The Offering of Dharma, and the Final Entrustment
法供養品第十三・囑累品第十四
Śakra, lord of the devas, praises the sūtra and vows to protect it; the Buddha answers with a story from an incalculably distant past, of a prince who wonders whether there is any offering greater than five eons of devotion, and learns from a buddha named Bhaiṣajyarāja what an offering of the Dharma actually is. In the sūtra's final scene, the Buddha entrusts the whole teaching to Maitreya, warns of the specific ways even sincere bodhisattvas can still fall short of it, and the assembly — Vimalakīrti, Mañjuśrī, Śāriputra, Ānanda, and every being present — hears the sūtra given its two names and rejoices together as the text closes.
- This part covers
- Śakra's praise of the sūtra and the Buddha's teaching that upholding it outweighs even the most extravagant imaginable devotion to countless buddhas; the story of Prince Candracchattra, who wonders whether any offering could exceed the five eons of devotion he and his father have already given, and is answered by the Buddha Bhaiṣajyarāja's long definition of what an offering of the Dharma actually consists of; the reveal that this prince was Śākyamuni himself in a past life; and the Buddha's entrustment of the entire teaching to Maitreya, the warnings against the specific faults that can still trip up a sincere bodhisattva, and the sūtra's own closing scene, in which it receives its two names and the whole assembly rejoices together.
- A note on this final page
- This is the last of fourteen parts in this site's translation of the Vimalakīrti Sūtra, covering the sūtra's final two chapters — 法供養品第十三 (The Offering of Dharma) and 囑累品第十四 (The Final Entrustment) — together, as they form one continuous closing movement in the original text.
55. Śakra's Praise, and an Incomparable Merit
爾時釋提桓因於大眾中白佛言：「世尊！我雖從佛及文殊師利聞百千經，未曾聞此不可思議、自在神通、決定實相經典。如我解佛所說義趣，若有眾生聞是經法，信解、受持、讀誦之者，必得是法不疑，何況如說修行？斯人即為閉眾惡趣開諸善門，常為諸佛之所護念；降伏外學，摧滅魔怨；修治菩提，安處道場；履踐如來所行之跡。世尊！若有受持讀誦、如說修行者，我當與諸眷屬供養給事；所在聚落城邑、山林曠野有是經處，我亦與諸眷屬聽受法故，共到其所；其未信者，當令生信，其已信者，當為作護。」佛言：「善哉，善哉！天帝！如汝所說，吾助爾喜。此經廣說過去、未來、現在諸佛不可思議阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。是故，天帝！若善男子、善女人受持、讀誦、供養是經者，即為供養去、來、今佛。天帝！正使三千大千世界如來滿中，譬如甘蔗、竹葦、稻麻、叢林；若有善男子、善女人，或一劫、或減一劫，恭敬尊重，讚歎供養，奉諸所安，至諸佛滅後，以一一全身舍利起七寶塔——縱廣一四天下，高至梵天，表剎莊嚴——以一切華香、瓔珞、幢幡、伎樂微妙第一，若一劫、若減一劫，而供養之，於天帝意云何，其人植福寧為多不？」釋提桓因言：「多矣！世尊！彼之福德，若以百千億劫說不能盡。」佛告天帝：「當知是善男子、善女人聞是不可思議解脫經典，信解受持，讀誦修行，福多於彼。所以者何？諸佛菩提皆從是生；菩提之相不可限量，以是因緣福不可量。」
At that time Śakra, lord of the devas, said to the Buddha before the whole assembly: "World-Honored One, although I have heard a hundred thousand sūtras from the Buddha and from Mañjuśrī, I have never before heard a sūtra teaching such inconceivable, unhindered spiritual power and such decisive true reality as this one. As I understand the meaning of what the Buddha has taught, any being who hears this Dharma teaching, and believes, understands, upholds, and recites it, will certainly attain this Dharma without any doubt — how much more so one who practices exactly as it teaches? Such a person will thereby close off every evil realm and open every door of goodness; he will be constantly held in mind and protected by every buddha; he will subdue every rival teaching and destroy the enmity of every māra; he will cultivate and perfect awakening, and settle securely at the very site of enlightenment; he will walk in the very footsteps the Tathāgata himself has walked. World-Honored One, if there is anyone who upholds and recites this sūtra, and practices exactly as it teaches, I myself, together with my whole retinue, will make offerings to him and attend upon him; and wherever this sūtra is found — whether in a village, a city, a mountain forest, or a wilderness — I will likewise come there with my retinue, in order to hear and receive the Dharma; and I will cause those who do not yet believe to give rise to belief, and I will offer protection to those who already believe." The Buddha said: "Excellent, excellent, Lord of the Devas! It is exactly as you say, and I share in your joy over it. This sūtra explains at length the inconceivable unsurpassed, perfect and complete awakening of every buddha of the past, the future, and the present. For this reason, Lord of the Devas, if any good son or good daughter upholds, recites, and makes offerings to this sūtra, this is itself an offering made to the buddhas of the past, the future, and the present alike. Lord of the Devas, suppose this entire billion-world universe were filled to overflowing with tathāgatas, as numerous as stalks of sugarcane, bamboo, reeds, rice, hemp, or trees in a forest; and suppose some good son or good daughter, for a full eon or very nearly a full eon, were to revere and honor every one of them, praise and make offerings to them, and provide for their every comfort; and suppose that, after each of these buddhas had passed away, this same person raised a stūpa of the seven treasures over each buddha's own complete bodily relics, each stūpa as broad as an entire world and as tall as the Brahmā heaven, magnificently adorned with a crowning spire, and made offerings to them, for a full eon or very nearly a full eon, with every kind of flower, incense, garland, banner, and the finest and most wondrous music — what do you think, Lord of the Devas? Would the merit such a person planted be great?" Śakra, lord of the devas, said: "It would be great indeed, World-Honored One! Even speaking of that person's merit for a hundred thousand koṭis of eons could not exhaust it." The Buddha told the Lord of the Devas: "Know that a good son or good daughter who hears this inconceivable sūtra of liberation, and believes, understands, upholds, recites, and practices it, gains merit greater still than all of that. And why is this? Because the awakening of every buddha is born from exactly this; and the mark of awakening itself cannot be limited or measured — and it is for this very reason that the merit born from it cannot be measured either."
Sengzhao frames this moment as the teaching drawing to its close: Śāriputra has already praised the sūtra in the previous chapter's own closing exclamation, and now Śakra, delighted at what he too has encountered, offers his own. Though the sūtra is spoken in simple, concise language, Sengzhao writes, its meaning encompasses the whole of the canon — one who sits through it in less than a single day comes to witness every transformation the tradition has to offer, meeting the Great Vehicle's far-reaching words and the power of spiritual response all at once, with nothing left incomplete — and it is this very completeness, encountered directly rather than merely described, that Śakra marks as unprecedented. Daosheng draws the plain distinction behind the Buddha's comparison that follows: offerings of food and clothing sustain only the physical body, and at best lead to a favorable rebirth among devas or humans — they are simply not a method for attaining realization at all — whereas upholding and reciting this sūtra takes the Buddha's own embodied reality as its concern, and leads all the way to great awakening and wisdom itself; the two kinds of merit are not even comparable on the same scale, let alone equal to one another.
Sengzhao's own image for why the merit born from this practice cannot be measured is worth having whole: "a tall tree must rise from heavy soil; fine jade must grow within a rocky range" — an immeasurable result always requires an immeasurable cause, and the awakening of every buddha grows specifically out of practicing sūtras such as this one. Since awakening itself takes signlessness as its own mark, and a signless mark cannot be limited by definition, the merit born from it cannot be measured either. It is worth noticing, too, just how far the Buddha's own comparison stretches before even reaching this point — an entire universe filled as densely with buddhas as a forest is filled with trees, each honored for a full eon, then enshrined afterward in relic stūpas as tall as the Brahmā heaven itself. This kind of hyperbole, built deliberately as large as language can make it only to be exceeded anyway, is a device this sūtra uses more than once: not to diminish devotion in any physical or ceremonial form, but to show that the practice of the teaching itself outweighs even the most extravagant devotion imaginable to its outward forms.
56. The Story of Prince Candracchattra
佛告天帝：「過去無量阿僧祇劫，時世有佛，號曰藥王如來、應供、正遍知、明行足、善逝、世間解、無上士、調御丈夫、天人師、佛、世尊。世界名大莊嚴，劫曰莊嚴，佛壽二十小劫。其聲聞僧三十六億那由他，菩薩僧有十二億。天帝！是時有轉輪聖王，名曰寶蓋，七寶具足，主四天下。王有千子，端正勇健，能伏怨敵。「爾時寶蓋與其眷屬，供養藥王如來，施諸所安，至滿五劫。過五劫已，告其千子：『汝等亦當如我，以深心供養於佛。』於是千子受父王命，供養藥王如來，復滿五劫，一切施安。其王一子，名曰月蓋，獨坐思惟：『寧有供養殊過此者？』以佛神力，空中有天曰：『善男子！法之供養勝諸供養。』即問：『何謂法之供養？』天曰：『汝可往問藥王如來，當廣為汝說法之供養。』「即時月蓋王子行詣藥王如來，稽首佛足，却住一面，白佛言：『世尊！諸供養中，法供養勝。云何為法供養？』」
The Buddha told the Lord of the Devas: "Immeasurable incalculable eons ago, there lived in the world a buddha named Bhaiṣajyarāja — Tathāgata, Worthy of Offerings, Perfectly and Fully Awakened, Complete in Knowledge and Conduct, Well-Gone, Knower of the World, Unsurpassed, Tamer of Beings, Teacher of Devas and Humans, Buddha, World-Honored One. His world was called Great Adornment, and its eon was called Adornment; this buddha's own lifespan was twenty minor eons. His assembly of śrāvakas numbered thirty-six koṭis of nayutas, and his assembly of bodhisattvas numbered twelve koṭis. Lord of the Devas, at that time there was a wheel-turning sage-king named Ratnacchattra, 'Jeweled Canopy,' complete with the seven treasures, who ruled over the four continents. This king had a thousand sons, all upright and courageous, capable of subduing any rival or enemy. This King Ratnacchattra, together with his whole retinue, made offerings to the Tathāgata Bhaiṣajyarāja, and provided for his every comfort, for a full five eons. When these five eons had passed, he said to his thousand sons: 'You too should make offerings to the Buddha with a mind as deep as my own.' And so his thousand sons, receiving their father the king's command, made offerings to the Tathāgata Bhaiṣajyarāja in turn, for a further five full eons, providing for his every comfort. One of the king's sons, named Candracchattra, 'Moon-Canopy,' sat alone in thought, wondering: 'Could there possibly be an offering that surpasses even this one?' By the Buddha's own spiritual power, a deva spoke to him from the sky: 'Good man, an offering of the Dharma surpasses every other offering.' He asked at once: 'What is meant by an offering of the Dharma?' The deva said: 'You should go and ask the Tathāgata Bhaiṣajyarāja himself, and he will explain the offering of the Dharma to you at length.' Prince Candracchattra went at once to the Tathāgata Bhaiṣajyarāja, bowed his head at the Buddha's feet, withdrew to stand to one side, and said to the Buddha: 'World-Honored One, among every kind of offering, the offering of the Dharma is supreme. What, then, is meant by an offering of the Dharma?'"
Sengzhao frames this whole story as evidence rather than illustration: the previous section spoke of offering material goods; this story is brought forward specifically to establish and prove what an offering of the Dharma actually consists of, using a completed historical example rather than abstract description alone. Kumārajīva's reading of why Prince Candracchattra, alone among the king's thousand sons, wonders whether a greater offering than the one he has already made could exist, is worth sitting with: he hopes there might be some especially exalted offering, perhaps one made by great devas themselves, that could surpass even what he has already devoted himself to. It is worth noticing that his own five years of devotion — mirroring his father's five years before him — were already, by any ordinary measure, an extraordinary act of devotion, and yet the prince still senses that something is missing from it.
This story also places itself within the wider Mahāyāna literature this site has translated elsewhere. Bhaiṣajyarāja, "Medicine King," is a bodhisattva with his own prominent role in the Lotus Sūtra; here he appears instead as a past buddha, whose teaching, delivered incalculable eons before this very telling of it, turns out to be the origin point of the principle this entire final chapter is built around. A single young man's doubt about whether he has already given enough, answered by a single deva's voice heard from an empty sky, is about to become the foundation of an entire genealogy of buddhahood — though neither the prince nor the reader yet knows that at this point in the story.
57. What Is an Offering of the Dharma?
佛言：『善男子！法供養者，諸佛所說深經，一切世間難信難受，微妙難見，清淨無染，非但分別思惟之所能得，菩薩法藏所攝，陀羅尼印印之；至不退轉，成就六度，善分別義，順菩提法，眾經之上；入大慈悲，離眾魔事及諸邪見；順因緣法，無我、無人、無眾生、無壽命，空、無相、無作、無起；能令眾生坐於道場而轉法輪，諸天、龍神、乾闥婆等所共歎譽；能令眾生入佛法藏，攝諸賢聖一切智慧；說眾菩薩所行之道；依於諸法實相之義，明宣無常、苦、空、無我、寂滅之法；能救一切毀禁眾生，諸魔外道及貪著者能使怖畏，諸佛賢聖所共稱歎；背生死苦，示涅槃樂，十方三世諸佛所說；若聞如是等經，信解、受持、讀誦，以方便力為諸眾生分別解說，顯示分明，守護法故，是名法之供養。又於諸法如說修行，隨順十二因緣，離諸邪見，得無生忍；決定無我無有眾生，而於因緣果報無違無諍，離諸我所；依於義不依語，依於智不依識，依了義經不依不了義經，依於法不依人；隨順法相，無所入，無所歸；無明畢竟滅故，諸行亦畢竟滅，乃至生畢竟滅故，老死亦畢竟滅：作如是觀十二因緣，無有盡相，不復起見，是名最上法之供養。』」
The Buddha said: "Good man, an offering of the Dharma means this: the profound sūtras spoken by every buddha, which the whole world finds hard to believe and hard to accept, subtle and wondrous and hard to perceive, pure and free of any defilement, not to be attained merely by ordinary discrimination and reflection; sūtras held within the bodhisattvas' own treasury of the Dharma, sealed with the seal of dhāraṇī; sūtras that lead all the way to non-retrogression, that accomplish the six perfections, that skillfully distinguish their own meaning, and accord with the Dharma of awakening — foremost among every sūtra there is; sūtras that lead one into great loving-kindness and great compassion, free of every deed of Māra and every wrong view; sūtras that accord with the Dharma of dependent origination — with no self, no person, no being, and no life-span, with emptiness, signlessness, wishlessness, and non-arising; sūtras able to seat beings at the very site of awakening and turn the wheel of the Dharma there, praised together by every deva, dragon, and gandharva; sūtras able to bring beings into the Buddha's own treasury of the Dharma, gathering in them the wisdom of every sage and worthy one; sūtras that teach the path every bodhisattva practices; sūtras grounded in the meaning of the true reality of every phenomenon, clearly proclaiming the Dharma of impermanence, suffering, emptiness, no-self, and cessation; sūtras able to rescue every being who has broken the precepts, able to instill fear in every māra, every rival teacher, and everyone caught in attachment and craving, and praised together by every buddha and every sage and worthy one; sūtras that turn one's back on the suffering of birth-and-death and reveal the joy of nirvāṇa, taught by every buddha of the ten directions and the three times. If, upon hearing sūtras such as these, one believes, understands, upholds, and recites them, and by skillful means explains and distinguishes them clearly for the sake of other beings, displaying them plainly in order to safeguard the Dharma — this is what is called an offering of the Dharma. And furthermore: to practice exactly as taught with respect to every phenomenon; to accord with the twelve links of dependent origination, free of every wrong view, and attain the acquiescence to the birthlessness of phenomena; to be decisively certain that there is no self and no being, while remaining, with respect to the causes and effects of karma, neither in conflict nor in contention with them, free of any notion of what belongs to a self; to rely on the meaning, not on the words; to rely on wisdom, not on ordinary consciousness; to rely on sūtras of fully evident meaning, not on sūtras whose meaning is not fully evident; to rely on the Dharma, not on any particular person; to accord with the true character of every phenomenon, with nowhere for it to enter and nowhere for it to return to; to understand that because ignorance is, in the end, utterly extinguished, mental formations are likewise utterly extinguished, and so on down to understanding that because birth is, in the end, utterly extinguished, old age and death are likewise utterly extinguished — to contemplate the twelve links of dependent origination in this way, seeing that they hold no mark of ever being exhausted, and never again giving rise to any fixed view about them — this is what is called the very highest offering of the Dharma."
Kumārajīva flags a seam in this passage worth having in mind before reading it: it is really doing two jobs at once, though the sūtra does not mark the transition explicitly. The first half praises the qualities of "profound sūtras" themselves at length — from "hard to believe and hard to accept" through "taught by every buddha of the ten directions and the three times" — and only afterward does the passage turn to define what actually receiving, upholding, and practicing such a sūtra consists of; praising a sūtra's own qualities is not yet, by itself, an account of what offering it actually means. Sengzhao's gloss on the opening description is worth having in full: such a sūtra's meaning is deep and mysterious, not something an ordinary discursive mind can grasp; it is subtle without any fixed image, not something even the clear-sighted can simply see; it transcends the dust and boundary of the ordinary world, undefiled as empty space itself — to wish to believe in and truly see a sūtra like this with an ordinary, image-bound mind is no small difficulty. Since such sūtras are themselves the Buddha's own Dharma-body, Sengzhao adds, upholding and spreading them is quite literally what expands that body.
The passage's second half, beginning "and furthermore: to practice exactly as taught," marks a real shift both commentators note explicitly: everything before this concerned outwardly upholding, spreading, and proclaiming the teaching; everything from here on concerns inward practice according with it. The twelve links of dependent origination, understood correctly, without either denying that some conventional self experiences karmic results or asserting any fixed self behind that experience, lead directly into the famous "four reliances" that follow — on meaning rather than words, on wisdom rather than ordinary consciousness, on sūtras of fully evident meaning rather than those requiring further interpretation, and on the Dharma itself rather than on any particular teacher, however esteemed. Sengzhao's own formula for the last of these is worth keeping: "the Dharma may be spread by a person, but a person is not always equal to the Dharma; the Dharma has a fixed standard, a person does not — this is why the practitioner relies on the Dharma, not on the person." The passage's closing image resolves what might look like a contradiction in its own final line — calling the twelve links "utterly extinguished" while also saying they hold "no mark of exhaustion" at all. Sengzhao's own reading is elegant: extinguishment only ever arises by contrast with what is not yet extinguished; where extinguishment is truly total and constant, with nothing left un-extinguished anywhere, there is finally nothing left for "extinguishment" itself to extinguish — and this, precisely, is what having no mark of exhaustion actually means.
58. Candracchattra's Vow, and the Reveal
佛告天帝：「王子月蓋從藥王佛聞如是法，得柔順忍。即解寶衣嚴身之具，以供養佛，白佛言：『世尊！如來滅後，我當行法供養，守護正法。願以威神加哀建立，令我得降魔怨，修菩薩行。』佛知其深心所念，而記之曰：『汝於末後守護法城。』天帝！時王子月蓋，見法清淨，聞佛授記，以信出家，修集善法；精進不久，得五神通，逮菩薩道，得陀羅尼，無斷辯才。於佛滅後，以其所得神通、總持、辯才之力，滿十小劫，藥王如來所轉法輪隨而分布。月蓋比丘以守護法，勤行精進，即於此身，化百萬億人於阿耨多羅三藐三菩提立不退轉；十四那由他人，深發聲聞、辟支佛心；無量眾生得生天上。天帝！時王寶蓋豈異人乎？今現得佛，號寶炎如來；其王千子，即賢劫中千佛是也——從迦羅鳩孫駄為始得佛，最後如來號曰樓至。月蓋比丘，即我身是。如是，天帝！當知此要：以法供養於諸供養為上為最，第一無比。是故，天帝！當以法之供養，供養於佛。」
The Buddha told the Lord of the Devas: "On hearing this teaching from the Buddha Bhaiṣajyarāja, Prince Candracchattra attained the acquiescence of pliant accord. He at once removed his jeweled robes and every ornament adorning his body, and offered them to the Buddha, saying: 'World-Honored One, after the Tathāgata's own passing, I will practice the offering of the Dharma, and safeguard the true Dharma. I ask that you grant me your majestic power and compassionate support, so that I may subdue every enemy of Māra, and cultivate the conduct of a bodhisattva.' The Buddha, knowing the depth of his intention, gave him this prophecy: 'In the final age, you shall be the guardian of the city of the Dharma.' Lord of the Devas, when Prince Candracchattra saw the purity of this teaching and heard the Buddha's own prophecy, he went forth from his household life out of faith, and cultivated every wholesome quality; in no long time, through diligence, he attained the five spiritual powers, reached the bodhisattva path, attained dhāraṇī, and gained an eloquence that never falters. After that buddha's passing, by the power of the spiritual powers, the total retention, and the eloquence he had attained, he spread and disseminated the very wheel of the Dharma that the Tathāgata Bhaiṣajyarāja had first turned, for a full ten minor eons. The monk Candracchattra, through diligently safeguarding the Dharma, brought a million koṭis of people, within that very lifetime, to stand firm in non-retrogression on the path to unsurpassed, perfect and complete awakening; caused fourteen nayutas of people to give rise deeply to the aspiration of the śrāvaka or the pratyekabuddha; and caused immeasurable beings to be reborn among the devas. Lord of the Devas, could that King Ratnacchattra have been anyone else? He is none other than the one who has now attained buddhahood, named the Tathāgata Ratnārcis. And his thousand sons are none other than the thousand buddhas of this present Fortunate Eon — beginning with Krakucchanda, who was the first among them to attain buddhahood, down to the very last of them, the Tathāgata Rucika. And the monk Candracchattra is none other than myself. So you see, Lord of the Devas, you should understand this essential point: that of every kind of offering, the offering of the Dharma is the highest and the greatest, unequaled and beyond compare. For this reason, Lord of the Devas, you should honor the Buddha with an offering of the Dharma."
Kumārajīva glosses "the acquiescence of pliant accord" precisely: it names a mind that has not yet fully penetrated true reality, but whose faith and wisdom are already pliant and accordant enough to follow it without resistance — a genuine attainment, but one step short of the acquiescence to birthlessness itself, which is exactly why Candracchattra still needs to ask the Buddha for continued support against the māras rather than being simply beyond their reach already at this point in the story.
The story's closing reveal is worth pausing on for what it retroactively does to everything that came before it: King Ratnacchattra is now the Buddha Ratnārcis; his thousand sons are the thousand buddhas of the present Fortunate Eon, from Krakucchanda, its first, to Rucika, its very last; and the young prince who once wondered whether there was any offering greater than material devotion turns out to have been Śākyamuni himself, in a life incalculable eons before this one. An entire genealogy of buddhahood spanning a whole cosmic eon traces back to one young man's single moment of doubt, and one deva's single answer heard from an empty sky. Sengzhao's closing gloss draws the plain but still striking conclusion: "I myself attained true awakening by way of the offering of the Dharma — from this alone, know that the offering of the Dharma is supreme."
59. The Buddha Entrusts the Teaching to Maitreya
於是佛告彌勒菩薩言：「彌勒！我今以是無量億阿僧祇劫所集阿耨多羅三藐三菩提法，付囑於汝。如是輩經，於佛滅後末世之中，汝等當以神力廣宣流布於閻浮提，無令斷絕。所以者何？未來世中，當有善男子、善女人及天、龍、鬼神、乾闥婆、羅剎等，發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心，樂于大法；若使不聞如是等經，則失善利。如此輩人聞是等經，必多信樂，發希有心，當以頂受，隨諸眾生所應得利，而為廣說。「彌勒！當知菩薩有二相。何謂為二？一者、好於雜句文飾之事；二者、不畏深義如實能入。若好雜句文飾事者，當知是為新學菩薩；若於如是無染無著，甚深經典無有恐畏，能入其中，聞已心淨，受持讀誦，如說修行，當知是為久修道行。「彌勒！復有二法名新學者，不能決定於甚深法。何等為二？一者、所未聞深經，聞之驚怖生疑，不能隨順，毀謗不信，而作是言：『我初不聞，從何所來？』二者、若有護持、解說如是深經者，不肯親近、供養、恭敬，或時於中說其過惡。有此二法，當知是為新學菩薩，為自毀傷，不能於深法中調伏其心。「彌勒！復有二法，菩薩雖信解深法，猶自毀傷，而不能得無生法忍。何等為二？一者、輕慢新學菩薩，而不教誨；二者、雖解深法，而取相分別。是為二法。」
The Buddha then said to Maitreya Bodhisattva: "Maitreya, I now entrust to you this very Dharma of unsurpassed, perfect and complete awakening, which I have gathered together over immeasurable koṭis of incalculable eons. After the Buddha's own passing, in the final age, sūtras such as this should be widely proclaimed and spread throughout Jambudvīpa by your own spiritual power, never allowed to lapse. And why is this? Because in ages to come, there will be good sons and good daughters, and devas, dragons, spirits, gandharvas, and rākṣasas as well, who will give rise to the mind of unsurpassed, perfect and complete awakening and delight in the Great Vehicle's teaching — and if they never hear sūtras such as this one, they will lose this excellent benefit entirely. Beings such as these, upon hearing sūtras such as this, will surely believe in them and delight in them, giving rise to a rare and wondrous aspiration; you should receive this teaching upon your own head with reverence, and explain it widely, according to whatever benefit each being is able to receive. Maitreya, you should know that a bodhisattva has two possible characteristics. What are these two? The first is delighting in ornate phrases and elaborate literary display; the second is entering, without any fear, directly into profound meaning exactly as it truly is. One who delights in ornate phrases and elaborate display should be recognized as a bodhisattva still new to the path; but one who is free of fear before a sūtra this profound, this free of any defilement or attachment, who is able to enter directly into it, and whose mind becomes pure upon hearing it, upholding and reciting it and practicing exactly as it teaches, should be recognized as one who has long cultivated the path. Maitreya, there are, moreover, two further qualities that mark one as still new to the path, unable to settle with certainty into a truly profound teaching. What are these two? The first is that, on hearing a profound sūtra never encountered before, one is startled and gives rise to doubt, unable to accept it, and instead slanders it and refuses to believe it, saying: 'I never heard this before — where can it possibly have come from?' The second is that, when someone who upholds and explains a profound sūtra such as this is encountered, one is unwilling to draw near to them, make offerings to them, or show them reverence, and may even, at times, speak of their faults. Whoever has these two qualities should be recognized as a bodhisattva still new to the path, who thereby injures himself, and is unable to master his own mind within a profound teaching. Maitreya, there are, moreover, two further things by which a bodhisattva, even one who already believes in and understands a profound teaching, may still injure himself, and fail to attain the acquiescence to the birthlessness of phenomena. What are these two? The first is holding a new bodhisattva in contempt, and failing to instruct and guide him; the second is understanding a profound teaching, yet still grasping at its marks and making discriminations about it. These are the two."
Kumārajīva's explanation for why the Buddha entrusts this teaching to Maitreya specifically, rather than any of the other obvious candidates, is worth having in full: Ānanda is not entrusted with it because he lacks the spiritual power to spread it widely enough; Vimalakīrti himself is not entrusted with it because he is not, strictly, a bodhisattva native to this world; Mañjuśrī is not entrusted with it because he travels without any fixed direction and cannot be relied upon to remain; Maitreya alone receives it because it is specifically in this world that he himself is destined to attain buddhahood, and because the Buddha wishes, through this very act, to help establish his future accomplishment. Sengzhao supplies the weight behind the moment: "I have not begrudged my own body or life across immeasurable eons — my flesh given away would outweigh Mount Sumeru, my blood given away would exceed the ocean — hard-won and painstakingly gathered over so long a time, only now finally accomplished; and grieving for those still long lost in delusion, I set it down in writing. Yet beings are thin in virtue and the deeds of Māra run strong, and my own way faces many obstacles — were it not for you, who else could carry forward its rightful line? This is why I entrust it to you now, and with such weight."
The two marks distinguishing a new bodhisattva from a long-practiced one turn on a single distinction Sengzhao states plainly: ornate language is only ever the trap and the snare used to catch the meaning underneath it, and a bodhisattva still new to the path, not yet able to set language aside and seek the meaning directly, mistakes the trap itself for the prize and prefers decoration for its own sake; a bodhisattva of long practice, by contrast, can face a mysterious teaching that runs against ordinary intuition without fear, because only genuine wisdom and courage together can actually enter into something that deep. The two further faults that mark a new bodhisattva — startled doubt and slander on hearing an unfamiliar profound teaching, or refusing to draw near and support whoever teaches such a text — Sengzhao sorts cleanly as one fault against the Dharma itself and one fault against the person who carries it. And the two subtler faults that can still afflict even a bodhisattva who already believes and understands deep teachings — condescension toward beginners, and grasping at marks even while explaining emptiness — are, in his own phrase, one external affliction, failing those one should be guiding, and one internal affliction, a residual attachment lodged within one's own correct understanding. It is worth noticing how carefully graded this whole closing teaching is: not a single warning against outright disbelief, but four separate, precisely calibrated cautions against the specific ways even a sincere and already fairly advanced practitioner can still fall short.
60. The Sūtra's Name, and Its Ending
彌勒菩薩聞說是已，白佛言：「世尊！未曾有也！如佛所說，我當遠離如斯之惡，奉持如來無數阿僧祇劫所集阿耨多羅三藐三菩提法。若未來世善男子、善女人求大乘者，當令手得如是等經，與其念力，使受持讀誦、為他廣說。世尊！若後末世，有能受持讀誦、為他說者，當知皆是彌勒神力之所建立。」佛言：「善哉，善哉！彌勒！如汝所說，佛助爾喜。」於是一切菩薩合掌白佛：「我等亦於如來滅後，十方國土廣宣流布阿耨多羅三藐三菩提法，復當開導諸說法者，令得是經。」爾時四天王白佛言：「世尊！在在處處、城邑聚落、山林曠野，有是經卷、讀誦解說者，我當率諸官屬為聽法故，往詣其所，擁護其人，面百由旬，令無伺求得其便者。」是時佛告阿難：「受持是經，廣宣流布。」阿難言：「唯然！我已受持要者。世尊！當何名斯經？」佛言：「阿難！是經名為『維摩詰所說』，亦名『不可思議解脫法門』，如是受持。」佛說是經已，長者維摩詰、文殊師利、舍利弗、阿難等，及諸天、人、阿修羅一切大眾，聞佛所說，皆大歡喜。
Having heard this teaching, Maitreya Bodhisattva said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, this is truly unprecedented! Just as the Buddha has taught, I will keep myself far from such faults as these, and uphold this Dharma of unsurpassed, perfect and complete awakening which the Tathāgata has gathered together over countless incalculable eons. If, in ages to come, good sons and good daughters seek the Great Vehicle, I will see to it that sūtras such as this one come directly into their own hands, and grant them the power of mindfulness, so that they may uphold, recite, and widely explain them to others. World-Honored One, if in the final age to come there is anyone able to uphold, recite, and explain this sūtra to others, know that this is entirely due to the spiritual power that Maitreya himself has established for this purpose." The Buddha said: "Excellent, excellent, Maitreya! It is exactly as you say, and I share in your joy over it." At this, every bodhisattva present joined their palms and said to the Buddha: "We too, after the Tathāgata's own passing, will widely proclaim and spread this Dharma of unsurpassed, perfect and complete awakening throughout the lands of the ten directions, and will further guide and instruct every teacher of the Dharma, so that they too may obtain this sūtra." At that time the Four Heavenly Kings said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, wherever this sūtra scroll is found — in any village, any city, any mountain forest, or any wilderness — wherever it is read, recited, and explained, we will lead our own officers and retinues there, in order to hear the Dharma ourselves, and we will protect whoever holds it, for a hundred yojanas all around, so that no one seeking an opening to harm them will ever find one." The Buddha then said to Ānanda: "Uphold this sūtra, and proclaim it widely." Ānanda said: "Yes, indeed — I have already upheld its essential points. World-Honored One, what should this sūtra be called?" The Buddha said: "Ānanda, this sūtra is named 'The Teaching of Vimalakīrti,' and is also named 'The Dharma-Door of Inconceivable Liberation' — uphold it under these names." When the Buddha had finished speaking this sūtra, the elder Vimalakīrti, Mañjuśrī, Śāriputra, Ānanda, and the rest, together with every deva, human, and asura, and the whole great assembly, having heard what the Buddha had taught, were all filled with great joy.
Kumārajīva offers a lengthy story here that answers a very practical question a reader might actually have: why doesn't the kind of demonic interference described throughout this sūtra still happen constantly today? His answer is concrete rather than doctrinal. He tells of a once-arrogant non-Buddhist debater, Satyaka Nirgrantha, who is told by the Buddha himself that he will never attain the Buddha's own renown, nor even that of his least senior disciples — and who is reborn generations later, after the Buddha's passing, as the monk Upagupta, an arhat of enormous fame. In the story, Upagupta once shares his own meager food with a starving dog in the forest, and when the dog eventually dies, it is reborn as a deva of considerable standing, seated one day beside Māra himself — until Māra, tracing the deva's own past, discovers its origin as a common dog and, enraged that Upagupta's merit could produce such a companion for him, garlands Upagupta's head with heavenly flowers while the monk sits deep in meditative absorption, meaning to shame him publicly as unworthy of his own reputation. Upagupta, rising from absorption and recognizing Māra's hand in it, transforms the dead dog's own rotting corpse into a garland in return and binds it around Māra's neck — a garland no god in any heaven, from Śakra's own realm up through the Brahmā heavens, is able to remove, until Māra returns in defeat to beg Upagupta himself for release, and is freed only after vowing never again to disturb a practitioner of the path. It is, Kumārajīva says, this specific vow — not any change in doctrine — that explains why such open interference is no longer seen.
The chapter's closing details are worth gathering as a set: the other bodhisattvas' own vow to spread the teaching after the Buddha's passing; the Four Heavenly Kings' promise of a hundred-yojana zone of protection around wherever the sūtra is kept and taught; and finally the sūtra's own naming, given two titles at once — "The Teaching of Vimalakīrti," naming the person at its center, and "The Dharma-Door of Inconceivable Liberation," naming the single thread running through every chapter of this fourteen-part translation, from the first visit to a sick man's room all the way to an entire buddha-land lifted whole into this one. The sūtra's very last line — that the whole assembly, on hearing all of this, was filled with great joy — closes the text the same way Vimalakīrti's own room has worked throughout it: not with a final doctrinal pronouncement, but with an ordinary human response, shared without distinction by monastics, lay bodhisattvas, devas, and asuras alike, to something they have all just witnessed together.