The Lotus Sutra: Chapter 1

Then it was that Maitreya, the Bodhisattva Mahâsattva, addressed Mañgusrî, the prince royal, in the following stanzas: 1. Why, Mañgusrî, does this ray darted by the guide of men shine forth from between his brows? this single ray issuing from the circle of hair? and why this abundant rain of Mandâravas? 2. The gods, overjoyed, let drop Mañgûshakas and sandal powder, divine, fragrant, and delicious. 3. This earth is, on every side, replete with splendour, and all the four classes of the assembly are filled with delight, while the whole field shakes in six different ways, frightfully. 4. And that ray in the eastern quarter illuminates the whole of eighteen thousand Buddha-fields, simultaneously, so that those fields appear as gold-coloured. 5. (The universe) as far as the (hell) Aviki (and) the extreme limit of existence, with all beings of those fields living in any of the six states of existence, those who are leaving one state to be born in another; 6. Their various and different actions in those states have become visible; whether they are in a happy, unhappy, low, eminent, or intermediate position, all that I see from this place. 7. I see also the Buddhas, those lions of kings, revealing and showing the essence of the law, comforting many kotis of creatures and emitting sweet-sounding voices. 8. They let go forth, each in his own field, a deep, sublime, wonderful voice, while proclaiming the Buddha-laws by means of myriads of kotis of illustrations and proofs.