..续本文上一页dvipa receive your protection. All the grasses, woods, sands, stones, paddy fields, hemp, bamboo, reeds, grains, rice, and gems come forth from the earth because of your power. Moreover, your constant praising of the beneficial deeds of Earth Store Bodhisattva makes your meritorious virtue and spiritual penetrations hundreds of thousands of times greater than those of ordinary earth spirits.

　　“If good men or women in the future make offerings to this Bodhisattva, or recite The Sutra of the Past Vows of Earth Store Bodhisattva and rely upon even a single aspect of it in their cultivation, you should use your own spiritual powers to protect them. Do not allow any disasters or unwelcome events even to be heard, much less undergone, by them. Not only will those people be protected by you, but they will also be protected by the followers of Shakra, Brahma, and other gods. Why will they receive protection from sages and worthies such as those

　　 It will be due to their having beheld and worshipped an image of Earth Store Bodhisattva and from having recited this sutra of his past vows. Such people will quite naturally be able to leave the sea of suffering and will ultimately be certified to the bliss of Nirvana. For those reasons, they will receive great protection.”

　　Chapter XII

　　Benefits Derived from Seeing and Hearing

　　At that time, the World Honored One emitted millions of billions of great rays of light from the crown of his head. They were the White Ray, the Great White Ray, the Auspicious Ray, the Great Auspicious Ray, the Jade Ray, the Great Jade Ray, the Purple Ray, the Great Purple Ray, the Blue Ray, the Great Blue Ray, the Azure Ray, the Great Azure Ray, the Red Ray, the Great Red Ray, the Green Ray, the Great Green Ray, the Gold Ray, the Great Gold Ray, the Celebration Cloud Ray, the Great Celebration Cloud Ray, the Thousand-Wheeled Ray, the Great Thousand-Wheeled Ray, the Jeweled Wheel Ray, the Great Jeweled Wheel Ray, the Solar Disc Ray, the Great Solar Disc Ray, the Lunar Disc Ray, the Great Lunar Disc Ray, the Palace Ray, the Great Palace Ray, the Ocean Cloud Ray, and the Great Ocean Cloud Ray.

　　After emitting such rays of light from the crown of his head, he spoke in subtle and wonderful sounds to the great assembly of gods, dragons, the rest of the eightfold pision, humans, non-humans and others. “Hear me today in the palace of the Trayastrimsha Heaven as I praise Earth Store Bodhisattva, telling of his beneficial deeds, of inconceivable events, of the matter of his transcendence to sagehood, of the circumstances of his certification to the Tenth Ground, and of the situation leading to his becoming irreversible from Anuttarasamyaksambodhi.”

　　After he said that, the Bodhisattva Mahasattva named Contemplator of the World”s Sounds rose from his seat in the assembly, knelt, and with palms together said to the Buddha, “World Honored One, Earth Store Bodhisattva Mahasattva is replete with great compassion and pities beings who are suffering for their offenses. In thousands of billions of worlds he creates thousands of billions of transformation bodies through the strength of his meritorious virtue and inconceivable awesome spiritual power.

　　“I have heard the World Honored One and the numberless Buddhas of the Ten Directions praise Earth Store Bodhisattva in unison, saying that even if all the Buddhas of the past, present, and future were to speak of his meritorious qualities, they could never finish describing them. Upon hearing the World Honored One tell the great assembly that he now wants to praise Earth Store Bodhisattva”s beneficial deeds and so forth, I am beseeching the World Honored One to praise the inconceivable events pertaining to Earth Store Bodhisattva, for the sake of beings of the present and future and to caus…

《地藏经 The Earth Store Sutra》全文未完，请进入下页继续阅读…