Overall Teaching

The bodhisattvas wish to know how Vajrapāṇireceived wholesome deep roots. The Buddha explains the story of Cakravartin Dhṛtarāṣtra, who had a thousand sons and loved to listen to the Buddha-Dharma from a past buddha. The king, wishing to hear the Dharma, flew in his tower to where the Buddha was and listened to him teach the Dharma. That Buddha taught: how to progress on the Mahāyāna, how to abide in peace with vigilance, how to be a virtuous king, how to transfer merits, four purities, and four fulfilments.

Summary

1. The Curiosity of the Bodhisattvas

   • The bodhisattvas then wonder under what past buddha Vajrapāṇi served, listened to the Dharma, and received various deep wholesome roots.

   • They also wonder by what great vows he could come to have such great eloquence in expounding the Dharma. 

2. The World of the Cakravartin Dhṛtarāṣṭra

   • In the past world of Vibhūṣaṇā, there was a Buddha called Ananta-guṇa-nānā-ratna-vyūha.

     • That world was entirely flat and exquisite. It looked like a Pure Land.

     • People there were diligent, lived very long, and enjoyed listening to the Dharma of Ananta. Buddha.

   • In the middle of that land was a country called Viśuddha, which was walled and had thousands of gardens. It was ruled by a Wheel Turning King called Dhṛtarāṣṭra.

     • His palace had four great gardens, and they had jewelled lakes with lovely birds swimming in them.

     • He had 70,000 wives and 1000 sons. They all had 28 marks of a great being and had deep faith in the Dharma. 

3. The Faith and Devotion of Dhṛtarāṣṭra and his Sons

   • When Ananta. Buddha was dwelling there, the king and his family attended on him and his sangha, giving them three gardens as monasteries.

   • The king's sons were never negligent, and all practised meditation. Eventually, they attained the five supernormal knowledges and rose into the air, flying from garden to garden, city to city reciting a gāthā.

   • The people who heard the gāthā then gave rise to faith in the path and took refuge in the Buddha. After going to him to listen to the Dharma, they returned to their original regions. 

4. King Dhṛtarāṣṭra's Flying Tower

   • The princes offered a beautiful tower made of fragrant sandalwood to their father the king.

   • The king, wishing to see the Buddha and hear the Dharma, went in the tower with his family, and sat on a lion throne.

   • They grasped jewel nets suspended from the tower, and it immediately rose and floated into the sky. It flew like the king of swans to the Buddha.

   • When the tower landed before the Buddha, everyone alighted and listened to his Dharma. 

5. The Teaching of Anantaguṇanānāratnavyūha Tathāgata

   • That Buddha taught:

     • One progresses on the Mahāyāna and never fall into ruin by four Dharmas:

       1. Faith in the Dharma—according with the noble lineage.

       2. Reverence—hearing and examining the Dharma heard reverently.

       3. Non-pride.

       4. Diligence.

     • By four Dharmas one abides in peace and has vigilance:

       1. Use precepts to guard faculties.

       2. Watch excessive desire.

       3. Accept all deeds as impermanent.

       4. Regard the Dharma as supreme.

     • A king is virtuous by four Dharmas:

       1. Not discarding bodhicitta.

       2. Instructing others in awakening.

       3. Transferring all good roots towards awakening.

       4. Giving rise to the mind of joy to seek the power of a Buddha.

     • One should thus practice and seek the Dharma without delighting in the senses—the nobly wise seek the Dharma without satisfaction (i.e. without getting enough).

     • Human lifespan is short, so you should alwaysgive rise to roots of good by transferring merits to:

       1. Inexhaustible fruition

       2. Inexhaustible Dharma gates

       3. Inexhaustible wisdom

       4. Inexhaustible eloquence

     • There are four purities:

       1. Through purity of the body, one attains the practice of wisdom.

       2. Through purity of speech, one attains the practice of hearing.

       3. Through purity of mind, one attains the practice of the precepts.

       4. Through purity of wisdom, one attainsthe practice of knowledge.

     • There are four fulfilments:

       1. By fulfilling skillful means, one matures sentient beings.

       2. By fulfilling wisdom, one subdues māras.

       3. By fulfilling vows, one practices as is spoken.

       4. By encountering a Buddha, one fulfills all Buddha-dharmas.

     • Hearing this, the king and his family rejoiced, offered to the Buddha, aspired bodhicitta, and returned in their tower. 

6. The King's Spontaneously Born Sons

   • The king sported in one of his gardens with his two court-maidens.

   • The two court maidens finished washing in the pond, and then sat on lotus flower lion thrones. Suddenly two youths spontaneously manifested before them floating in the sky and dancing.

     • A voice in the sky said one was called Dharmacintana, and the other was Dharmamati.

     • They sat in the lotus position and uttered a gāthā. They said they gave rise to bodhicitta and honoured a buddha in their past lives in another world (and can manifest and return there any time). They explained that beings should diligently endeavour to practice the Dharma, attain the qualities of a buddha, and liberate all beings.

   • The king and the sons, hearing this, visited Ananta. Buddha to please these sons. After the Buddha taught on emptiness and insubstantiality, everyone was pleased. The assembly stayed there for seven days, and then instantaneously returned home. 

7. The King Predicts the Order of his Sons' Awakening

   • The king then climbed onto a throne in a solitary place, and wondered which of his 1000 sons, who have already aroused bodhicitta, will be the first to attain buddhahood.

   • He skillfully had a jeweled jar created and placed on a large lotus throne. For seven days it was worshipped, which was assisted by the gods.

   • Then, all the sons were invited before him. Their names were placed into the jar, and an attendant pulled the names of the sons out of the jar in order. At that time, the earth quaked and instruments sounded spontaneously.

   • The first name was that of the previous Buddha of this era, Krakucchanda. And so on, it continued through the names of other previous buddhas: Koṇāgamuni, Kāśyapa, etc., up to Śākyamuni and Maitreya. It continued like this for the rest of the hundreds of sons.

   • The last name was the prince Nantabuddhi, and his brothers slighted him saying:

     • When we become buddhas, having liberated beings and doing great deeds, why what will you be doing as the last?

   • He explained that if they were to add up the lifespans of all of the buddhas just predicted, his lifespan would be equal to that, and he would also gather as many disciples as all of them added together.

     • Everyone praised him at that time.

   • He will become Roca (or Rucika) Tathāgata, the last Buddha of the Bhadra Kalpa and perfected more merits than all of them in that time. 

8. The Identities of the Others from that Time

   • The two youngest sons, who just manifested, were then interrogated as to what good they did that they can now manifest spontaneously like that.

   • Dharmacintana explained that he continues to practice bodhisattva practices alongside all those brothers as Vajrapāṇi Bodhisattva, never being separated from the secrets of the tathagatas or from listening to the Buddha-Dharma.

   • Dharmamati explained that he will attain awakening together with all his brothers, but will persuade them all to turn the wheel of the Dharma.

     • Therefore, Dharmamati became Brahmā Śikhin, who requests buddhas to turn the Wheel of Dharma.

   • All of the king's courtiers and queens also received predictions of their awakening and are now the members of the current assembly. Therefore, the saṅgha should keep in mind that dharmas arise due to conditions, and wholesome roots give rise to aspiration for superior practices, the fruit of which does not decay or get lost.