Another Innumerable Day Before Day 1

Having last month considered the ninth beneficial effect of this sutra, we consider the tenth beneficial effect of this sutra.

“O you of good intent! Tenth, this sutra’s unimaginable power for beneficial effect is this: Whether during or after the lifetime of a buddha, if men and women of good intent who obtain this sutra give rise to great joy, realize its rarity in their minds, accept and keep faith with it, internalize and recite it, make records of it, honor it, and practice it as expounded for their own sake, and are similarly able to widely inspire both laypeople and renunciants to accept and keep faith with it, internalize and recite it, make records of and honor it, expound it, and practice the way of its teaching, then, through the energies gained from having led other people to practice this sutra, they will realize the Way and attain its fruits. Fully by reason of the dynamic transformative power of their compassionate minds, these men and women of good intent—just as they are—will opportunely come to gain access to innumerable Dharma-grasping empowerments. Still in the stages of having delusive worldly passions, they will for the first time be able to spontaneously produce countless and unlimited great vows and magnificent aspirations. They will generate a bottomless capacity to help all living beings, manifest great loving-kindness, skillfully and extensively relieve suffering, and amass acts of goodness for the benefit of all. Transmitting the Dharma-abundance that irrigates all that is parched, nurturing any living being with the Dharma’s many medicines, they will cause all to have ease and joy. Their perception will gradually become transcendent as they advance through the stage of the Dharma cloud (dharmameghā-bhūmi). With bountiful, all-embracing benevolence, and with compassion that blankets all without exception, they will lead all suffering living beings to enter the course of the Way. These people will accordingly realize and achieve the full dynamic of ultimate enlightenment before long. O you of good intent! This is known as the inconceivable power of the tenth beneficial effect of this sutra.

“O you of good intent! Such is the incomparable, all-ferrying Infinite Meanings Sutra! It possesses awe-inspiring power to the highest extent, and its value is supreme and unsurpassed! It can open the way for every being that is bound by delusive passions to attain the most sublime fruit—to forever rise above the cycle of births and deaths and attain emancipation. Thus is this sutra named Infinite Meanings! It can open the way for all living beings still in the stages of having delusive worldly passions to germinate the sprouts of all of the countless ways of bodhisattvas and let the tree of beneficial works flourish, thrive, and increase in breadth and reach. That is why this sutra is marked by its ten unimaginable powers for beneficial effect!”

See The Teachings in Nine and Twelve Divisions