Bhadrapala Bodhisattva's questions

Bhadrapala Bodhisattva asked the Buddha, "What dharmas should Bodhisattvas do in order to develop wisdom, like the immense ocean accepting myriad streams? What should they do in order to acquire broad knowledge and understand what they have heard without doubts? What should they do in order to know their past lives and whence they have come to reborn? What should they do in order to live a long life? What should they do in order to be reborn into a family with a great name and to be loved and respected by their parents, siblings, relatives, and friends?

What should they do in order to be endowed with even, comely features? What should they do in order to acquire excellent talents, to be outstanding in the multitudes, and to develop superb, all-encompassing wisdom? What should they do in order to fulfill the merit and wisdom required for Buddhahood, to realize immeasurable awesome power, and to adorn their magnificent Buddha Lands? What should they do in order to subjugate hostile maras? What should they do in order to achieve command so that their vows will never fail? What should they do in order to enter the Door of Total Retention?

What should they do in order to acquire the transcendental powers to travel to Buddha Lands everywhere? What should they do in order to acquire the bold valor of a lion, with nothing to fear, unmovable by maras? What should they do in order to realize their holy Buddha nature and to accept and uphold the Dharma in the sutras with understanding, not forgetting anything? What should they do in order to achieve self-fulfillment, free from sycophancy and flattery and unattached to the Three Realms of Existence? What should they do in order to be free from hindrances and to acquire the overall wisdom-knowledge, never deviating from the Buddha's intention? What should they do in order to win people's trust?

What should they do in order to acquire the eight tones [of a Buddha] and manifest 10,000 koti tones? What should they do in order to acquire the sublime appearance [of a Buddha]? What should they do in order to acquire the power of all-hearing? What should they do in order to acquire the Bodhi-eye to see into the future? What should they do in order to acquire the Ten Powers and true wisdom? What should they do in order to see, in a single thought, Buddhas from the ten directions all standing before them? What should they do in order to know that the four appearances of every dharma have no reality? What should they do in order to see in this world innumerable Buddha Lands in the ten directions and to know the good and evil life-journeys of the people, gods, dragons, spirits, and wriggly insects in those lands? These are my questions. I pray that the Buddha will explain to me and resolve all my doubts." ~ Buddha Pronounces the Sutra of the Pratyutpanna Buddha Sammukhavasthita Samadhi