Third Day of Wisdom: The Twelve Buddhas

ON ITS 10TH BIRTHDAY, 84000 PRESENTS THE THIRD SŪTRA IN OUR TEN DAYS OF WISDOM:

Toh 273

སངས་རྒྱས་བཅུ་གཉིས་པ།
The Twelve Buddhas
Dvādaśa­buddhaka

The Twelve Buddhas opens at Rājagṛha with a dialogue between the Buddha Śākyamuni and the bodhisattva Maitreya about the eastern buddhafield of a buddha whose abbreviated name is King of Jewels. This buddha prophesies that when he passes into complete nirvāṇa, the bodhisattva Incomparable will take his place as a buddha whose abbreviated name is Victory Banner King. Śākyamuni then provides the names of the remaining ten tathāgatas, locating them in the ten directions surrounding Victory Banner King’s buddhafield Full of Pearls. After listing the full set of names of these twelve buddhas and their directional relationship to Victory Banner King, the Buddha Śākyamuni provides an accompanying mantra-dhāraṇī and closes with a set of thirty-seven verses outlining the benefits of remembering the names of these buddhas.

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The Twelve Buddhas

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