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Having a long life, health, a good complexion, an excellent figure, great splendor, great power, high status, great wealth, great wisdom, possessions, magic spells, and medicine; encountering virtuous spiritual friends; listening to the holy Dharma; directing the mind appropriately; the practice in accordance with the Dharma; the abandoning of the primary afflictions of desire, anger, and ignorance as well as the secondary afflictions; completely overcoming falling into the lower, infernal realms of the hells, the realms of animals, and the realm of the Lord of the Dead; attaining all the meditative absorptions, liberations, meditative concentrations, and meditative attainments; completely overcoming physical and mental [F.79.b] unhappiness; attaining all bliss and happiness; attaining the excellence of the enlightened attributes of the śrāvakas, the excellence of the enlightened attributes of the pratyekabuddhas, the ten powers of the tathāgatas, the four states of fearlessness, the four discernments, the eighteen distinctive qualities of a buddha, great loving kindness, great compassion, great joy, great equanimity, the vanquishing of the latent tendencies, the state of non-forgetfulness, the state of omniscience, the state of the knowledge of all aspects, the state of inexhaustible wisdom, the state of inexhaustible knowledge, the state of inexhaustible courage, the state of inexhaustible merit, the state of the sky treasury, the state of the jewel holder, and the unsurpassed wisdom of omniscience; and whatever mundane and transcendent roots of virtue there are—may all of these come to be for all sentient beings!

“On the basis of this great wisdom, there appear the ten strengths, the four confidences, the four discernments, the hundred and eighty unique qualities, and so on—countless wonderful, marvelous qualities.

“It is through the roots of goodness from requesting the tathāgatas to remain for a long time in the world and not pass into nirvāṇa while I was practicing bodhisattva conduct in the past that I have attained the ten strengths, the four confidences, the four discernments, [F.54.b] great love, great compassion, and countless unique qualities, and even though I will pass into the nirvāṇa that is the nirvāṇa without a remainder, my true Dharma will remain in the world for a long time. My Dharma body is pure and has no analogy; it has various sublime, perfect features, limitless knowledge, limitless powers, and limitless inconceivable qualities, and it benefits all beings, so that one could not finish describing it in a quintillion eons.

“Bodhisattva mahāsattvas who have the restraint of the mind attain the four discernments. What are the four discernments? They are the discernment of meaning, the discernment of phenomena, the discernment of definitions, and the discernment of eloquence. They attain those four discernments. Young man, that is the restraint of the mind.

“Bodhisattva mahāsattvas who have the restraint of speech attain the four discernments. What are the four discernments? They are the discernment of meaning, the discernment of phenomena, the discernment of definitions, and the discernment of eloquence. They attain those four discernments. Young man, that is the restraint of speech.

“Young man, that which is called ‘physical restraint’ is the physical restraint through which bodhisattva mahāsattvas attain the four discernments. What are the four discernments? They are the discernment of meaning, the discernment of phenomena, the discernment of definitions, and the discernment of eloquence. [F.151.b] They attain those four discernments.

Then the Bhagavān said to the youth Candraprabha, [F.76.b] “Young man, aspiring bodhisattva mahāsattvas think, ‘How can I make manifest the four discernments? What are these four? They are the discernment of meaning, the discernment of phenomena, the discernment of definitions, and the discernment of eloquence. I shall manifest these four!’ On having this thought, young man, bodhisattva mahāsattvas should obtain this samādhi, understand it, preserve it, recite it to others, promote it, proclaim it, chant it, meditate on it with unadulterated meditation, and make it widely known to others.

The Buddha teaches Candraprabha that through this sūtra a bodhisattva can gain four kinds of discernment: discernment of phenomena, of meaning, of definitions, and of confident speech. He then gives a long explanation of the discernment of phenomena, in which successive qualities are explained in relation to four aspects: the composite teaching, the composite, the kleśas, and purification. For each of these there is an inconceivable number of each quality. The second, third, and fourth discernments are explained in single brief sentences. The concluding verses state that the Buddha has innumerable qualities, and exhort the teaching of this sūtra.

“Young man, there are ten benefits for bodhisattva mahāsattvas who remain intently in meditative seclusion. What are the ten benefits? They are: [1] their minds are unpolluted; [2] they remain careful; [3] they keep the Buddha in mind; [4] they have faith in bodhisattva conduct; [5] they have no uncertainty concerning wisdom; [6] they have gratitude toward the buddhas; [7] they do not abandon the Dharma; [8] they maintain vows perfectly; [9] they have attained the level of self-discipline; and [10] they have the direct perception of the four discernments.

“The ten powers and the four authentic discernments,
Which I have taught,
All appeared from this.
One should therefore rely upon it.

“They have no miserliness about Dharma in their pursuit of the teachings
On the four bases of supernatural powers and the four genuine discernments.
While observing discipline, they rely upon sublime friends.
Seeking that absorption, they cultivate the idea of the teacher.

“Bhadra, when bodhisattvas have four qualities, they will obtain the correct discernments. What are the four? Relying on the meaning and not on the words, relying on the Dharma and not on persons, knowing all phenomena to be without identity and to be language and words that are inexhaustible, and teaching without attachment or obstruction. These are the four.

Thus the tathāgata, arhat, complete and perfect Buddha accomplished in knowledge and conduct, the Sugata, the knower of the world, [F.18.b] the unsurpassed guide who tames beings, the teacher of gods and humans, the Blessed Buddha—the all-knowing and all-seeing one—knew all and saw all and was endowed with the ten strengths of a tathāgata, the four fearlessnesses of a tathāgata, and the four correct discernments. He was endowed with the eighteen unique qualities of the buddhas, great loving-kindness, and great compassion. He was endowed with the unfailing buddha eye and the five eyes, and he had also gained miraculous powers: the miraculous power of foretelling, the miraculous power of instruction, and the miraculous power of magical display.Bhadra the illusionist heard that the fame, renown, and verses of the Blessed One were superior and that he was known as the tathāgata, arhat, complete and perfect Buddha accomplished in knowledge and conduct, the Sugata, the knower of the world, the unsurpassed guide who tames beings, the teacher of gods and humans, the Blessed Buddha, the all-knowing and all-seeing one who knows all and sees all, who is endowed with the ten strengths of a tathāgata, the four fearlessnesses of a tathāgata, and the four correct discernments and who is endowed with the eighteen unique qualities of the buddhas, with great loving-kindness and great compassion, and with the unfailing buddha eye and the five eyes, and as one who has gained miraculous powers: the miraculous power of foretelling, the miraculous power of instruction, and the miraculous power of magical display. If he wished, he could suspend this trichiliocosm—including its cities, towns, lands, beings, and Mount Merus, encompassing everything up to the edges of the oceans and including the abodes of the gods, the horizons and depths, and the grasses, trees, and mountains—on the tip of a hair in space for an eon or for even longer than an eon.

“How does a monk who has perceived the eighteen discernments bring grounds other than that of desire to mind? Spiritual practitioners who carefully observe inner phenomena see by means of knowledge derived from hearing, or through the divine eye, that there are four bases of noble beings. Those are the bases of insight, truth, abandonment, and pacification. “The gods of the realm of the Four Great Kings will then convey to Śakra, lord of the gods, ‘In Jambudvīpa a noble son known as so-and-so, who is of such and such a family, has shaved of his hair and beard, donned the saffron-colored robes, [F.110.b] and with faith gone forth from the household to become a homeless mendicant. He takes delight in the wilderness…, and so forth, up to and including the charnel ground. He has understood and seen the eighteen discernments and is thus now engaged in practice.’