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328
SADDHARMA-PUNDA
X111.
CHAPTER XVII.
INDICATION OF THE MERITORIOUSNESS OF JOYFUL
ACCEPTANCE.
Thereupon the Bodhisattva Mahâsattva Maitreya said to the Lord : O Lord, one who, after hearing this Dharmaparyâya being preached, joyfully accepts it, be that person a young man of good family or a young lady, how much merit, O Lord, will be produced by such a young man or young lady of good family?
And on that occasion the Bodhisattva Mahâsattva Maitreya uttered this stanza :
1. How great will be the merit of him who, after the extinction of the great Hero, shall hear this exalted Satra and joyfully accept it?
And the Lord said to the Bodhisattva Mahasattva Maitreya : If any one, Agita, either a young man of good family or a young lady, after the complete extinction of the Tathagata, hears the preaching of this Dharmaparyâya, let it be a monk or nun, a male or female lay devotee, a man of ripe understanding or a boy or girl; if the hearer joyfully accepts it, and then after the sermon rises up to go elsewhere, to a monastery, house, forest, street, village, town, or province, with the motive and express aim to expound the law such as he has understood, such as he has heard it, and according to the measure of his power,
* Or, gratefully.
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