XIX
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Soothill, William Edward and Kumārajīva
If the merits of a hearer are so vast, how much greater those of a preacher of this Sutra! We are told that such a one—and it is interesting to note, whether male or female—will obtain great increase of natural powers, both now and hereafter.
The Buddha is shown as addressing the great Bodhisattva, Ever Zealous. To him he says:
“If any good son or good daughter receives and keeps this Law-Flower Sutra, or reads, or recites, or expounds, or copies it, that person will obtain eight hundred merits of the eye, twelve hundred merits of the ear, eight hundred merits of the nose, twelve hundred merits of the tongue, eight hundred merits of the body, and twelve hundred merits of the mind; with these merits he will dignify his six organs, making them all serene. That good son or good daughter, with serene eyes of flesh, begotten by his parents, will see whatever exists within and without the Three-Thousand-Great-Thousandfold World, mountains, forests, rivers, and seas, down to the Avici hell and up to the summit of existence, and also see the living beings in it, as well as see and know in detail all their karma-causes and re-birth states of retribution.”
The twelve hundred merits of the ear are thus described in verse:
“His ears, those begotten by his parents,
Are serene, unsullied, untainted.
By these ordinary ears he hears
The sounds in the Three-Thousand World,
The sounds of elephants, horses, carts, and oxen,
The sounds of gongs, bells, conches, drums,
The sounds of lutes and harps,
The sounds of pipes and flutes,
The sounds of pure lovely song;
Listening without undue attachment,
He hears countless human sounds,
And can understand all he hears;
He hears also the sounds of gods,
And mystic voices of singing;
Hears sounds of men and women,
And sounds of youths and maidens.
In mountains, streams and gorges,
The sounds of Kalavinkas,
Ming-ming and other birds,
All these sounds he hears.
The pangs of the hosts in hell
And all the sounds of their tortures;
Hungry ghosts driven by hunger and thirst
And the sounds of their importunity;
The voices of asuras,
Inhabiting the ocean shores,
When they converse together,
And bellow forth their cries.
Such a preacher as this,
Calmly dwelling here
From afar hears these sounds
Without harm to his organ of hearing.
In the worlds in every direction,
Birds and beasts cry to each other,
And the Preacher here abiding
Hears them in every detail.