1f) The benefit of vast qualities

Because these qualities are immeasurable, as for such a mind:

This is as vast as the measureless ocean of Dharmadhatu
And supremely wondrous qualities of the Victorious One.
Within it are limitless cloud-banks of inconceivable merit,
Their nature always producing goodness and benefit.

That is how the immeasurable dharmas of buddhahood are grasped. The Bodhisattva-Pitaka-Sutra (byang chub sems dpa’i sde snod kyi mdo) says:

Shariputra, if a bodhisattva mahasattva possesses a certain single Dharma, these dharmas of buddhahood and immeasurable others will be completely grasped. What is this single Dharma? It is the excellent attitude focused on enlightenment.

Shariputra, if a bodhisattva mahasattva possesses this single Dharma, these dharmas of buddhahood and immeasurable others will be completely grasped.

Similarly, many aspects of Dharma will appear and be blessed by buddhahood. The Sutra of the Embodiment of Genuine Dharma (chos yang dag par sdud pa’i mdo) says:

Bhagavan, this excellent attitude is the root of all dharmas. When this attitude is absent, all the dharmas of the Buddha are far off.

Bhagavan, as for this excellent attitude, even if we do not enter into buddhahood,
Dharma words will arise from the midst of the sky, and from walls, and trees.

As for Bodhisattvas of pure contemplation, from the examination of their own minds, all the instructions and teachings will arise. Therefore, the bodhisattva should produce this excellent attitude.

Bhagavan, it is, for example, like this. Whoever has legs is has the ability to walk. Similarly, whoever has this excellent attitude will have the enlightenment of the buddhas.

This is better than making offerings to the tathagatas.

The Sutra Requested by the Householder Glorious Gift (dpal sbyin gyis zhus pa’i mdo) says:

Better than persons who are in buddha fields
Filled abundantly with the seven treasures,
And who offer them to lords of the world,

Those who have joined their palms in veneration
And bowed with reverence to bodhicitta
Make an offering that is nobler still.
Moreover, there is no end to what is gained.

The Noble Moon Lamp Sutra says:

In fully a hundred million billion buddha fields,
Though so many offerings that they were measureless
Were always being made to the principal ones of beings.
They would never rival the attitude of kindness.

The Sutra of Coursing in the Limitless Gate (sgo mtha’ yas pa rnam par spyod pa’i mdo) says:

Brahma, these three are unsurpassed by offerings and ceremonies for the tathagatas. They have
immeasurable merit. What are these three? They are producing the wish for unsurpassable, true,
complete enlightenment; grasping the Holy Dharma of the tathagatas; and practicing what we have heard.

Brahma, these three are unsurpassed by offerings and ceremonies for the tathagatas.

Brahma, if there is entry into the kalpa-long measure of life of the body of the Tathagatas, the completed ripening of these offerings will be shown and that kalpa exhausted; but the benefit of the heap of merits of these three will not be exhausted.

 

Moreover, liberated from the lower realms, attaining true peace and so forth that are immeasurable and inconceivable, we become worthy objects of prostrations.

The Bodhicharyavatara says:

The moment they arouse the mind of bodhicitta,
These wretches who are bound in the prison of samsara
Will then be known as children of the Tathagata,
Worthy of homage by the world with its gods and humans.

And also:

The low shall be exalted.

The same text says:

Like the supreme elixir that turns things into gold,
It makes this defiled body the body of a Buddha.
What is worthless is turned into something supremely precious,
Therefore firmly grasp what is known as “bodhicitta.”

The Inconceivable Secrets Sutra (gsang ba bsam gyi mi khyab pa’i mdo) says:

The merit of bodhicitta,
If this were put into form,
Would fill the whole of space;
Therefore it is supreme.

The Gandavyuha Sutra says:

In brief, as manifold as the goodness of the buddha Bhagavats are the goodness and virtues of arousing bodhicitta. They are as vast as the realm of space and Dharmadhatu.

Bodhicitta is taught because of the intention of the buddhas to do benefit. The Bodhicharyavatara says:

Having had this intention over many kalpas,
The enlightened sages see the benefits of this.

In praise of the bodhisattvas who possess bodhicitta, these bodhisattvas are great fields. Anyone who becomes angry with them has immeasurable non-merit whose fruition is the lower realms. The Bodhicharyavatara says:

Whoever to such generous ones as the Buddha’s children
Produces vicious aggression and animosity.
As many bad thoughts as they rouse, for so many kalpas
They will abide in Hell. So the Sage has taught.

The Sutra of the Miracle of Attaining Complete Pacification (rab tu zhi ba rnam par nges pa cho ’phrul gi mdo) says:

Mañjushri, as many times as they have thoughts of animosity to a bodhisattva, that many
kalpas will they abide in Hell. Therefore we should armor ourselves.

“But, if we produce virtue and faith, won’t our merit increase even more?”

The former text says:

But if someone produces that excellent attitude,
There will be a fruition that is much better than that.

How will it so increase? The Sutra of the Seal of Entering into Certainty and Uncertainty (nges pa dang ma nges pa ‘jug pa phyag rgya’i mdo) says:

Mañjushri, as for its being completely and eternally grasped, for example, even if all the sentient beings in all the worlds of the ten directions had their eyes pulled out and someone produced eyes for them, or if all the beings of all the worlds of the ten directions were released from the darkness of a dark prison and established in the happiness of a universal monarch or Brahma; If a son or daughter of noble family looks on a bodhisattva with faith and devotion to the Mahayana, and expresses praise, a merit countlessly greater than that will be produced.

Even those who look on a bodhisattva with the mind of the kleshas do not go to the lower realms, but are born in the higher realms, let alone those who have faith. The Noble Jewel Heap Sutra says:

The bodhisattva Producer of Joy (dga’ byed), who was handsome and pleasant to look upon, was begging alms in Shravasti, when he was seen by a merchant’s daughter named Supreme among those Who possess Glorious Qualities (dpal yon can gi mchog). The girl lived out her life tormented by blazing flames of desire, and then she was born among the thirty-three gods.

There the children of the gods remembered their former existences, and she said, “E ma! If by looking at a bodhisattva with desire, such a ripening as this arose, what would have happened if I had looked with faith and reverence!”

Having thought that, they came together with their divine retinues of five hundred.

They offered flowers and so on.

Moreover, even those who go to the lower realms by not having faith in these bodhisattvas, finally, assisted by their compassion, will be liberated beyond samsara. If they are connected by faith, by having that benefit they will quickly attain enlightenment. The Jewel Heap Sutra says:

Even those who do evil to bodhisattvas, and by those actions go to the lower realms, will be liberated from there by that bodhisattva with great effort. They will be established in great enlightenment.

The Bodhicharyavatara says:

As for individuals who have once seen me,
Whether thoughts of anger or of faith arise,
Forever after, may this always be the cause
Of establishing every benefit for them.

Also:

Even those who harm them will be connected to happiness.
They will go for refuge to that source of happiness.