Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 21.djvu/376

 CHAPTER XVII. INDICATION OF THE MERITORIOUSNESS OF JOYFUL ACCEPTANCE.

Thereupon the Bodhisattva Mah&sattva Maitreya said to the Lord: O Lord, one who, after hearing this Dharmaparyaya being preached, joyfully accepts it, be that person a young man of good family or a young lady, how much merit, O Lord, will be produced by such a young man or young lady of good family? And on that occasion the Bodhisattva Mahasattva Maitreya uttered this stanza:

1. How great will be the merit of him who, after the extinction of the great Hero, shall hear this exalted Sfitra and joyfully accept it ?

And the Lord said to the Bodhisattva Mah&sattva Maitreya : If any one, A^ita, either a young man of good family or a young lady, after the complete extinction of the Tath&gata, hears the preaching of this Dharmapary&ya, let it be a monk or nun, a male or female lay devotee, a man of ripe understanding or a boy or girl ; if the hearer joyfully accepts it, and then after the sermon rises up to go elsewhere, to a monastery, house, forest, street, village, town, or province, with the motive and express aim to expound the law such as he has understood, such as he has heard it, and according to the measure of his power,