From the time the Bodhisattva, Mahasattvas first welled forth out of the earth, and while they praised the Buddhas with various Bodhisattva praises, a period of fifty small eons elapsed. During that time, Shakyamuni Buddha remained seated in silence, and the four assemblies were silent for fifty small eons as well.Because of the Buddha’s spiritual power, all in the great assembly were caused to say it had been as if half a day long.

From the time the Bodhisattva, Mahasattvas first welled forth out of the earth. The Great Bodhisattvas had initially come out of the ground, and while they praised the Buddhas—Shakyamuni Buddha, Many Jewels Thus Come One, and the Buddhas of the Ten Directions—with various Bodhisattva praises, a period of fifty small eons elapsed. They praised the Buddhas for fifty small eons. During that time, Shakyamuni Buddha remained seated in silence. The Bodhisattva, Mahasattvas were singing praises to the Buddhas for fifty small kalpas. How long is that?

Each eon goes through “one increase and one decrease.” During the rise of an eon, every one hundred years, people’s life spans increase by one year and their heights increase by one inch. When people reach an average life span of 84,000 years, then a decline begins. Having started from an average life span of ten years and increased to an average life span of 84,000 years, a decline then sets in. Every one hundred years, the average life span decreases by one year and the average height by one inch. When it has decreased until the average life span reaches ten years, people are only ten inches tall. One cycle of increase and decrease is considered “one small eon.” The Buddha sat quietly for fifty such small eons and did not speak the Dharma.

Someone might start calculating and say, “This Sutra is not making any sense.Shakyamuni Buddha was only in the world for about eighty years, and he lectured on the Dharma for forty-nine years in over three hundred Dharma assemblies, propounding the Dharma Flower Sutra for eight of those years. Why does the text of the Dharma Flower Sutra say that Shakyamuni Buddha spoke the Dharma Flower Sutra for fifty small eons? That’s way off. There’s no proof. Well, we won’t talk about the fifty small eons. Let’s talk about the Vimalakirti Sutra. The Elder Vimalakirti stayed in a ten-foot-square room. But that space was able to contain 32,000 lion thrones, each of which was 80,000 yojanas tall. How could his ten-foot-square room contain lion thrones 80,000 yojanas high? The thrones were so tall that the Hearers found it impossible to climb up and sit on them. That’s a case of,

The small manifests within the great;
The great manifests within the small.
The small does not obstruct the great;
The great does not obstruct the small.

This state of unobstructed interpenetration is not one that ordinary people comprehend. If you understand it, then fifty small eons is like a single thought. If you don’t understand it, then one knows not how long fifty small eons will be. Therefore, the small can manifest in the great, and the great can manifest within the small. The near can manifest within the far, and the far can manifest within the near.

Thus, fifty small eons is not a long time, and the time it takes for a single thought is not a short time. One thought can take fifty small eons, and fifty small eons can be contained in a single thought.

There is a story that makes this point very clear: Dhyana Master Miao Kau Feng was a cultivator who sat on the inverted lotus precipice of Hsi-tien Mu (Western Heaven Eyes) and meditated. Why did he go there to cultivate? It was a very dangerous ledge. Were he to doze off in meditation, he would fall thousands of feet into the valley and be smashed to pieces. Even a rock dropped from that height would be smashed to bits, to say nothing of a person.

To be continued