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ONCE, ON VULTURE PEAK in Rajagraha, Shakyamuni Buddha said to Bhaishajyaraja Bodhisattva Mahasattva:
Bhaishajyaraja, wherever a sutra is expounded, read, chanted, copied, or kept, a seven-treasure stupa, tall, wide, and solemn, is erected, but do not enshrine the Buddha’s relics in it. The reason is that a stupa embodies the Tathagata’s entire body. Make offerings of all sorts of flowers, incense, jewels, canopies, banners, music, and chanting verses to respect, revere, and admire the stupa. When people see this stupa, bow, and make offerings to it, they know that they are closer to unsurpassable, complete enlightenment.
In this way, a sutra is expounded, read, chanted, and copied. A sutra is reality. To build a seven-treasure stupa is to build reality. The stupa’s height and breadth are the scale of reality. A stupa embodies the Tathagata’s entire body means a stupa is the Tathagata’s entire body.
Thus, expounding, reading, chanting, copying, and so on, are the Tathagata’s entire body. Make offerings of all sorts of flowers, incense, jewels, canopies, banners, music, and chanting verses to respect, revere, and admire the stupa. Or, offer heavenly flowers, heavenly incense, and heavenly canopies, and so on. These are all marks of reality. Or, offer excellent flowers, excellent incense, renowned robes, and renowned garments of the human realm. These are all marks of reality.
A stupa is erected, but do not enshrine the Buddha’s relics in it: from this we know that a sutra is the relics of the Tathagata, the entire body of the Tathagata.
There is no greater merit than seeing and hearing golden words uttered by the Buddha. Hurry up and accumulate effort and virtue. When you see people bow and make offerings to the stupa, know that they are closer to unsurpassable, complete enlightenment. When you see the tower, sincerely bow and make offerings to it. Thus, all come closer to unsurpassable, complete enlightenment. Closer to is not come close to or go close to. Unsurpassable, complete enlightenment is all closer to.
Right now, when you see those who receive, chant, elucidate, and copy a sutra, you are seeing this stupa. Rejoice that all are close to unsurpassable, complete enlightenment.
This being so, a sutra is the Tathagata’s entire body. To bow to a sutra is to bow to the Tathagata’s entire body. To encounter a sutra is to encounter the Tathagata’s entire body.
A sutra is the relics of the Tathagata. So, the relics of the Tathagata are a sutra. Even if you know that a sutra is the relics of the Tathagata, if you don’t know that the relics of the Tathagata are a sutra, it is not the buddha way.
The reality of all things right now is a sutra. Human realms, deva realms, ocean, empty space, this land, and other lands are the reality of all things, a sutra, relics. Hold, chant, elucidate, and copy the relics and unfold enlightenment. This is to follow a sutra.
There are relics of ancient buddhas, present buddhas, pratyeka-buddhas, wheel-turning kings, and lions [kings of dharma], and there are relics of wooden buddhas and painted buddhas. There are also relics of humans. Nowadays, among buddha ancestors in China, there are those who manifest relics while they are alive, and there are many who manifest relics after being cremated. Such relics are all sutras.
Shakyamuni Buddha said to the assembly, “I practiced the bodhisattva path in my past life. The long life I have achieved by this has not been exhausted. My life span will be doubled in my future life.”
The relics of eighty-four to [approximately twenty-five bushels] are no other than the Tathagata’s timeless life. How much is the life span of one who practiced the bodhisattva path in the past life beyond the boundary of the billion worlds? This is the Tathagata’s entire body, a sutra.
Prajna Kuta Bodhisattva said [in the Lotus Sutra], “I see that Shakyamuni Buddha was engaged in difficult and painful practice through innumerable eons, piling up effort, accumulating virtue, and ceaselessly pursuing the bodhisattva path. When I observe the billion worlds, there is not even a poppy seed that is not a place where this bodhisattva gave up his life for the sake of other beings. Thus, he achieved the path of enlightenment.”
From this I know that the billion worlds are a piece of his compassionate heart, a bit of his boundless realm, the Tathagata’s entire body. It is beyond whether he did or did not give up his life.
Relics are neither before nor after the Buddha, nor do they stand shoulder to shoulder with the Buddha. Being engaged in difficult and rigorous practice through innumerable eons is the Buddha’s womb and abdomen activities, the Buddha’s skin, flesh, bones, and marrow. This is spoken of as ceaselessly. He makes further effort after attaining buddhahood. He goes further and further, giving guidance to the billion worlds. This is the activity of the Tathagata’s entire body.
Presented to the assembly of the Yoshimine Temple, Yoshida County, Echizen Province, on the fifteenth day, the second month, the second year of the Kangen Era [1244].