

nonretrogression we cannot understand it. O Bhagavat! Such worlds as these

are incalculable and limitless.”

Then the Buddha addressed the assembly of the great bodhisattvas, say-

ing: “O sons of a virtuous family! I will now explain it clearly to you. Sup-

pose all these worlds, whether or not a particle was left in them, were reduced

to particles, and each particle represented a kalpa. The period of time since

I became a buddha would exceed this by hundreds of thousands of myriads

of koṭis of nayutas of incalculable kalpas. Since then I have constantly been

residing in the sahā world, teaching the Dharma and inspiring sentient beings.

I have also been leading and benefiting sentient beings in incalculable hun-

dreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of nayutas of other worlds.

“O sons of a virtuous family! During this interim I explained about the