DESCRIPTION
To appreciate the beginning of the Fifth Assembly, compare the adornments described in the Third Assembly (Ch 13), where Indra, king of gods, in front of the Hall of Surpassing Wonder, seeing Buddha corning from afar, adorns this palace with a lion throne of banks of radiant lights, all made of exquisite jewels, with ten thousand levels of dazzling ornaments and ten thousand nets of gold covering it, ten thousand kinds of curtains and so on…
Where, at the beginning of Fourth Assembly (Ch 19), when the king of the Suyama heaven, seeing from afar the Buddha coming, produces a jewel lotus bank lion throne in his palace, with a million tiers of decorations, wrapped in a million golden nets, covered with a million drapes of flowers, a million drapes of garlands, and so on…
And now, at the beginning of the Fifth Assembly, the celestial king of the Tuṣita Heaven, seeing from afar the Buddha's advent, sets up a jewel mine lion seat in the palace; that lion throne was made of a collection of celestial jewels obtained from roots of goodness cultivated in the past, made manifest by the spiritual powers of all Buddhas, born of countless hundreds of thousands of millions of billions of roots of goodness, created by the pure teachings of all enlightened ones, adorned by the power of infinite virtue. Resulting from pure actions, it was indestructible, endlessly delightful to all beholders. Its transcendental qualities were not influenced by the world. Though all sentient beings come to gaze on it, none could exhaustively fathom its glories. There were a hundred trillion tiers all around it, with a hundred trillion gold webs, a hundred trillion flower curtains, a hundred trillion jewel curtains, a hundred trillion garland curtains, and a hundred trillion incense curtains hung above it.”
“There were a hundred trillion 1) newly inspired bodhisattvas who, as soon as they saw this throne, doubly increased their determination for omniscience; a hundred trillion 2) bodhisattvas preparing the ground, their minds pure and joyful; a hundred trillion 3) practicing bodhisattvas, their understanding pure and clear; a hundred trillion 4) nobly born bodhisattvas, abiding in supreme zeal; a hundred trillion 5) bodhisattvas equipped with skill in means, activating the great vehicle; a hundred trillion 6) bodhisattvas in the abode of right mindfulness, diligently cultivating the path of all enlightening beings; a hundred trillion 7) nonregressing bodhisattvas, purifying all stages of enlightenment; a hundred trillion 8) bodhisattvas of youthful nature, attaining the light of concentration of all bodhisattvas; a hundred trillion 9) Dharma heir bodhisattvas, entering the inconceivable sphere of all Buddhas; a hundred trillion 10) coronated bodhisattvas, able to manifest the ten powers of infinite enlightened ones”
“[The Buddha] always traveled throughout the ten directions, never resting, never craving for or clinging to anything. Able to live in all buddhalands in the Dharmadhātu, he knew the minds of all sentient beings. All his virtues were unworldly and pure. He did not dwell in birth and death, yet appeared throughout the world, like a reflection. He illumined the whole Dharmadhātu by the moon of knowledge and realized that everything is ungraspable. By his wisdom he was constantly aware that all worlds are like illusions, like reflections, like dreams, like magic tricks, that all have mind as their inherent nature. Abiding in this way, he manifested buddha-bodies in accord with the dissimilarities of the actions and consequences of sentient beings, the distinctions in their mental inclinations, and the individual differences in their faculties.”
“The Tathāgata was always relating to countless sentient beings, explaining to them that everything in the world derives from conditional, interdependent origination. He knew that the characteristics of all things are characteristicless, this being their sole characteristic, the basis of wisdom.”
“As in the world the king of the Tuṣita Heaven reverently set up a throne like this for the Tathāgata, so did the kings of the Tuṣita Heavens in all worlds likewise set up such thrones, with such adornments, with such ceremonies, with such faith, with such purity of mind, with such delight, with such joy, with such respect, with such appreciation of rarity, with such dancing, with such yearning-all were the same.”