VIMALAKIRTI NIRDESA SUTRA
Translated by Robert A. F. Thurman
Copyright 1976, The Pennsylvania State University
1. Purification of the Buddha-FieldReverence to all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Aryasravakas, and Pratyekabuddhas, in the past, the present, and the future.
Thus have I heard at one time. The Lord Buddha was in residence in the garden of Amrapali, in the city of Vaisali, attended by a great gathering. Of bhikshus there were eight thousand, all saints. They were free from impurities and afflictions, and all had attained self-mastery. Their minds were entirely liberated by perfect knowledge. They were calm and dignified, like royal elephants. They had accomplished their work, done what they had to do, cast off their burdens, attained their goals, and totally destroyed the bonds of existence. They all had attained the utmost perfection of every form of mind control.
Of bodhisattvas there were thirty-two thousand, great spiritual heroes who were universally acclaimed. They were dedicated through the penetrating activity of their great superknowledges and were sustained by the grace of the Buddha. Guardians of the city of Dharma, they upheld the true doctrine, and their great teachings resounded like the lion’s roar throughout the ten directions.
Without having to be asked, they were the natural spiritual benefactors of all living beings. They maintained unbroken the succession of the Three Jewels, conquering devils and foes and overwhelming all critics.
Their mindfulness, intelligence, realization, meditation, incantation, and eloquence all were perfected. They had attained the intuitive tolerance of the ultimate incomprehensibility of all things. They turned the irreversible wheel of the Dharma. They were stamped with the insignia of signlessness.
They were expert in knowing the spiritual faculties of all living beings. They were brave with the confidence that overawes all assemblies. They had gathered the great stores of merit and of wisdom, and their bodies, beautiful without ornaments, were adorned with all the auspicious signs and marks. They were exalted in fame and glory, like the lofty summit of Mount Sumeru. Their high resolve as hard as diamond, unbreakable in their faith in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, they showered forth the rain of ambrosia that is released by the light rays of the jewel of the Dharma, which shines everywhere.
Their voices were perfect in diction and resonance, and versatile in speaking all languages. They had penetrated the profound principle of relativity and had destroyed the persistence of the instinctual mental habits underlying all convictions concerning finitude and infinitude. They spoke fearlessly, like lions, sounding the thunder of the magnificent teaching. Unequaled, they surpassed all measure. They were the best captains for the voyage of discovery of the treasures of the Dharma, the stores of merit and wisdom.
They were expert in the way of the Dharma, which is straight, peaceful, subtle, gentle, hard to see, and difficult to realize.
They were endowed with the wisdom that is able to understand the thoughts of living beings, as well as their comings and goings. They had been consecrated with the anointment of the peerless gnosis of the Buddha. With their high resolve, they approached the ten powers, the four fearlessnesses, and the eighteen special qualities of the Buddha.
They had crossed the terrifying abyss of the bad migrations, and yet they assumed reincarnation voluntarily in all migrations for the sake of disciplining living beings. Great Kings of medicine, understanding all the sicknesses of passions, they could apply the medicine of the Dharma appropriately.
They were inexhaustible mines of limitless virtues, and they glorified innumerable buddha-fields with the splendor of these virtues. They conferred great benefit when seen, heard, or even approached. Were one to extol them for innumerable hundreds of thousands of myriads of aeons, one still could not exhaust their mighty flood of virtues.
These bodhisattvas were named: Samadarsana, Asamadarsana, Samadhivikurvitaraja, Dharmesvara, Dharmaketu, Prabhaketu, Prabhavyuha, Ratnavyuha, Mahavyuha, Pratibhanakuta, Ratnakuta, Ratnapani, Ratnamudrahasta, Nityapralambahasta, Nityotksipthasta, Nityatapta, Nityamuditendriya, Pramodyaraja, Devaraja, Pranidhanapravesaprapta, Prasiddhapratisamvitprapta, Gaganaganja, Ratnolkaparigrhita, Ratnasura, Ratnapriya, Ratnasri, Indrajala, Jaliniprabha, Niralambanadhyana, Prajnakuta, Ratnadatta, Marapramardaka, Vidyuddeva, Vikurvanaraja, Kutanimittasamatikranta, Simhanadanadin, Giryagrapramardiraja, Gandhahastin, Gandhakunjaranaga, Nityodyukta, Aniksiptadhura, Pramati, Sujata, Padmasrigarbha, Padmavyuha, Avalokitesvara, Mahasthamaprapta, Brahmajala, Ratnadandin, Marakarmavijeta, Ksetrasamalamkara, Maniratnacchattra, Suvarnacuda, Manicuda, Maitreya, Manjusrikumarabhuta, and so forth, with the remainder of the thirty-two thousand. …
Such it is, America Buddhists, Such. It. Is.
NAMO BHAGAVATE BHAISAJAYA-GURU-VAIDURYA-PRABHA-RAJAYA
TATHAGATAYA
Xing Ping
如是我聞:一時,佛在毘耶離庵羅樹園,與大比丘眾八千人俱,菩薩三萬二千,眾所知識,大智本行,皆悉成就。
諸佛威神之所建立,為護法城,受持正法;能師子吼,名聞十方;眾人不請,友而安之;紹隆三寶,能使不絕;降伏魔怨,制諸外道,悉已清淨,永離蓋纏;心常安住,無礙解脫;念、定、總持,辯才不斷;布施、持戒、忍辱、精進、禪定、智慧及方便力,無不具足;逮無所得,不起法忍;已能隨順,轉不退輪;善解法相,知眾生根;蓋諸大眾,得無所畏;功德智慧,以修其心;相好嚴身,色像第一,捨諸世間所有飾好;名稱高遠,踰於須彌;深信堅固,猶若金剛;法寶普照,而雨甘露;於眾言音,微妙第一;深入緣起,斷諸邪見,有無二邊,無復餘習;演法無畏,猶師子吼,其所講說,乃如雷震,無有量,已過量;集眾法寶,如海導師,了達諸法深妙之意;善知眾生往來所趣及心所行;近無等等佛自在慧、十力、無畏、十八不共;關閉一切諸惡趣門,而生五道以現其身;為大醫王,善療眾病,應病與藥,令得服行;無量功德皆成就,無量佛土皆嚴淨;其見聞者,無不蒙益;諸有所作,亦不唐捐;如是一切功德、皆悉具足。
其名曰:等觀菩薩、不等觀菩薩、等不等觀菩薩、定自在王菩薩、法自在王菩薩、法相菩薩、光相菩薩、光嚴菩薩、大嚴菩薩、寶積菩薩、辯積菩薩、寶手菩薩、寶印手菩薩、常舉手菩薩、常下手菩薩、常慘菩薩、喜根菩薩、喜王菩薩、辯音菩薩、虛空藏菩薩、執寶炬菩薩、寶勇菩薩、寶見菩薩、帝網菩薩、明網菩薩、無緣觀菩薩、慧積菩薩、寶勝菩薩、天王菩薩、壞魔菩薩、電德菩薩、自在王菩薩、功德相嚴菩薩、師子吼菩薩、雷音菩薩、山相擊音菩薩、香象菩薩、白香象菩薩、常精進菩薩、不休息菩薩、妙生菩薩、華嚴菩薩、觀世音菩薩、得大勢菩薩、梵網菩薩、寶杖菩薩、無勝菩薩、嚴土菩薩、金髻菩薩、珠髻菩薩、彌勒菩薩、文殊師利法王子菩薩,如是等三
萬二千。…
即如是,美国佛教者,即。如。是。
南无消灾延寿药师佛
性平




Wierdly, this same Nine Palace array (九宫格) is used in a faddy Japanese numbers game, Sudoku. At left is an example of the beginning of one of these games, which are solitary like crossword, and are said to have addictive qualities. I view this game as a mental pollution. An ancient way of understanding the world has been perverted into a way to simply be entangled in your own mind. 



