The Assembly Where the Hidden Intent Will Be Unraveled

Thus have I heard.

At one time the Bhagavat was dwelling in a great palace established by a multitude of royal jewel-lotuses. It blazed with supreme radiance and was adorned with the seven precious substances. It emitted a great light, illuminating all boundless worlds. Countless regions, marvelously arrayed, stood in ordered beauty; its circumference was without limit and its measure could not be fathomed.

It surpassed any place reached within the three realms. It arose from world-transcending roots of goodness, and its characteristic was the most utterly sovereign pure consciousness. It was the dwelling-city of the Tathāgata, where great assemblies of bodhisattvas gathered like clouds. Countless devas, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras, mahoragas, humans, nonhumans, and others constantly attended him.

They were sustained by the joy and delight of the vast taste of Dharma. They carried out every benefit and welfare for sentient beings, put an end to the disasters, entanglements, and stains of affliction, and remained far from every māra. Beyond all adornments, this was the support of the Tathāgata's adornment. Great mindfulness, wisdom, and practice were its path of travel; great calm-abiding and wondrous insight were its vehicle; the liberations of great emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness were its gates of entry. Adorned by immeasurable hosts of merit, it was the great palace established by the multitude of royal jewel-lotuses.

This Bhagavat was the purest awakening itself. His activity was nondual, and he had entered the Dharma of no characteristics. Dwelling in the buddhas' own dwelling, he had reached the equality of all buddhas. He had arrived at the unobstructed place, at the Dharma that cannot be turned back. His activity moved without obstruction, and what he established was inconceivable.

He ranged freely in the equal dharma-nature of the three times. His body pervaded all worlds. His wisdom regarding all dharmas was without hesitation or blockage, and within all forms of practice he had accomplished great awakening. His wisdom regarding dharmas was free from doubt. Whatever bodies he manifested could not be conceptually distinguished. He possessed the wisdom that all bodhisattvas rightly seek, had reached the far shore of the buddhas' nondual dwelling, and was unmixed with anything else.

The Tathāgata's liberation and wondrous wisdom were complete. He had realized the equality of the Buddha-ground beyond center and limit, reaching the utmost of the dharma-realm, exhausting the nature of empty space, and extending to the end of the future.

He was together with an immeasurable assembly of great śrāvakas. All were disciplined and harmonious, and all were children of the Buddha. Their minds were well liberated; their wisdom was well liberated; their moral discipline was well purified; and they sought the joy of Dharma.

They had heard much and retained what they had heard, accumulating the treasure of hearing. They thought well what should be thought, spoke well what should be spoken, and did well what should be done. They had quick wisdom, swift wisdom, sharp wisdom, wisdom that goes forth, superior discriminating wisdom, great wisdom, vast wisdom, and unequaled wisdom. They had completed the jewel of wisdom.

They were fully endowed with the three knowledges and had reached the foremost pleasant abiding in the present life. They were a great, pure field of merit; their deportment was quiet, with nothing incomplete. Their great patience was gentle and yielding, and its accomplishment did not diminish. They had already practiced well the Tathāgata's noble teaching.

There were also immeasurable bodhisattva mahāsattvas, gathered from many different buddha-lands. All abided in the Great Vehicle and moved within the Dharma of the Great Vehicle. Toward sentient beings their minds were equal. They were free from all the many discriminations of discrimination and nondiscrimination. They had subdued all māras and hostile enemies, and had moved far beyond every mode of attention belonging to śrāvakas and solitary buddhas.

They were sustained by the joy and delight of the vast taste of Dharma. They had gone beyond the five fears. They were single-mindedly entering the irreversible ground. The ground on which all the sufferings and torments oppressing sentient beings come to rest was present before them.

The leading figures among them were Bodhisattva Mahāsattva Revealing the Hidden Intent of the Profound Meaning, Bodhisattva Mahāsattva Who Questions According to the Principle, Bodhisattva Mahāsattva Dharmodgata, Bodhisattva Mahāsattva Suviśuddhamati, Bodhisattva Mahāsattva Vast Wisdom, Bodhisattva Mahāsattva Root of Virtue, Bodhisattva Mahāsattva Born of the Ultimate, Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva Mahāsattva, Maitreya Bodhisattva Mahāsattva, Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva Mahāsattva, and others.