Summary
s.1During an alms round in Vārāṇasī, the Buddha Śākyamuni encounters a brahmin woman by the name of Śrīmatī. Inspired by the Buddha’s majestic and graceful presence, Śrīmatī inquires about the teaching he gave at nearby Deer Park. In response, the Buddha reprises the teaching on how the twelve links of dependent origination lead to suffering and how their cessation leads to the end of suffering. Śrīmatī then asks about the nature of ignorance, the first of the twelve links. The Buddha offers a profound response and raises the distinction between ultimate truth and conventional teaching. At this, Śrīmatī makes the aspiration that she too may turn the many wheels of Dharma just as the Buddha has done. The Buddha then smiles and prophesies her eventual awakening. The sūtra concludes with the Buddha describing Śrīmatī’s virtuous deeds in past lives, in which she had venerated each of the six previous buddhas.
s.1釋迦牟尼佛在波羅奈進行托缽乞食時，遇見了一位名叫室利摩底的婆羅門女子。受到佛陀威嚴而優雅風儀的啟發，室利摩底詢問佛陀在附近鹿野苑所教授的法。作為回應，佛陀重述了十二緣起如何導致苦難，以及它們的滅盡如何導致苦的終結的教法。隨後室利摩底提問無明的本質，也就是十二緣起中的第一個。佛陀提供了深刻的回答，並闡明了勝義諦與世俗教法的區別。聽聞此言，室利摩底發願，願自己也能如佛陀一樣轉動許多法輪。佛陀隨後微笑，並預言了室利摩底最終的覺悟。經文以佛陀描述室利摩底過去生中的善行而作結，她曾經禮敬過六位前佛。