 This is the first chapter of the "Innumerable Meanings Sūtra".It begins with the Buddha who is staying at the City of Royal Palaces on Mount Gṛdhrakūṭa, or Vulture Peak, with a great assemblage of twelve thousand "bhikṣus" (monks), eighty thousand bodhisattva-"mahāsattvas", as well as gods, dragons, "yakṣas", spirits, and animals.Along with all these beings were "bhikṣuṇīs" (nuns), "upāsakas" (male laymen), "upāsikās" (female laymen), kings, princes, ministers, rich people, ordinary people, men and women alike.