四信五品抄五 On the Four Stages of Faith and Five Stages of Practice ５

請(こ)う国中の諸人我が末弟等を軽(かろん)ずる事勿(なか)れ、

　Therefore, I entreat the people of this country: Do not look down upon my disciples!

　進んで過去を尋(たず)ぬれば八十万億劫(まんのくこう)に供養せし大菩薩なり、豈(あに)熈連(きれん)一恒(いちごう)の者に非ずや、

　If you inquire into their past, you will find that they are great bodhisattvas who have given alms to Buddhas over a period of eight hundred thousand million kalpas, and who have carried out practices under Buddhas as numerous as the sands of the Hiranyavati and Ganges rivers.

退(しりぞ)いて未来を論ずれば八十年の布施(ふせ)に超(ちょう)過(か)して五十の功徳(くどく)を備(そな)う可し、

　And if we speak of the future, they will been dowed with the benefit of the fiftieth person, surpassing that of one who gave alms to innumerable livingbeings for a period of eighty years.

　天子の襁褓(むつき)に纒(まとわ)れ大竜の始めて生ずるが如し、蔑如(べつじょ)すること勿(なか)れ蔑如すること勿れ、

　They are like an infant emperor wrapped in swaddling clothes, or a great dragon who has just been born. Do not despise them ! Do not look on them with contempt !

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