Day 11 continues Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City

I’m a big fan of the now-departed TV series Fringe, in which parallel worlds play a major part. (Thank you, Netflix, for introducing me.) I bring this up because of what happens when Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha attained Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi:

[F]ive hundred billion Buddha-worlds in each of the ten quarters quaked in the six ways, and all those worlds, including those intercepted from the brilliant rays of light of the sun and the moon by the neighboring worlds, were illumined [by great rays of light], and the living beings of those worlds were able to see each other for the first time. They said to each other, ‘How did you appear so suddenly?’

In each of the 10 directions – east, southeast, south, southwest, west, northwest, north, northeast, nadir and zenith – the Brahman-heavenly-kings of the billions of worlds find their palaces illuminated twice as brightly as normal. The Brahman-heavenly-kings of each direction gather, and consider:

Why are our palaces illumined
More brightly than ever?
Let us find [the place]
[From where this light has come].

Did a god of great virtue or a Buddha
Appear somewhere in the universe?
This great light illumines
The worlds of the ten quarters.

The Brahman-Heavenly-Kings set off toward the light carrying trays of flowers and towing their palaces along with them. And when they arrive they see the Buddha on his lion-like seat surrounded by “gods, dragon-kings, gandharvas, kimnaras, mahoragas, men and nonhuman beings” and the 16 princes begging the Buddha to turn the wheel of the Dharma.

As Brahman-Heavenly-Kings from each direction arrive they offer the flowers and their palaces to the Buddha and then sing their praises. I find great Brahman-heavenly-king Sikhin of the Zenith offers the best song. I particularly like the explanation of what happens when there is no Buddha in the universe:

How good it is to see a Buddha,
To see the Honorable Saint who saves the world!
He saves all living beings
From the prison of the triple world.

The All-Knower, the Most Honorable One
of Gods and Men,
Opens the gate of the teachings as sweet as nectar,
And saves all living beings
Out of his compassion towards them.

There has been no Buddha
For the past innumerable kalpas.
Before you appeared,
The worlds of the ten quarters were dark.

The living beings in the three evil regions
And asuras are increasing.
The living beings in heaven are decreasing.
Many fall into the evil regions after their death.

They do not hear the Dharma from a Buddha.
Because they did evils,
Their appearances are getting worse;
And their power and wisdom, decreasing.
Because they did sinful karmas,
They lose pleasures and the memory of pleasures.
They are attached to wrong views.
They do not know how to do good.
They are not taught by a Buddha;
Therefore, they fall into the evil regions.

Now you have appeared for the first time
after a long time,
And become the eyes of the world.
You have appeared in this world
Out of your compassion towards all living beings,
And finally attained perfect enlightenment.
We are very glad.
All the others also rejoice at seeing you,
Whom they have never seen before.

Our palaces are beautifully adorned
With your light.
We offer them to you.
Receive them out of your compassion towards us!

May the merits we have accumulated by this offering
Be distributed among all living beings,
And may we and all other living beings
Attain the enlightenment of the Buddha!

To be continued…