Summary
s.1The bodhisattva Mañjuśrī approaches the Buddha and asks about the extent of the merit represented by the Buddha’s “Dharma conch,” which here seems to mean the Buddha’s voice. The Buddha proceeds to illustrate the vastness of this merit by means of a cosmic multiplication—sequentially compounding the merit of all beings in a certain realm if they each possessed the merit of a cakravartin, a brahmā god, a bodhisattva, and so forth, each having more merit than the previous one. The expansion continues through a list of the eighty designs marking the body of a buddha and the thirty-two signs of a great being, which, multiplied inconceivably, are said to be equal in merit to the Dharma conch. The Buddha then explains how the voice, body, and light of the Buddha are made known throughout countless realms and take on numberless manifestations to tame beings.
s.1菩薩文殊師利菩薩來到佛陀面前，詢問佛陀「法螺」所代表的福德范圍，這裡的法螺似乎是指佛陀的聲音。佛陀接著通過宇宙級的倍增來說明這種福德的廣大——依次將某個領域中所有眾生各自擁有轉輪王、梵天、菩薩等的福德進行累積，每一級的福德都比前一級更大。這個倍增過程繼續進行，涵蓋標誌著佛陀身體的八十種紋飾和三十二相，這些乘以不可思議的次數，據說其福德等同於法螺。佛陀接著解釋佛陀的聲音、身體和光芒如何遍及無數世界，並以無數的化身形式出現，以調化眾生。