འཕགས་པ་བྱང་ཆབ་སམས་དཔའ་བྱམས་པ་དགའ་ལྡན་གནམ་ད་སྐྱ་བ་བླངས་པའ་མད 3

3

and listen. Since the Thus-Gone One is omniscient, I have prophesied that within this retinue,²⁵ the bodhisattva great being Maitreya will fully awaken to unsurpassed and perfect buddhahood. Twelve years from now, he will pass away and undoubtedly take birth in the Heaven of Joy.

“In the Heaven of Joy, there are five hundred quintillion gods, each of whom practices the profound perfection of generosity. Thus, the gods have used the power of their divine merit to construct celestial palaces to worship this bodhisattva who has only one birth remaining. To do so, they first removed their robes, sandalwood jewelry, and precious crowns. They knelt, joined their palms together, and prayed: ‘With our priceless jewels and divine crowns, we wish to worship the great bodhisattva. We have heard the prophecy that²⁶ Ajita will awaken to unsurpassed and perfect buddhahood not long in the future,²⁷ so may our precious crowns transform into substances for the worship of his fully adorned buddha-realm!’ Each god knelt and made this prayer.

“As soon as all the gods had made this prayer, all their jeweled crowns transformed into five hundred quintillion palaces. Each precious palace contained seven parks,²⁸ each of which was made of seven precious substances. Each precious substance emitted five billion rays of light, from each of which came five billion lotuses. From each lotus emerged five billion rows of trees made of the seven precious substances. The leaves of each tree held five billion light rays in dazzling colors, and each of these dazzling colors emitted a further five billion light rays the color of Jambū river gold.