Overall Teaching
Upholding, reading, reciting, and explaining the sutra to others leads to profound spiritual benefits, including 1. perfected merit, 2. protection, 3. wisdom, and 4. eloquence, and ensures future positive rebirths. Practitioners are encouraged to maintain virtuous conduct and devotion to the Buddha's teachings, while those who violate ethical precepts are warned of the consequences. The chapter underscores the importance of dedication and resilience in spreading the Dharma and emphasises the deep karmic connections beings may have to this sutra's teachings.
Summary
The Buddha declares that there are four benefits to upholding, reading, and reciting this sūtra and explaining it to others:
They will perfect and fulfill merit and virtue.
They will not be harmed by enemies.
They will perfect boundless wisdom.
They will perfect immeasurable eloquence.
Then, in verse, the Buddha adds, in addition to reiterating the above benefits:
They will be loved by the wise in expounding this sūtra, which they will be able to do for hundreds of kalpas without exhausting.
They will often see the buddhas before them.
Candraprabha, pleased at hearing this, further asked the Buddha to explain what kind of person in the future will be able to hear this sūtra.
In response, the Buddha explained:
If one wishes to encounter the sūtra in the future, one should now listen to and uphold it. By practising wholesome deeds and avoiding evil, as well as making offerings to buddhas, one will be able to hear it in the future.
On the contrary, those who violate the precepts will not be able to hear or accept this sūtra. This includes those who slandered the Dharma from other paths, but also monastics who violate their vinaya commitments. Such a person will be an ally of Māra and think that they have attained the goal of the path with minor meditative attainments.
Candraprabha declared that he will work to propagate sūtras like this in the Age of Dharma Decline, enduring slander without giving rise to anger.
The Buddha touched Candraprabha's head and declared that he will be protected in the future.
At that point, eight hundred bhikṣus stood up and declared that they would also protect and uphold this sūtra.
In response, the Buddha said that they would also be protected.
Then the earth shook and in all directions, people saw emanations of Śākyamuni Buddha teaching this sūtra to innumerable beings who heard it and abided in its wisdom. Thereupon, nine billion devas showered flowers over the Buddha.
The Buddha then prophesied that all the beings who vowed to uphold this sūtra will see buddhas in the future, will make offerings to the future Buddha of our world, Maitreya, and will be born in Amitābha's Land of Bliss.
He declared that if there are people who weep upon hearing this sūtra in the future, they have already made offerings to the Buddha in their past lives.
He also reminded the entire assembly that it is by this samādhi that one attains the path of bodhi, and therefore he entrusted this sūtra to the assembly.
Commentary
In Thrangu Rinpoche's commentary, he reviews the four qualities of upholding this sūtra, adding:
In terms of the benefit of merit and virtue, it includes the benefit of attaining the first bodhisattva stage (Joyous).
In terms of the benefit of being unharmed, it includes fearlessness in declaring the true path, which refers to four fearlessnesses:
i. Being fearless concerning abandonment (i.e., knowing that one has fully abandoned defects without fear).
ii. Fearlessness at one's own attainment (i.e., conviction that one has really attained the samādhi taught by the Buddha).
iii. Fearlessness in the face of an attack or objection when teaching the Dharma, because one knows what one has realised directly.
iv. Fearlessness in declaring the obstacles to the path of liberation, even when devas or māras declare it to be otherwise.
Boundless wisdom means realising the natural state of the mind that we have failed to realise for beginningless saṃsāra. This is also called the "wisdom that knows the nature of things as they are," which is balanced with "wisdom that perceives all that exists." This includes wisdom that is unmistaken and unhindered.
Immeasurable eloquence is implied by fearlessness—not being afraid of taking a wrong path and having self-assurance from training in the samādhi. It also includes knowledge that one won't misguide others by worrying whether what one is teaching might lead them on a wrong path.
Discussion
Can you think of practical ways the four benefits might manifest in our daily practice?
What does this chapter have to say for resiliance in the face of challenges in spreading the Dharma during our era?