འཕགས་པ་ཆས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱ་རང་བཞན་མཉམ་པ་ཉད་རྣམ་པར་སྤྲས་པ་ཏང་ང་འཛན་གྱ་རྒྱལ་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 2.8

2.8

dedicating themselves to bestowing great gifts and honors by making offerings of worldly material goods to the Bhagavān, the tathāgata, the arhat, the perfectly enlightened Buddha Ghoṣadatta, the saṅgha of bodhisattvas, and the saṅgha of bhikṣus.

“Young man, the Bhagavān, the tathāgata, the arhat, the perfectly enlightened Buddha Ghoṣadatta thought, ‘Alas! These beings who have adopted correct conduct and the poṣadha vows have come before the Tathāgata, have honored the Tathāgata, practice celibacy, have entered the homeless life, and have become fully ordained bhikṣus—they will go into decline. They are concerned about the happiness of their future lives.

“ ‘Why is that? It is because in their future lives their happiness will be from these offerings of worldly material things. The realms of the higher existences are the goal of these beings. They are concerned with this life. They are concerned with their ²⁸⁶ next life. They do not accumulate²⁸⁷ roots of merit for the final ultimate goal.’²⁸⁸

“Young man, what are the roots of merit for the ultimate goal? They are pure conduct and celibacy going toward the ultimate goal and reaching the ultimate goal.

“Bhagavān Ghoṣadatta thought, ‘I must teach those beings the Dharma so that they will make the unsurpassable offering of the Dharma and the practice of the Dharma as their offering to the Tathāgata.’²⁸⁹

“Then, young man, at that time the Bhagavān, the tathāgata, the arhat, the perfectly enlightened Buddha Ghoṣadatta, with the intention of creating revulsion toward saṃsāra,²⁹⁰ recited these verses to King Mahābala, the brahmins, and the laypeople:

“ ‘The service of someone making a gift to another
Is not a cause for holding each other in high esteem.
The wise ones who are free of negative propensities,
The buddhas, they do not praise that service. {1}

“ ‘Those who teach the Dharma for the benefit of beings,
They are those who accomplish great service.
Then there will form an unbreakable bond of friendship,
Which not even ten million māras will be able to break. {2}