Chapter 16: The Prediction for Vajrapāṇi, Lord of the Guhyakas
EN
At that point, some the bodhisattvas in the assembly had the thought, “When will Vajrapāṇi, Lord of the Guhyakas, awaken to unsurpassable and perfect awakening and become a perfect buddha? What will his buddha realm be called? What will be his name when he attains awakening? What will his assembly of bodhisattvas be like?”
EN
Then, knowing with his mind the train of thought in the minds of those bodhisattvas at that moment, the Blessed One smiled. When blessed buddhas smile, it is the nature of things that multicolored rays of light issue from the blessed one’s mouth. So, at that moment variegated, multicolored rays of blue, yellow, red, white, rose madder, brilliant, and shiny light issued forth and spread throughout limitless worlds, reaching upward as far as the Brahmā worlds, before they came back down and, after circling the Blessed One three times, they disappeared into the top of his head.
EN
The bodhisattva of great courage, Śāntamati, then asked the Blessed One about the meaning of his smile by speaking the following verses:
EN
“Resting in equipoise, like the face of the moon, Your beautiful light, like the purest gold, Dispels the darkness like the sun— For what reason, Best of Men, do you show your smile?
EN
“You have entered with conviction the pool of calm abiding, Wherein the water of compassion arises by the force of endeavor, And possesses the sweet fragrance of the blossom of mindfulness— For what reason, Sublime Lotus, do you show your smile?
EN
“Your wisdom is a butter lamp that dispels the darkness. Mindfulness is its fine holder; calm abiding is the ghee; Its wick is compassion by which it removes the three stains— For what reason, Sublime Lamp, do you show your smile?
EN
“With compassion for the world, the light of your deep insight Removes defects from our eyes and extinguishes our craving. You cleanse our world and you refine our eyes— For what reason, Sublime Sun, do you show your smile?
EN
“You know the motivations of those in the world, Together with its gods, which you illuminate. The assembly is looking at you to say Why you have displayed your smile.”
EN
When this was said, the Blessed One spoke to the bodhisattva of great courage, Śāntamati: “While holding up this vajra, Vajrapāṇi, Lord of the Guhyakas, will worship all the realized ones of this Fortunate Eon, Śāntamati. He will take hold of the true Dharma, he will propagate this teaching of the Dharma on the secret of the realized ones, and he will make immeasurable beings ready for awakening.
EN
“When the Fortunate Eon has ended and the true Dharma of the realized one, Roca, has disappeared, he will be born in the buddha domain of the realized one Akṣobhya. Taking birth in that Abhiratī world along with the realized one Akṣobhya, he will then maintain the teaching of the bodhisattvas on the one hundred and eight seals, go farther down the path to the goal, and become accomplished in understanding the way things are. In that way, he will encounter immeasurable, incalculable realized ones in the future. He will serve them, respect them, honor them, worship them, and he will lead the holy life in their presence. He will safeguard the true Dharma and make immeasurable hundreds of thousands of millions and billions of beings ready for perfect awakening.
EN
“Finally, after traveling through more eons than there are grains of sand in the Ganges River, he will bring to completion the constitutive factors of awakening and awaken to unsurpassable, perfect, and complete awakening. He will appear as a realized one, a worthy one, a perfectly awakened one, one perfected in knowledge and conduct, a sublime one, a knower of the world, an unsurpassable trainer of those ready to be trained, a teacher of gods and humans, a blessed buddha known as Vajravikrāmin in the world called Samantapariśuddhā, and this will occur during the era called Viśodhana.
EN
“Moreover, noble son, Samantapariśuddhā, which will be the buddha domain of the blessed realized one Vajravikrāmin, will be wealthy, expansive, bountiful, pleasant, well populated with many gods and human beings, and packed with bodhisattvas. This buddha domain will be adorned with the seven precious substances: gold, silver, lapis lazuli, quartz, agate, emerald, and red pearl. The world will be separated into square plots like a chessboard. It will be as flat as the palm of one’s hand and pleasant to touch like the down of the kācalindika bird. It will be adorned with raised flags, victory banners, and parasols fringed with bunches of silken tassels. It will be covered with divine blossoms and jeweled flowers. The air will be filled with the smell of the finest incense, and the sky above it will resound with divine music. This world will be devoid of all the bad realms of rebirth and the unfavorable circumstances for practicing the Dharma. This world will be adorned with dwellings, floating palaces, and parks as though they were ornaments, and there will be food and drink to the heart’s content, just like the enjoyments of the gods in the Heaven of the Contented.
EN
“Even though the enjoyments there in the pavilions with their high peaks will be earthly and divine enjoyments, all the gods and human beings there will have their interest piqued by what is lofty; that is, they will take a keen interest in the knowledge of the buddhas. In that world, the names of the two other vehicles—that is, the Vehicle of the Disciples and the Vehicle of the Solitary Buddhas—will not even exist. There, the realized one Vajravikrāmin will be surrounded by an assembly of many hundreds of thousands of bodhisattvas, and that blessed one will give the bodhisattvas teachings that are completely unadulterated.
EN
“Furthermore, the beings in that world will not see their customs degenerate, their livelihoods will not become corrupted, their moral conduct will not decline, and neither will their views degenerate. The beings there will not be blind, crippled, hunchbacked, tongue-tied, mute, or lame, and neither will they have any impaired faculties. All the gods and humans will be adorned with twenty-eight of the marks of a great person. There, the length of that realized one’s life will span eight intermediate eons. The gods and humans will not die before their time is ripe. Indeed, Śāntamati, these are just some of the immeasurable number of special conditions and qualities of the realized one Vajravikrāmin; there are many others, too.
EN
“Additionally, when that realized one teaches the Dharma, he will give off light from his body. Now, when those beings see this light, they will think, ‘The Realized One is starting to give a teaching of the Dharma, so we should go to the Blessed One to listen to the Dharma.’ Some will arrive through the power of their own superhuman abilities and supernormal faculties. Some will arrive by means of the empowering authority of that realized one, who will then rise into the sky above the gods and human beings who have gathered there to a height of one hundred thousand palm trees. While hovering there in a cross-legged position, he will pervade that world of four great continents with his body. He will then teach the Dharma to those bodhisattvas using the speech a realized one, which satisfies all beings according to their own thoughts and motivations, and with the voice and tone of a buddha, which can be understood throughout an immeasurable number of worlds in the ten directions. Moreover, not even a single being among them will go against or offer resistance to the Dharma taught by that realized one. Each and every one of those beings will have sharp faculties and the ability to understand highly condensed statements. In that world, there will be no king other than the true king of the Dharma, the realized one Vajravikrāmin. In that world, there will not be any possession or sense of ownership, either. All those beings will be without possessions or a sense of ownership.
EN
“Moreover, Śāntamati, the form of the realized one Vajravikrāmin will appear in front of any gods or human-like beings who wish to make an offering of alms, and he will be holding his alms bowl so that they may do so. When any gods or human-like beings see that realized one’s form, they will think, ‘The blessed realized one Vajravikrāmin wishes to enjoy a meal in my presence.’ Then, with their minds they will create a circular space with seats and places to lie down, and food and drink, and they will tell that blessed one that it is time for the midday meal. Then, that realized one will enjoy the meal, and after enjoying it, he will depart. When that realized one goes into seclusion, the bodhisattvas there will dwell in an array of states of meditative concentration. That world will possess these special conditions and qualities and an immeasurable number of others. Therefore, noble son, that world is called Samantapariśuddhā.”
EN
Furthermore, while the description of the prediction for Vajrapāṇi, Lord of the Guhyakas, was being was being elucidated, twenty thousand beings conceived the aspiration for unsurpassable and perfect awakening. They made the vow, “I will be reborn in that buddha domain!” The Blessed One then made the prediction that all of them would be reborn there in Samantapariśuddhā, the buddha domain of the blessed realized one Vajravikrāmin.
EN
Now, after Vajrapāṇi, Lord of the Guhyakas, heard the prediction given for him, he was satisfied, overjoyed, pleased, and glad. He felt both delight and cheerfulness of mind, and he threw his vajra up into the vault of the sky. Right when he threw the vajra, at that precise moment, this cosmos of a billion worlds quaked in the six ways, and it rained a shower of flowers. It resounded with the sounds of hundreds of musical instruments. Garlands of flowers of various colors spontaneously manifested in the right hands of everyone in the assembly. Vajrapāṇi, Lord of the Guhyakas, then praised the Blessed One with these verses:
EN
“Lord of Dharma, you are an abundant and inexhaustible treasury of the true Dharma. You are skilled in the fine analysis of things everywhere for the benefit of the world. Your heart is unwearied toward things; your detachment and surrender are firm. Homage to you who are fixed upon the practice of such true forms of the Dharma.
EN
“For your knowledge and your purified conduct, O Pure Being, Full of virtue like a king, your glory known far and wide through the three worlds, An inexhaustible stream of knowledge, now and forever through the three times, I offer salutations to you whose level now is equal to the surpassing of attachment.
EN
“The total purity of your pureness surpasses the pure luster of the moon. The supreme splendor of your fine radiance surpasses the radiance of the sun. The holy tones of your fine voice surpass the intonations of a brahmā. I salute you, your radiance that of gold, foremost even among the Three Jewels.
EN
“You display a body, but you are not at all bound to a body. You speak with a voice, but concepts have no hold over you. You proclaim the Dharma, but you have no fixed notion of a dharma. You cause the liberation of beings, but you have no idea of a being.
EN
“At no point whatsoever would it be possible to repay you, Not even by all the beings of the world freed from the troubles of the home, Except insofar as those beings understand what you have taught, Dwell in the core of the practices, and are trained thereby in the truth.”
EN
At that point, Vajrapāṇi, Lord of the Guhyakas, and all the members of the assembly who had been holding various jeweled garlands of flowers in their hands, completely covered the Blessed One with them. Right when those garlands of flowers were strewn at him, at that precise moment, this cosmos of a billion worlds became completely adorned with garlands of various flowers, and it also appeared as though it were separated into square plots like a chessboard. This was accomplished through the wondrous power of the Buddha.
Chapter 16: The Prediction for Vajrapāṇi, Lord of the Guhyakas
EN
At that point, some the bodhisattvas in the assembly had the thought, “When will Vajrapāṇi, Lord of the Guhyakas, awaken to unsurpassable and perfect awakening and become a perfect buddha? What will his buddha realm be called? What will be his name when he attains awakening? What will his assembly of bodhisattvas be like?”
EN
Then, knowing with his mind the train of thought in the minds of those bodhisattvas at that moment, the Blessed One smiled. When blessed buddhas smile, it is the nature of things that multicolored rays of light issue from the blessed one’s mouth. So, at that moment variegated, multicolored rays of blue, yellow, red, white, rose madder, brilliant, and shiny light issued forth and spread throughout limitless worlds, reaching upward as far as the Brahmā worlds, before they came back down and, after circling the Blessed One three times, they disappeared into the top of his head.
EN
The bodhisattva of great courage, Śāntamati, then asked the Blessed One about the meaning of his smile by speaking the following verses:
EN
“Resting in equipoise, like the face of the moon, Your beautiful light, like the purest gold, Dispels the darkness like the sun— For what reason, Best of Men, do you show your smile?
EN
“You have entered with conviction the pool of calm abiding, Wherein the water of compassion arises by the force of endeavor, And possesses the sweet fragrance of the blossom of mindfulness— For what reason, Sublime Lotus, do you show your smile?
EN
“Your wisdom is a butter lamp that dispels the darkness. Mindfulness is its fine holder; calm abiding is the ghee; Its wick is compassion by which it removes the three stains— For what reason, Sublime Lamp, do you show your smile?
EN
“With compassion for the world, the light of your deep insight Removes defects from our eyes and extinguishes our craving. You cleanse our world and you refine our eyes— For what reason, Sublime Sun, do you show your smile?
EN
“You know the motivations of those in the world, Together with its gods, which you illuminate. The assembly is looking at you to say Why you have displayed your smile.”
EN
When this was said, the Blessed One spoke to the bodhisattva of great courage, Śāntamati: “While holding up this vajra, Vajrapāṇi, Lord of the Guhyakas, will worship all the realized ones of this Fortunate Eon, Śāntamati. He will take hold of the true Dharma, he will propagate this teaching of the Dharma on the secret of the realized ones, and he will make immeasurable beings ready for awakening.
EN
“When the Fortunate Eon has ended and the true Dharma of the realized one, Roca, has disappeared, he will be born in the buddha domain of the realized one Akṣobhya. Taking birth in that Abhiratī world along with the realized one Akṣobhya, he will then maintain the teaching of the bodhisattvas on the one hundred and eight seals, go farther down the path to the goal, and become accomplished in understanding the way things are. In that way, he will encounter immeasurable, incalculable realized ones in the future. He will serve them, respect them, honor them, worship them, and he will lead the holy life in their presence. He will safeguard the true Dharma and make immeasurable hundreds of thousands of millions and billions of beings ready for perfect awakening.
EN
“Finally, after traveling through more eons than there are grains of sand in the Ganges River, he will bring to completion the constitutive factors of awakening and awaken to unsurpassable, perfect, and complete awakening. He will appear as a realized one, a worthy one, a perfectly awakened one, one perfected in knowledge and conduct, a sublime one, a knower of the world, an unsurpassable trainer of those ready to be trained, a teacher of gods and humans, a blessed buddha known as Vajravikrāmin in the world called Samantapariśuddhā, and this will occur during the era called Viśodhana.
EN
“Moreover, noble son, Samantapariśuddhā, which will be the buddha domain of the blessed realized one Vajravikrāmin, will be wealthy, expansive, bountiful, pleasant, well populated with many gods and human beings, and packed with bodhisattvas. This buddha domain will be adorned with the seven precious substances: gold, silver, lapis lazuli, quartz, agate, emerald, and red pearl. The world will be separated into square plots like a chessboard. It will be as flat as the palm of one’s hand and pleasant to touch like the down of the kācalindika bird. It will be adorned with raised flags, victory banners, and parasols fringed with bunches of silken tassels. It will be covered with divine blossoms and jeweled flowers. The air will be filled with the smell of the finest incense, and the sky above it will resound with divine music. This world will be devoid of all the bad realms of rebirth and the unfavorable circumstances for practicing the Dharma. This world will be adorned with dwellings, floating palaces, and parks as though they were ornaments, and there will be food and drink to the heart’s content, just like the enjoyments of the gods in the Heaven of the Contented.
EN
“Even though the enjoyments there in the pavilions with their high peaks will be earthly and divine enjoyments, all the gods and human beings there will have their interest piqued by what is lofty; that is, they will take a keen interest in the knowledge of the buddhas. In that world, the names of the two other vehicles—that is, the Vehicle of the Disciples and the Vehicle of the Solitary Buddhas—will not even exist. There, the realized one Vajravikrāmin will be surrounded by an assembly of many hundreds of thousands of bodhisattvas, and that blessed one will give the bodhisattvas teachings that are completely unadulterated.
EN
“Furthermore, the beings in that world will not see their customs degenerate, their livelihoods will not become corrupted, their moral conduct will not decline, and neither will their views degenerate. The beings there will not be blind, crippled, hunchbacked, tongue-tied, mute, or lame, and neither will they have any impaired faculties. All the gods and humans will be adorned with twenty-eight of the marks of a great person. There, the length of that realized one’s life will span eight intermediate eons. The gods and humans will not die before their time is ripe. Indeed, Śāntamati, these are just some of the immeasurable number of special conditions and qualities of the realized one Vajravikrāmin; there are many others, too.
EN
“Additionally, when that realized one teaches the Dharma, he will give off light from his body. Now, when those beings see this light, they will think, ‘The Realized One is starting to give a teaching of the Dharma, so we should go to the Blessed One to listen to the Dharma.’ Some will arrive through the power of their own superhuman abilities and supernormal faculties. Some will arrive by means of the empowering authority of that realized one, who will then rise into the sky above the gods and human beings who have gathered there to a height of one hundred thousand palm trees. While hovering there in a cross-legged position, he will pervade that world of four great continents with his body. He will then teach the Dharma to those bodhisattvas using the speech a realized one, which satisfies all beings according to their own thoughts and motivations, and with the voice and tone of a buddha, which can be understood throughout an immeasurable number of worlds in the ten directions. Moreover, not even a single being among them will go against or offer resistance to the Dharma taught by that realized one. Each and every one of those beings will have sharp faculties and the ability to understand highly condensed statements. In that world, there will be no king other than the true king of the Dharma, the realized one Vajravikrāmin. In that world, there will not be any possession or sense of ownership, either. All those beings will be without possessions or a sense of ownership.
EN
“Moreover, Śāntamati, the form of the realized one Vajravikrāmin will appear in front of any gods or human-like beings who wish to make an offering of alms, and he will be holding his alms bowl so that they may do so. When any gods or human-like beings see that realized one’s form, they will think, ‘The blessed realized one Vajravikrāmin wishes to enjoy a meal in my presence.’ Then, with their minds they will create a circular space with seats and places to lie down, and food and drink, and they will tell that blessed one that it is time for the midday meal. Then, that realized one will enjoy the meal, and after enjoying it, he will depart. When that realized one goes into seclusion, the bodhisattvas there will dwell in an array of states of meditative concentration. That world will possess these special conditions and qualities and an immeasurable number of others. Therefore, noble son, that world is called Samantapariśuddhā.”
EN
Furthermore, while the description of the prediction for Vajrapāṇi, Lord of the Guhyakas, was being was being elucidated, twenty thousand beings conceived the aspiration for unsurpassable and perfect awakening. They made the vow, “I will be reborn in that buddha domain!” The Blessed One then made the prediction that all of them would be reborn there in Samantapariśuddhā, the buddha domain of the blessed realized one Vajravikrāmin.
EN
Now, after Vajrapāṇi, Lord of the Guhyakas, heard the prediction given for him, he was satisfied, overjoyed, pleased, and glad. He felt both delight and cheerfulness of mind, and he threw his vajra up into the vault of the sky. Right when he threw the vajra, at that precise moment, this cosmos of a billion worlds quaked in the six ways, and it rained a shower of flowers. It resounded with the sounds of hundreds of musical instruments. Garlands of flowers of various colors spontaneously manifested in the right hands of everyone in the assembly. Vajrapāṇi, Lord of the Guhyakas, then praised the Blessed One with these verses:
EN
“Lord of Dharma, you are an abundant and inexhaustible treasury of the true Dharma. You are skilled in the fine analysis of things everywhere for the benefit of the world. Your heart is unwearied toward things; your detachment and surrender are firm. Homage to you who are fixed upon the practice of such true forms of the Dharma.
EN
“For your knowledge and your purified conduct, O Pure Being, Full of virtue like a king, your glory known far and wide through the three worlds, An inexhaustible stream of knowledge, now and forever through the three times, I offer salutations to you whose level now is equal to the surpassing of attachment.
EN
“The total purity of your pureness surpasses the pure luster of the moon. The supreme splendor of your fine radiance surpasses the radiance of the sun. The holy tones of your fine voice surpass the intonations of a brahmā. I salute you, your radiance that of gold, foremost even among the Three Jewels.
EN
“You display a body, but you are not at all bound to a body. You speak with a voice, but concepts have no hold over you. You proclaim the Dharma, but you have no fixed notion of a dharma. You cause the liberation of beings, but you have no idea of a being.
EN
“At no point whatsoever would it be possible to repay you, Not even by all the beings of the world freed from the troubles of the home, Except insofar as those beings understand what you have taught, Dwell in the core of the practices, and are trained thereby in the truth.”
EN
At that point, Vajrapāṇi, Lord of the Guhyakas, and all the members of the assembly who had been holding various jeweled garlands of flowers in their hands, completely covered the Blessed One with them. Right when those garlands of flowers were strewn at him, at that precise moment, this cosmos of a billion worlds became completely adorned with garlands of various flowers, and it also appeared as though it were separated into square plots like a chessboard. This was accomplished through the wondrous power of the Buddha.
Sutraya