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Surata's Questions follows Surata, a seemingly poor vagabond endowed with a wealth of ethical virtue. The juxtaposition of Surata’s poverty with the abundance of his moral merits forms a central theme of the sūtra. After being tested by the god Śakra, Surata finds a precious gem that he decides to give to the poorest person in the city. The narrative’s irony ensues when Surata decides that King Prasenajit should receive the gem, since his ethical depravity vitiates his material wealth. The shock of Surata’s decision occasions a valuable lesson on true wealth lying in moral integrity, to which the Buddha himself attests upon his arrival midway through the sūtra. The sūtra concludes with King Prasenajit’s recognition of the error of his ways and the Buddha’s prophecy of Surata’s coming awakening.
The 84000 translation project will unveil 4 March, 2022 their new translation of this very large sutra, listing info on 1000 or so buddhas. Dharma Publishing still has their four volume 1986 Fortunate Aeon version available, I think.
The Good Eon
in The Collection The Kangyur Discourses General Sūtra Section
བསྐལ་པ་བཟང་པོ། · bskal pa bzang po
Bhadrakalpika
Summary
While resting in a park outside the city of Vaiśālī, the Buddha is approached by the bodhisattva Prāmodyarāja, who requests meditation instruction. The Buddha proceeds to give a teaching on a meditative absorption called elucidating the way of all phenomena and subsequently delivers an elaborate discourse on the six perfections. Prāmodyarāja then learns that all the future buddhas of the Good Eon are now present in the Blessed One’s audience of bodhisattvas. Responding to Prāmodyarāja’s request to reveal the names under which these present bodhisattvas will be known as buddhas in the future, the Buddha specifies these names and goes on to describe the circumstances surrounding their birth, awakening, and teaching in the world. In the sūtra’s final section, we learn how each of these great bodhisattvas who are on the path to buddhahood first developed the mind of awakening.
Title variants
’phags pa bskal pa bzang po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
འཕགས་པ་བསྐལ་པ་བཟ ་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Good Eon”
Ārya*bhadra*kalpika*nāma*mahāyāna*sūtra
《賢劫經》
Nicholas Ribush, director of the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, which published Big Love, wants to let FPMT students know of a special opportunity for receiving the biography. He writes:
“If you receive the LYTWA monthly eletter, you will know that through the kindness of a generous benefactor we are offering 200 copies of Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe for $35 (plus shipping), which is $50 off the regular price! So far about fifty copies have been bought.
“Not only is this a great opportunity for individual buyers, but FPMT centers should also consider buying several copies for their bookstores and to give away as gifts to benefactors.”
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