- “Like this, this food eliminates all the poisons of the afflictions and then is digested.”
Ananda addressed the Buddha, “This is unprecedented! World-honored One, can fragrant food perform the Buddha’s work like this?”
The Buddha said, “Just so, just so, Ananda.
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“There are buddha lands where the illumination of the Buddha performs the Buddha’s work, or where the bodhisattvas perform the Buddha’s work, or where conjured persons created by the Buddha perform the Buddha’s work, or where the bodhi tree performs the Buddha’s work, or where the Buddha’s clothing and bedding perform the Buddha’s work, or where food performs the Buddha’s work, or where groves and pavilions perform the Buddha’s work, or where the thirty-two characteristics and eighty subsidiary marks perform the Buddha’s work, or where the Buddha’s body performs the Buddha’s work, or where space performs the Buddha’s work. Sentient beings respond to these conditions and are able to enter into the practice of the Vinaya.
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“There are [other buddha lands] where dreams, phantasms, shadows, echos, images in mirrors, the moon [reflected in] water, mirages during times of heat, and other metaphors perform the Buddha’s work; or where sounds, words, and letters perform the Buddha’s work; or where a pure buddha land is serene and silent, where the wordless, the explanationless, the manifestationless, the consciousnessless, the unconstructed, and the unconditioned perform the Buddha’s work.