By Three Poisonous Minds, a Centillion Number of Things Appear

Once he was asked12 about the centillion number of things.

Bodhidharma: This is also the three poisonous minds by which countless(in Sanskrit it is, asamkaya, in Chinese it means count-less, in English it is, centillion) centillion bad thoughts arise in the mind numbering as many as the sands of the Ganges River, each thought lasting for one kalpa. The Ganges sands are countless. Because the three poisonous evil thoughts are as many as the sands of the Ganges River, we say countless.

Self-nature of truth-as-it-is is already surrounded by the three poisonous minds. Until all bad thoughts numbering as many as the sands of the Ganges Rver are transcended; how can Nirvana be attained?

If one now eliminates greed, anger, and ignorance,13 it is the same as transcending centillion kalpas. The indigent-beings living in the last era of the world are dull;14 they just do not understand Tathagata's deep and sublime truth and the three-centillion kalpas' secret word, and say,


After three-centillion kalpas have passed,

One may become Buddha::

What a terrible misunderstanding! Which let the cultivators from the last era of the world would retreat from the way of great enlightenment.