Saddharma Pundarika

SR No.: 007677
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: H Kern
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1884
Total Pages: 2546
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 46 MB

Page 477

XXVI. ENCOURAGEMENT OF SAMANTABHADRA.
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plinary regulations; she shall, in order to save creatures, have the thoughts fixed on supreme and perfect enlightenment. These are the four requisites, young man of good family, a female must be possessed of, to whom this Dharmaparyâya of the Lotus of the True Law is to be entrusted.
Then the Bodhisattva Mahâsattva Samantabhadra said to the Lord : At the end of time, at the end of the period, in the second half of the millennium, I will protect the monks who keep this Sutrânta ; I will take care of their safety, avert blows', and destroy poison, so that no one laying snares for those preachers may surprise them, neither Mâra the Evil One, nor the sons of Mâra, the angels called Mârakâyikas, the daughters of Mara, the followers of Mâra, and all other servitors to Mâra ; that no gods, goblins, ghosts, imps, wizards, spectres laying snares for those preachers may surprise them. Incessantly and constantly, O Lord, will I protect such a preacher. And when a preacher who applies himself to this Dharmaparyâya shall take a walk, then, O Lord, will I mount a white elephant with six tusks, and with a train of Bodhisattvas betake myself to the place where that preacher is walking, in order to protect this Dharmaparyâya. And when that preacher, applying himself to this Dharmaparyâya, forgets, be it but a single word or syllable, then will I mount the white elephant with six tusks, show my face to that preacher, and repeat this entire Dharmaparyâya ?. And when the preacher has
1 Or punishment.
• Samantabhadra renders the same service to pious and studious preachers as the Buddha himself; see chapter X, especially stanzas 29–31. As to the elephant on which he is mounted, one knows [21]
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