innumerable, incalculable like the sands of the Ganges, those hundred thousands of myriads of kotis of living beings, whom I, when I was a Bodhisattva under the mastership of that Lord, have taught the law of omniscience? Yourselves, monks, were at that time those beings.
And those who shall be my disciples in future, when I shall have attained complete Nirvâna, shall learn the course (of duty) of Bodhisattvas, without conceiving the idea of their being Bodhisattvas. And, monks, all who shall have the idea of complete Nirvâna, shall reach it. It should be added, monks, as[1] I stay under different names in other worlds, they shall there be born again seeking after the knowledge of the Tathâgatas, and there they shall anew hear this dogma: The complete Nirvâna of the Tathâgatas is but one; there is no other, no second Nirvâna of the Tathâgatas. Herein, monks, one has to see a device of the Tathâgatas and a direction[2] for the preaching of the law. When the Tathâgata, monks, knows that the moment of his complete extinction has arrived, and sees that the assemblage is pure, strong in faith, penetrated with the law of voidness, devoted to meditation, devoted to great meditation, then, monks, the Tathâgata, because the time has arrived, calls together all Bodhisattvas and all disciples to teach them thus: There
- ↑ Or, perhaps, when; api tu khalu punar, bhikshavo, yad aham anyâsu lokadhâtushu anyonyair (to r. anyânyair?) nâmadheyair viharâmi; in one MS. a correcting hand has written in the margin vihareyam.
- ↑ Abhinirhâra; I am not sure of the correctness of this rendering; in Pâli {sp|abhinîhâra}} is interpreted to be 'earnest wish or aspiration;' abhinîharati, to turn, direct.
