འཕགས་པ་གསར་འད་དམ་པ་མད་སྡའ་དབང་པའ་རྒྱལ་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.108

intro.108

This chapter does not have the homage to a series of buddhas and bodhisattvas that begins the equivalent chapter (chapter 10) in Toh 557. Dṛḍhā, the goddess of the earth, promises the Buddha that she will go wherever The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light is taught, and with her head she will support the feet of the dharmabhāṇaka. Having heard the sūtra, she will make the earth fertile and make what is grown in it nutritious and life-enhancing, and the population will increase. She states that if someone who has heard the sūtra returns home and repeats even a line of verse from it, that home will prosper. The Buddha states that anyone who has listened to even one line of the sūtra, or makes offerings to it, will be reborn in a paradise after death, enjoy happiness for countless eons, and eventually attain buddhahood. Toh 557 concludes at this point. Here in Toh 556, the chapter continues with Dṛḍhā teaching mantras and rites to invoke her protection.