Having last month considered the third of the 10 Beneficial Effects of the Sutra of Innumerable Meaning, we consider the fourth beneficial effect:

“O you of good intent! Fourth, this sutra’s unimaginable power for beneficial effect is this: If there are living beings who can hear this sutra – whether a section of it, whether a verse of it, or whether a phrase – they will gain a dauntless attitude, they will become capable of ferrying others even though they do not yet ferry themselves, and they will gain the company of bodhisattvas. The buddha tathāgatas will always attend to such people and will expound the teachings to them. After hearing them, these people will be fully able to accept them, uphold them, and follow them without opposition; they will also, in turn, expound them appropriately to others far and wide. O you of good intent! Such people can be likened to the newborn prince of a king and queen. One day becomes two days, and then seven; one month becomes two months, and then seven; he becomes one year old, and then two, and then seven. Even though he cannot yet govern or administer the affairs of state, he is revered and respected by the people and enjoys the companionship of all great princes. The king and queen constantly give him earnest counsel and shower their affection upon him. Why is this so? It is because he is of tender age and has not yet matured. O you of good intent! So it is also with one who keeps faith with this sutra. The convergence of the buddhas and this sutra – the union of ‘king’ and ‘queen’ – gives birth to this bodhisattva-child. If this bodhisattva can hear this sutra – whether a phrase of it or whether a verse, whether one, two, ten, a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand times, or, like myriad multiples of all the sands of the Ganges River, an infinite number of times – even though he or she will not yet be able to embody its principles and truths to the fullest extent, or be able to make lands in the universe of a thousand-million Sumeru worlds tremble and shake from the rolling thunder of a Brahma voice that turns a great wheel of the Dharma, he or she will have gained the respect and admiration of all of the four kinds of followers and eight kinds of ever-present guardian spirits, will gain the company of great bodhisattvas, and will see deeply into doctrines preserved by the buddhas and be able to speak on them without fault or lack. Because this bodhisattva is just beginning to learn, he or she will always be kept in mind by the buddhas and will be wrapped in their affection. O you of good intent! This is known as the inconceivable power of the fourth beneficial effect of this sutra.

Underscore: The union of ‘king’ and ‘queen’ – gives birth to this bodhisattva-child – capable of ferrying others even though they do not yet ferry themselves.