Thereupon Maitreya Bodhisattva and the [other] Bodhisattvas [who had already been present in the congregation before the arrival of the Bodhisattvas from underground], eight thousand times as many as the sands of the River Ganges in number, thought: ‘We have never before seen these great Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas who sprang up from underground, stood before [Śākyamuni,] the World-Honored One, joined their hands together towards him, and made offerings to him. [Now we see that their leaders] inquire after him.’

It is said that [even] Maitreya did not recognize a single person because the [endowment] is such that [as an object of] enlightenment it cannot be empirically experienced [even by one who is] in the tenth stage. That what welled up was not Buddhas but bodhisattvas means that this endowment for enlightenment has necessarily to be studied accumulatively until there is nothing left to learn.

Thereupon Maitreya Bodhisattva-mahāsattva, seeing what the Bodhisattvas numbering eight thousand times as many as the sands of the River Ganges had in their minds, and also wishing to remove his own doubts, joined his hands together towards the Buddha

Riding on the thought of the multitude, [Maitreya] harbors doubts regarding [how] the Buddha since his attainment of Buddhahood could accomplish so many things [in such a short time], [Maitreya] begs [the Buddha] to resolve these doubts for the multitude, showing them the ultimate within themselves. The ever-abiding, subtle meaning is gradually revealing itself in this way.