5. 'Then, O Ananda, that Bhikshu Dharmakara, having
praised the Bhagavat, the Tathagata Lokesvararaga, in his presence, with those
Gathas, spoke thus: "O Bhagavat, I wish to know the highest perfect
knowledge. Again and again I raise and incline my thoughts towards the highest
perfect knowledge. May therefore the Bhagavat, as a teacher, thus teach me the
Law, that I may quickly know the highest perfect knowledge. May I become in the
world a Tathagata, equal to the unequalled. And may the Bhagavat proclaim those
signs by which I may comprehend the perfection of all good qualities of a
Buddha country!'
'After this, O Ananda, the Bhagavat Lokesvararaga, the Tathagata, thus spoke
to that Bhikshu:
"Do you by yourself, O Bhikshu, know the perfection of all excellences
and good qualities of a Buddha country? "
'He said: "O Bhagavat, I could not do this, but the Bhagavat alone.
Explain the perfection of the excellences and all the good qualities of Buddha
countries of the other Tathagatas, after hearing which we may fulfil every one
of their signs."
'Then, O Ananda, the Tathagata Lokesvararaga, holy and fully enlightened,
knowing the good disposition of that Bhikshu, taught for a full koti of years
the perfection of all the excellences and good qualities of Buddha countries
belonging to eighty-one hundred thousand niyutas of kotis of Buddhas, together
with the signs, indication, and description, desiring welfare, wishing for
benefits, compassionate, full of compassion, so that there might never be an
end of Buddha countries, having conceived great pity for all beings. The
measure of life of that Tathagata was full forty kalpas.
|