འཕགས་པ་གླང་ར་ལང་བསྟན་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 6

6

While the Blessed Buddha was present at Mount Gośṛṅga, all the bodhisattva great beings and the great worthy ones projected an array of light rays that illuminated the entire land of Khotan. At that very moment, three hundred and fifty-three lotuses emerged from the vast lake there. Inside each of these lotuses appeared the bodies of buddhas and bodhisattvas glowing with light. At that moment, the gods, seeing these signs—signs the likes of which they had never seen before—inquired of the Blessed Buddha as to their meaning.

The Blessed One replied, “Noble children, the appearance of these three hundred and fifty-three lotuses containing the bodies of the buddhas and bodhisattvas is a portent that in the future, when this land manifests, there will appear here, equal in number to these lotuses, hermitages and temples where the gong will be struck. This is a portent that in all of these places—the places where the land has been blessed by bodhisattva great beings, great hearers, and the array of projected light rays, and where I have blessed the Gomasalaganda stūpa, the palace of the thus-gone ones, and this land of Virtue—faithful patrons will all fashion images of the Buddha and others, and that whoever arrives in these places will accomplish all their wishes.”

At this point, the gods rose from their seats and asked the Blessed One, “Respected Blessed One, at what point in time will this land appear? Who will be its founders?