Overall Teaching

In the past, a king praised the inconceivable qualities of the buddhas and vowed that in the future lives he may hear the qualities of the buddhas in confession in a dream from a drum and obtain a praise called “Abundance of Lotuses.” He resolves to attain awakening with his sons and have great splendour and a wonderful buddha-land.

Summary

1.     The Buddha then addresses the goddess Bodhisattvasamuccayā and informs her that in the past the king Suvarṇabhujendra[1] praised the buddhas of the three times with the praise called “Abundance of Lotuses:”

a.     The praise is a recitation of the wonderful physical qualities of buddhas, such as their hair, golden limbs, and the light that they emit like a thousand suns, outshining suns and moons. It involves a wish that all beings see that light to the world.

b.     Those buddhas of the past and present are as numerous as the dusts on the earth, and he worships them with body, speech, and mind and with great gifts and praises.

c.     The virtues of the buddhas cannot be told even with a thousand tongues and are measureless—even a single one cannot be measured.

2.     After making this praise, the king resolved:

a.     May he always in future births see a drum in his dreams and hear a confession with the qualities of the buddhas which are hard to hear of and obtain a praise of the Buddhas called “Abundance of Lotuses.”

b.     May he work to deliver beings, and may he and his two sons attain supreme awakening in the future, where he may see, face-to-face, the Buddha Śākyamuni.

c.     He wishes that he may himself become a refuge for suffering beings in the future.

d.     May his ocean of merit be filled and his ocean of woe be emptied.

e.     He also wishes to have splendour of merits, awakening, and body, by which he may be distinguished in the triple world.

f.      He aspires to have a land (a “pure-land”) with countless virtues.

[1] Golden-Limbed Lord.