1. The Lord then rose with recollection and consciousness from his meditation, and forthwith addressed the venerable Sâriputra: The Buddha knowledge, Sâriputra, is profound, difficult to understand, difficult to comprehend. It is difficult for all disciples and Pratyekabuddhas to fathom the knowledge arrived at by the Tathâgatas, &c., and that, Sâriputra, because the Tathâgatas have worshipped many hundred thousand myriads of kotis of Buddhas; because they have fulfilled their course for supreme, complete enlightenment, during many hundred thousand myriads of kotis of Æons; because they have wandered far, displaying energy and possessed of wonderful and marvellous properties; possessed of properties difficult to understand; because they have found out things difficult to understand. The mystery of the Tathâgatas, &c., is difficult to understand, Sâriputra, because when they explain the laws or phenomena, things that have their causes in themselves they do so by means of skilfulness, by the display of knowledge, by arguments, reasons, fundamental ideas, interpretations, and suggestions. By a variety of skilfulness they are able to release creatures that are attached to one point or another. The Tathâgatas, &c., Sâriputra, have acquired the highest perfection in skilfulness and the display of knowledge; they are endowed with wonderful properties, such as the display of free and unchecked knowledge; the powers; the absence of hesitation; the independent conditions; the strength of the organs; the constituents of Bodhi; the contemplations; emancipations; meditations; the degrees of concentration of mind. The Tathâgatas, &c., Sâriputra, are able to expound various things and have something wonderful and marvellous. Enough, Sâriputra, let it suffice to say, that the Tathâgatas, &c., have something extremely wonderful, Sâriputra. None but a Tathâgatha, Sâriputra, can impart to a Tathâgata those laws which the Tathâgata knows. And all laws, Sâriputra, are taught by the Tathâgata, and by him alone; no one but he knows all laws, what they are, how they are, like what they are, of what characteristics and of what nature they are. And on that occasion, to set forth the same subject more copiously, the Lord uttered the following stanzas:

2. Innumerable are the great heroes in the world that embraces gods and men; the totality of creatures is unable to completely know the leaders.

3. None can know their powers and states of emancipation, their absence of hesitation and Buddha properties, such as they are.

4. Of yore have I followed in presence of kotis of Buddhas the good course which is profound, subtle, difficult to understand, and most difficult to find.

5. After pursuing that career during an inconceivable number of kotis of Æons, I have on the terrace of enlightenment discovered the fruit thereof.

6. And therefore I recognise, like the other chiefs of the world, how it is, like what it is, and what are its characteristics.

7. It is impossible to explain it; it is unutterable; nor is there such a being in the world.

8. To whom this law could be explained or who would be able to understand it when explained, with the exception of the Bodhisattvas, those who are firm in resolve.

9. As to the disciples of the Knower of the world, those who have done their duty and received praise from the Sugatas, who are freed from faults and have arrived at the last stage of bodily existence, the Gina-knowledge lies beyond their sphere.

10. If this whole sphere were full of beings like Sârisuta, and if they were to investigate with combined efforts, they would be unable to comprehend the knowledge of the Sugata.

11. Even if the ten points of space were full of sages like thee, ay, if they were full of such as the rest of my disciples,

12. And if those beings combined were to investigate the knowledge of the Sugata, they would, all together, not be able to comprehend the Buddha-knowledge in its whole immensity.

13. If the ten points of space were filled with Pratyekabuddhas, free from faults, gifted with acute faculties, and standing in the last stage of their existence, as numerous as reeds and bamboos in Ganges, with undivided attention and subtle wit, even then that knowledge would be beyond their ken.

14. And if combined for an endless number of myriads of kotis of Æons, they were to investigate a part only of my superior laws, they would never find out its real meaning.

15. If the ten points of space were full of Bodhisattvas who, after having don their duty under many kotis of Buddhas, investigated all things and preached many sermons, after entering a new vehicle or rather a new career;

16. If the whole world were full of them, as of dense reeds and bamboos, without any interstices, and if all combined wre to investiage the law which the Sugata has realised;

17. If they were going on investigating for many kotis of Æons, as incalculable as the sand of the Ganges, with undivided attention and subtle wit, even then that knowledge would be beyond their understanding.

18. If such Bodhisattvas as are unable to fall back, numerous as the sand of the Ganges, were to investigate it with undivided attention, it would prove to lie beyond their ken.

19. Profound are the laws of the Buddhas, and subtle; all inscrutable and faultless. I myself know them as well as the Ginas do in the ten directions of the world.

20. Thou, Sâriputra, be full of trust in what the Sugata declares. The Gina speaks no falsehood, the great Seer who has so long preached the highest truth.

21. I address all disciples here, those who have set out to reach the enlightenment of Pratyekabuddhas, those who are roused to activity at my Nirvâna, and those who have been released from the series of evils.

22. It is by my superior skilfulness that I explain the law at great length to the world at large. I deliver whosoever are attached to one point or another, and show the three vehicles. The eminent disciples in the assembly headed by Âgñâta-Kaundinya, the twelve hundred Arhats faultess and self-controlled, the other monks, nuns, male and femal lay devotees using the vehicle of disciples, and those who had entered the vehicle of Pratyeka-buddhas, all of them made this reflection: What may be the cause, what the reason of the Lord so extremely extolling the skilfulness of the Tathâgatas? of his extolling it by saying, 'Profound is the law by me discovered;' of his extolling it by saying, 'It is difficult for all disciples and Pratyekabuddhas to understand it.' But as yet the Lord has declared no more than one kind of emancipation, and therefore we also should acquire the Buddha-laws on reaching Nirvâna. We do not catch the meaning of this utterance of the Lord. And the venerable Sâriputra, who apprehended the doubt and uncertainty of the four classes of the audience and guessed their thoughts from what was passing in his own mind, himself being in doubt about the law, then said to the Lord: What, O Lord, is the cause, what the reason of the Lord so repeatedly and extremely extolling the skilfulness, knowledge, and preaching of the Tathâgata? Why does he repeatedly extol it by saying, 'Profound is the law by me discovered; it is difficult to understand the mystery of the Tathâgatas.' Never before have I heard from the Lord such a discourse on the law. Those four classes of the audience, O Lord, are overcome with doubt and perplexity. Therefore may the Lord be pleased to explain what the Tathâgata is alluding to, when repeatedly extolling the profound law of the Tathâgatas. On that occasion the venerable Sâriputra uttered the following stanzas:

23. Now first does the Sun of men utter such a speech: 'I have acquired the powers, emancipations, and numberless meditations.'

24. And thou mentionest the terrace of enlightenment without any one asking thee: thou mentionest the mystery, although no one asks thee.

25. Thou speakest unasked and laudest thine own course; thou mentionest thy having obtained knowledge and pronouncest profound words.

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