འཕགས་པ་དྲ་མ་མད་པར་གྲགས་པས་བསྟན་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 108

108

could not be performed by the disciples and solitary sages who have attained miraculous powers, were they to devote all their powers of incarnation and transformation during one hundred thousand millions of eons.”

Then, all those bodhisattvas from the buddhafield of the Tathāgata Gandhottama­kūṭa joined their palms in reverence and, saluting the Tathāgata Śākyamuni, addressed him as follows: “Lord, when we first arrived in this buddhafield, we conceived a negative idea, but we now abandon this wrong idea. Why? Lord, the realms of the buddhas and their skill in liberative art are inconceivable. In order to develop living beings, they manifest such and such a field to suit the desire of such and such a living being. Lord, please give us a teaching by which we may remember you, when we have returned to Sarva­gandha­sugandhā.”

Thus having been requested, the Buddha declared, “Noble sons, there is a liberation of bodhisattvas called destructible and indestructible. You must train yourselves in this liberation. What is it? ‘Destructible’ refers to compounded things. ‘Indestructible’ refers to the uncompounded.¹⁹⁴ But the bodhisattva should neither destroy the compounded nor rest in the uncompounded.¹⁹⁵

“Not to destroy compounded things consists in not losing the great love; not giving up the great compassion; not forgetting the omniscient mind generated by high resolve; not tiring in the positive development of living beings; not abandoning the means of unification; giving up body and life in order to uphold the holy Dharma; never being satisfied with the roots of virtue already accumulated; taking pleasure in skillful dedication; having no laziness in seeking the Dharma;