Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra 

A Detailed Exposition by Living Buddha Lian Sheng, Grandmaster Sheng-Yen Lu 

Translated into English by the True Buddha School Vimala Sutra Translation Team 

Discourse 51,13 November 2022 - Chapter One—Buddhaverse (Continued) 

Chapter One—Buddhaverse

Golden Topknot Bodhisattva, 
Jeweled Topknot Bodhisattva, 
Maitreya Bodhisattva, 
Manjusri Dharma Prince Bodhisattva, 
and so forth, all numbering thirty-two thousand.

Now we will talk about the Vimalakirti Sutra. Here are the

Golden Topknot Bodhisattva,

Jeweled Topknot Bodhisattva,

Maitreya Bodhisattva,

Manjusri Dharma Prince Bodhisattva, 
and so forth, all numbering thirty-two thousand.

Wow! I noticed in the sutras that the number of attendees of Sakyamuni Buddha’s ceremonies or dharma assemblies was often huge. This dharma assembly was especially grand; the bodhisattvas alone numbered thirty-two thousand. There were also ten thousand Brahman kings and twelve thousand celestial emperors, adding up to more than fifty thousand attendees. This dharma assembly was incredible.

Wow! What venue can host such a large number of participants? The Taipei Arena obviously cannot! Back then, the microphone didn’t exist either. Truly amazing! All the glory to him.

              Golden Topknot Bodhisattva

What is meant by the Golden Topknot Bodhisattva? In ancient times, people didn’t cut their hair. There were no barbershops, so they tied their hair into a bun above their heads. This is called a topknot. Golden Topknot means that the bodhisattva has reached the peak of his spiritual cultivation. When cultivation reaches the top, it is like having a golden topknot on the head.

I visited Mount Wutai in Shanxi Province, which has been written in the Buddhist sutras as Qingliangshan. It snows half of the year there and is very cold—thus its name, Cold Mountain. It can only be accessed half of the year.

At Mount Wutai, there are five peaks where there are Manjusri bodhisattvas with one, two, three, four, and five topknots on their heads. The strong golden light radiating from his topknot indicates that his cultivation has reached a pinnacle. Such is the Golden Topknot Bodhisattva. So everyone understands now.

              Jeweled Topknot Bodhisattva

Next is the Jeweled Topknot Bodhisattva.This bodhisattva also has a topknot on his head, but instead of a golden topknot, it is an illuminating, wish-fulfilling jewel. The light radiating from his topknot can illuminate the karma of sentient beings. In his light, he sees the good and bad, the cause and effect, and the past, present, and future of all sentient beings. By knowing their karma, he can guide them accordingly to follow buddhadharma. Such is the Jeweled Topknot Bodhisattva.

Maitreya Bodhisattva

The next two bodhisattvas are both incredible. They are listed last since the greatest ones are typically listed last. Maitreya Bodhisattva is the buddha waiting at the tenth ground of bodhisattvahood—the Ground of Dharma Cloud. He is the next Buddha to spread Buddhism in samsara after Sakyamuni Buddha.

Maitreya has also been translated as “The Loving One” in Chinese. Loving-kindness is the first of the four immeasurables—loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. Maitreya Bodhisattva is the next Buddha King of Great Authority, succeeding Sakyamuni Buddha to deliver sentient beings in the saha world.

Maitreya Bodhisattva was the one who transmitted Yogacara to Asanga. Xuanzang also studied Yogacara when he went to Nalanda University in India. Asanga and his brother, Vasubandu, authored several works, primarily the Compendium of Yogacara, The Ornament of Clear Realization, the earliest treatise, Twenty Verses on Consciousness-only, Hundred Verse Treatise on Consciousness-only, and more. The Lankavattara Sutra especially talks about Yogacara. So do The Noble Sutra of the Explanation of the Profound Secrets and many more. These were all transmitted by Maitreya Bodhisattva to Asanga and Vasubandu.

Maitreya Bodhisattva is a great bodhisattva with the greatest loving-kindness and will become a buddha in the saha world.

Manjusri Dharma Prince Bodhisattva

Wow, he is the greatest! Manjusri is translated into Chinese as Marvelous and Auspicious. Why is he called Dharma Prince? In the era of Sakyamuni Buddha, he is one of the Avatamsaka Trinity, with the Buddha at the center, Manjusri to his left, and Samantabhadra to his right. 

He was a dharma prince in that era and the second main character in the Vimalakirti Sutra. The first character is the Great Master Vimalakirti and the director is Sakyamuni Buddha. It is like a movie directed by Sakyamuni Buddha, with the first male lead being Vimalakirti and the second male lead, Manjusri Dharma Prince Bodhisattva. Only Manjusri is qualified to debate with Vimalakirti. He had also been a teacher of seven buddhas. He manifested himself in the saha world as Manjusri Dharma Prince Bodhisattva to deliver sentient beings.

In my Thousand Dharma Vessels Bardo Deliverance, I also recite the mantras of Manjusri Bodhisattva:

              Om ah-la-ba-zha-na-di. Om manjusri ya soha. Om ah-pei-la-hom kan-cha-la soha.

I invoke Manjusri Dharma Prince Bodhisattva and chant his mantras before chanting his bardo deliverance mantra during bardo deliverance. During Sakyamuni Buddha’s era, Manjusri was truly incredible.

Here is a story about Manjusri which I have shared before. It happened during a summer retreat where all of the Buddha’s disciples—sravakas—did not go for alms because they didn’t want to accidentally step on, and thereby kill the worms and insects. Back then, it rained heavily during the monsoon season, and worms and all kinds of insects came to the surface. So they went into retreat and they stayed indoors.

The superintendent was Mahakasyapa. He patrolled and checked how everyone was doing in their retreat. Only Manjusri Bodhisattva had his door open. He always had many visitors, most of whom were beautiful and noble ladies of the court, coming and going. It was as if they came for consultation, forming a long line. Yet, everyone else was in retreat.

Mahakasyapa felt this monk was violating the precepts and wanted to expel him, so he reported him to the Buddha. Not only was Manjusri receiving visitors—beautiful and noble queens and consorts, he also gave spiritual consultation. The Buddha asked Mahakasyapa if he wanted to look at what Manjusri was doing. Then he waved his sleeve, and there appeared the purelands of all buddhas in the ten directions in the sky. In each of those purelands and buddhaverses, there was a Manjusri Bodhisattva next to a buddha.

The Buddha asked Mahakasyapa, “Which Manjusri Bodhisattva would you like to expel?” There were countless manifestations of Manjusri Bodhisattva. He was truly incredible and inconceivable! He was the Dharma Prince of the Tathagata, the teacher of seven buddhas, and had attained buddhahood long ago. Thus, he is the most inconceivable! He was the only one who dared debate with Vimalakirti.

The Vimalakirti Sutra is the result of the dialogues between Manjusri and Vimalakirti to explain the Ultimate Truth in a clearer, more sublime, and supreme way. Only Manjusri Dharma Prince Bodhisattva could do it! Even Maitreya Bodhisattva could not; he always lost to Vimalakirti. Sariputra and the Buddha’s ten principal disciples all lost too.

So, the last one listed—Manjusri Dharma Prince Bodhisattva—is the greatest and the most inconceivable bodhisattva. In Chinese, he is also referred to as the Marvelous and Auspicious One.

His spiritual center is at Mount Wutai in Shanxi Province, written in the Buddhist sutras as Qingliangshan. There are several famous mountains in China, such as Mount Jizu in Yunnan Province, where Mahakasyapa has been in retreat while waiting for Maitreya Bodhisattva to become a buddha.

There is also Mount Potaloka in the South Sea. If one said that the South Sea does not belong to China, where would Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva of Mount Potaloka live then? [laughing] The East Sea also belongs to China; otherwise, where would the East Sea Dragon King live? The Four Great Dragon Kings occupy the South Sea, East Sea, West Sea and North Sea, so they of course belong to China.

Japan originally came from China. Japanese Kanji is made up of Chinese characters. Kukai—Kobo Daishi—went to Changan, China, to learn Sanskrit, and only then was Japanese kana added to the Japanese scripts. Some of their characters are still Chinese. The so-called learning monks were Kukai, who went to Changan, and also Saicho who went to Mount Tiantai. Thus, Chinese culture spread to Japan and Korea, too. Korea was the Goguryeo Kingdom before, and in ancient times, the Chiyou Clan—upon losing the battle with the Xianyan Clan—went to the Goguryeo area and founded a country there. But it was still part of China. [laughter]

As for Japan, Xufu, during the Qin Shi Huang era, brought 3,000 boys and 3,000 girls to search for the immortality elixir and ended up in Japan. They later became the ancestors of the Japanese. I heard that they even found Xufu’s tomb in Japan. So, it is also Chinese. [laughter] Oh well, they all belong to China.

Do you know that the Mongolians went to Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait to Alaska, and became the Native Americans? They traveled from Canada throughout North America, Central America, and South America. So, they all belong to China. [laughter] Well, if you want to trace history, that’s how I would say it. All of us living in the USA are immigrants. Who are the natives? The Native Americans.

Now, we have finished explaining the fifty-two bodhisattvas of the thirty-two thousand bodhisattvas in attendance.

Om mani padme hum. 

Next discourse on the Vimalakirti Sutra: Discourse 52, 3 December 2022 - Chapter One—Buddhaverse (Continued)

Previous discourse on the Vimalakirti Sutra: Discourse 50, 12 November 2022 - Chapter One—Buddhaverse (Continued)

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Full webcast of 2022.11.13 Golden Mother Homa Ceremony (Rainbow Temple, North Bend, USA) and dharma discourse with English interpretation: https://youtu.be/eAMcAs7JwQ8