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362
SADDHARMA-PUNDARÎKA.
xix.

are the monks here before me,—no less than five hundred,—nuns, and female lay devotees[1].

10. All of them have been by me brought to complete ripeness, and after my extinction they will all, full of wisdom, keep this Sûtra.

11. Not once in many, inconceivably many kotis of Æons has such a Sûtra as this been heard. There are, indeed, hundreds of kotis of Buddhas, but they do not elucidate this Sûtra.

12. Therefore let one who has heard this law exposed by the Self-born himself, and who has repeatedly propitiated him, promulgate this Sûtra after my extinction in this world.


  1. The text has upâsikâh.