WHY A BODHISATTVA CAN INVOKE THE MANDATE OF HEAVEN BY THE SADDHARMAPUNDARIKA-SUTRA

I AM A BODHISATTVA OF THE EARTH. HERE IS WHY HEAVEN AND EARTH PROTECTS ME, AND WHY I CAN INVOKE THE MANDATE OF HEAVEN:

CHAPTER XVI.

OF PIETY.

"While this exposition of the duration of the Tathagata's lifetime was being given, innvimerable, countless creatures profited by it. Then the Lord addressed the Bodhisattva Mahasattva Maitreya: While this exposition of the duration of the Tathagata's lifetime was being given, Agita, sixty- eight hundred thousand myriads of kotis of Bodhisattvas, comparable to the sands of the Ganges, have acquired the faculty to acquiesce in the law that has no origin. A thousand times more Bodhisattvas Mahisattvas have obtained Dharani [Dharani usually denotes a magic spell, a talisman. Here and there it interchanges with dharana, support, the bearing in mind, attention. The synonymous raksha embraces the meaning of talisman and protection, support. It is not easy to decide what is intended in the text]; and other Bodhisattvas Mahasattvas, equal to the dust atoms of one third of a macrocosm, have by hearing this Dharmaparyaya obtained the faculty of unhampered view. Other Bodhisattvas Mahasattvas again, equal to the dust atoms of two-third parts of a macrocosm, have by hearing this Dharmaparyaya obtained the Dharani that makes hundred thousand kotis of revolutions. Again, other Bodhisattvas Mahasattvas, equal to the dust atoms of a whole macrocosm, have by hearing this Dharmaparyaya moved forward the wheel that never rolls back."'

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