Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 21.djvu/97

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
ii.
SKILFULNESS.
49

there be any who feel doubts, (let them know that) the Lords of the world speak the truth; this is the only vehicle, a second there is not.

70. The former Tathâgatas also, living in the past for innumerable Æons, the many thousands of Buddhas who are gone to final rest, whose number can never be counted,

71. Those highest of men[1] have all of them revealed most holy laws by means of illustrations, reasons, and arguments, with many hundred proofs of skilfulness.

72. And all of them have manifested but one vehicle and introduced but one on earth; by one vehicle have they led to full ripeness inconceivably many thousands of kotis of beings.

73. Yet the Ginas possess various and manifold means through which the Tathâgata reveals to the world, including the gods, superior enlightenment, in consideration of the inclinations and dispositions (of the different beings).

74. And all in the world who are hearing or have heard the law from the mouth of the Tathâgatas, given alms, followed the moral precepts, and patiently accomplished the whole of their religious duties;

75. Who have acquitted themselves in point of zeal and meditation, with wisdom reflected on those laws, and performed several meritorious actions, have all of them reached enlightenment.

76. And such beings as were living patient, subdued, and disciplined, under the rule of the Ginas of those times, have all of them reached enlightenment.


  1. Purushottamâh.
[21]
E