經律異相 9.33

9.33

At that time, bodhisattva-mahāsattvas as numerous as the dust motes of a thousand worlds leaped forth from the earth. With single-minded devotion, joining their palms and looking up at the Bhagavat's countenance, they addressed the Buddha, saying: "After the Buddha's extinction, wherever the Bhagavat's emanations are located in lands of nirvāṇa, we shall broadly expound this scripture. We ourselves also wish to attain this truly pure, great Dharma, to uphold, read, recite, explain, copy, and make offerings to it." At that time, before the entire assembly—including Mañjuśrī and immeasurable hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of bodhisattvas formerly dwelling in the Sahā world, as well as the śrāvakas, humans, non-humans, and others—the Bhagavat extended his broad and long tongue up to the realm of Brahmā, and all his pores emitted lights of immeasurable colors, illuminating the worlds of the ten directions. The Buddhas seated on lion thrones under the various jewel trees did likewise. (From the sixth fascicle of the Lotus Sūtra.)