Pūrṇa Among the Twenty-Five Sages' Dharma Gates of Perfect Penetration in Volume Five of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra

Original text:富楼那弥多罗尼子即从座起。顶礼佛足。而白佛言。我旷劫来。辩才无碍。宣说苦空。深达实相。如是乃至恒沙如来。秘密法门。我于众中。微妙开示。得无所畏。世尊知我有大辩才。以音声轮。教我发扬。我于佛前。助佛转轮。因狮子吼。成阿罗汉。世尊印我。说法无上。佛问圆通。我以法音。降伏魔怨。销灭诸漏。斯为第一。

Explanation: Pūrṇa Maitrāyaṇīputra rose from his seat, paid homage at the Buddha's feet, and said to the Buddha: "Since beginningless kalpas, I have possessed surpassing wisdom and unobstructed eloquence, proclaiming to sentient beings the suffering and emptiness of the five aggregates and the world, the Four Noble Truths, and I have been able to deeply comprehend the true reality of all dharmas. Because of such great eloquence, even the secret dharma gates of as many Tathāgatas as sands of the Ganges, I have been able to expound wondrously before the assembly, fearing nothing with regard to such profound dharma. The World-Honored One knew that I possessed great eloquence and taught me to fully develop it, using the wheel of the voice to teach and transform sentient beings through the dharma. Thus, before the Buddha, I was able to assist the Buddha in turning the wheel of the Dharma to deliver sentient beings. Because I was skilled at the lion's roar, I attained the status of a great arhat of the fourth fruit. The World-Honored One certified that among the Buddha's disciples, I was supreme in expounding the dharma, with none surpassing me. Now the Buddha asks about the dharma gate of perfect penetration that I cultivated and realized: it was through the sound of my expounding the dharma that I subdued hostile demons and eliminated all afflictions. This is the foremost dharma gate of perfect penetration that I cultivated and realized."

Pūrṇa not only possessed profound wisdom but also extraordinary linguistic ability, and thus had been assisting the Buddha in turning the wheel of the Dharma since beginningless kalpas. He eliminated afflictions and realized the status of a great arhat of the fourth fruit, and he could also expound the Tathāgatas' secret dharma gates; therefore, his level of realization was equivalent to that of bodhisattvas at the eighth bhūmi or above. These great disciples of the Buddha all had distinguished backgrounds—they were all Buddhas and bodhisattvas who had turned their compassionate vessels around, manifesting as śrāvakas to assist the Buddha in propagating the dharma. These great disciples all possessed great supernatural powers but did not casually display them, appearing more or less like ordinary people; even during famines when they could not beg for food and drink, Pūrṇa would rather eat cow dung than use supernatural powers to conjure food, and the Buddha also did not permit Maudgalyāyana and the others to use the supernormal power of the feet to fly to Uttarakuru to beg for food. In fact, these great arhats could have entirely gone without eating, but in order to demonstrate the dharma, they manifested as the same as ordinary monastics in order to deliver those bhikṣus, and so none of them could use supernatural powers. This was also for the sake of future monastics, lest monastics of later generations, lacking supernatural powers, be ridiculed by sentient beings, causing sentient beings to create unwholesome karma.