Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 21.djvu/402

 CHAPTER XIX. SADÂPARIBHÛTA. The Lord then addressed the Bodhisattva Mahâsattva Mahâsthâmaprâpta. In a similar way, Mahâsthâmaprâpta, one may infer from what has been said that he who rejects such a Dhafmaparydya as this, who abuses monks, nuns, lay devotees male or female, keeping this Sûtra, insults them, treats them with false and harsh words, shall experience dire results, to such an extent as is impossible to express in words. But those that keep, read, comprehend, teach, amply expound it to others, shall experience happy results, such as I have already mentioned: they shall attain such a perfection of the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind as just described.

In the days of yore, Mahâsthâmaprâpta, at a past period, before incalculable Æons, nay, more than incalculable, immense, inconceivable, and even long before, there appeared in the world a Tathâgata, &c., named Bhîshmagargitasvararâga, endowed with science and conduct, a Sugata, &c. &c., in the Æon Vinirbhoga, in the world Mahâsambhava. Now, Mahâsthâmaprâpta, that Lord Bhîshmagargitasvararâga, the Tathâgata, &c., in that world Vinirbhoga, showed the law in the presence of the world, including gods, men, and demons; the law containing the four noble truths and starting from the chain of causes and effects, tending to overcome birth, decrepitude, sickness, death, sorrow, lamentation,