The great multitude of the congregation, which included bhikṣus, bhikṣunīs, upāsakās, upāsikās, gods, dragons, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras, mahoragas, men, nonhuman beings, the kings of small countries, and the wheel-turning-holy-kings, were astonished. They rejoiced, joined their hands together [towards the Buddha], and looked up at him with one mind.

Thereupon the Buddha emitted a ray of light from the white curls between his eyebrows, and illumined all the corners of eighteen thousand worlds in the east, down to the Avchi Hell of each world, and up to the Akanistha Heaven of each world.

Knowing for certain that there will be an extraordinary preaching, they wait to hear the unusual speech.

[The ray of light] is intended to illustrate the right middle-path of the One Vehicle and the nonexistence of the two vehicles that are an illusion and hindrance. Its presence in the forehead signifies the mark of “impartiality.” When it shines, the [noble] knowledge will certainly become manifest.

The East is the cardinal of all directions. This is to show [analogically] the mystery that the One Vehicle is [identical with] the three vehicles. Also expressed here is that one who becomes enlightened to [the meaning of] the Greater [Vehicle] is [no less than the one who has been] so darkly merged [with the ultimate foundation] that he cannot
exhaust his illumination.

Although it illuminated in one direction, [the Buddha] intended to show that there was no place that such light could not illuminate. Thus by [the expression] eighteen thousand he meant to demonstrate that his illumination was not limited to one [direction]. That it illuminated throughout the regions above and below implies that ‘there is no place where the Tao is not present.’