At that time, those in the great assembly said to one another, "The suffering, the suffering! The world is vacant! It will not be long now that the Tathagata will enter parinirvana." Then the great assembly all saw Bodhisattva Limitless Body and his retinue. From each hair on the bodhisattva”s body was produced a great lotus flower. Each one of these lotus flowers had 78,000 cities on them that sprawled out like the city Vaisali. The cities” walls and moats were embedded and filled with a variety of mixtures of the seven treasures. There were jeweled Tala trees and the seven kinds of path railings. The common people were prosperous, peaceful, wealthy, and happy. The Jambu river, whose sands were gold, had tributaries, each of which had forests of seven-treasured trees on their banks. These trees flowered and bore fruit abundantly. A fine wind whistled and moved in the trees, producing a marvelous sound. The sound was harmonious and graceful like heavenly music.
Inside the cities, the people heard this music and, when they did, partook of a most wondrously resolute happiness. There were depressions filled with wondrous waters that were pure and clean smelling, like true agate. In these waters there were boats made of the seven treasures that carried people who played sports and bathed on the decks. They enjoyed each other”s company and theirs was a firm and unchanging happiness. And there was an infinite number of variously hued lotus flowers. There were blue lotuses, white lotuses, red lotuses, and silver lotuses. These flowers had diameters measuring like cartwheels.
And on the outside of the cities” moats there were numerous forest parks. In each of these parks there was five springs and lakes. And in these lakes there were lotuses. There were blue lotuses, white lotuses, red lotuses, and silver lotuses. These lotus flowers had a diameter that was also like cartwheels. They perfumed the air with luxuriant fragrances that were most lovely. The waters of the lakes were pure, the lotus flowers soft and pliable, the best. There were drakes, geese, ducks, and other waterfowl that frolicked in the lakes.
Those parks had palaces and households. Each of these palaces and households had a diameter and height filling four yojanas. They possessed property walls made completely of four precious materials. Those were gold, silver, agate, and rock crystal. Windows of real gold were set in the encircling wall. The floors were made of ruby and coated with gold dust. Inside of the palaces and households were bathing pools made of the seven treasures. Around the border of each of these bathing pools there are eighteen golden staircases and ladders. And on the shores of the Jambu rivers were plantain trees. These parks were comparable to the elation of the Trayas-trimsa heaven.
Each of these cities had 84,000 human kings. Each of these kings had an infinite number of wives and concubines. They enjoyed one another”s company, happily frolicking. The remaining people of the cities were also so. In each home they happily frolicked. In these places sentient beings do not hear the names of the heretics. Purely, they hear the voice of the unsurpassed Mahayana.
In each those lotus flowers, there was a lion”s throne. The four feet of those thrones were all made of a deep blue agate. A soft and pliable cloth covered the tops of the thrones. That cloth was marvelous and made beyond the three realms. Atop each of those thrones a king sat who transformed sentient beings with the Dharma teachings of the Mahayana. On some on the thrones there were sentient beings who copied, kept, read, and recited as they were taught the Mahayana scriptures, thus propagating them.
At that time, Bodhisattva Limitless Body stood still and this caused the infinite sentien…
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