VII

The Buddha now addresses the body of his disciples, telling them that once upon a time there was a Buddha named Universal-Surpassing-Wisdom. An immeasurable time has passed since his Nirvana, and the Buddha tries to impress on his hearers the meaning of timelessness in the following manner:

“Suppose the earth element in a Three-Thousand-Great-Thousandfold-World were by some one ground into ink, and he were to pass through a thousand realms in an eastern direction, and then let fall one drop as large as a grain of dust; again, passing through another thousand realms, once more he let fall one drop; suppose he thus proceeds until he has finished the ink made of the earth-element—what is your opinion? All these realms—is it possible for mathematicians, or their disciples, to find their end or confines so as to know their number?”

“No, World-honoured One!”

“Bhikshus! Suppose all those realms which that man has passed, where he has dropped a drop and where he has not, were ground to dust, and suppose one grain of the dust be a kalpa—the time since that Buddha became extinct till now still exceeds those numbers by innumerable, infinite, hundreds, thousands, myriads, kotis of asamkhyeya kalpas. By the power of my Buddha-wisdom, I observe that distant time as if it were only to-day.”

132The whole story is too long for insertion here. In brief, the Buddha, Universal-Surpassing-Wisdom, after routing the army of Mara, common to Buddha-realms, sat cross-legged, motionless in mind and body, for ten minor kalpas, but still did not attain to Perfect Enlightenment.

“Then the gods of Indra’s heavens spread for that Buddha a lion-throne, a yojana high, under a bodhi-tree, so that the Buddha might on this throne attain Perfect Enlightenment. No sooner was he seated on it, than the Brahma heavenly kings rained down celestial flowers over an area of a hundred yojanas. A fragrant wind from time to time arose, sweeping away the flowers as they withered and raining fresh ones.”

Other wonders are described until, at the end of ten minor kalpas, the great Buddha-law of Perfect Enlightenment is revealed. His sixteen sons, born while he was a prince before he left home to become a monk, also his father, with his hundred ministers and myriads of people, all drew near to the Throne of Enlightenment, doing homage to its occupant. They besought him to roll the Wheel of the Law and proclaim the Truth.

At the moment when this Buddha attained Perfect Enlightenment the whole universe was shaken, a light shone in regions where light had never shown before, and wherever light was known its shining was doubled in intensity.

133The Brahma-kings astonished cry:

“In all our palaces Ne’er has been such shining: What may be its cause? Let us investigate. Has a great good god been born, Or a Buddha appeared in the world, That this great brilliance Illuminates the universe?”

Thereupon the Brahma-kings of the East in five hundred myriad kotis of realms, with all their palace train, each follower bearing a great bag, full of celestial flowers, set forth to investigate the sign. They found the Buddha surrounded by vast expectant throngs, and immediately joined them, strewing their flowers before his feet till they rose high as Mount Sumeru, and each offering to him his magnificent palace. In like manner there appeared, in turn, the Brahma-kings of each of the other regions, making similar offerings. This is told in plenitude of detail, covering many pages of prose and verse. The four quarters, together with the zenith and nadir, are each portrayed in similar style, with sufficient variation to avoid mere verbal repetition.

The light that shone through all the worlds was the Light of Truth dawning on the awakening Buddha. It was the Radiance of Perfect Enlightenment, of which the Mahayana is the conveyer. The Brahma-kings chant:

134“Kalpas untold from of yore Have passed empty without a Buddha; A World-honoured One not appearing, Darkness has everywhere reigned; The three evil states were thriving, Flourishing were the demons, While the heavenly host dwindled And perished in evil estate, Not hearing the Law from a Buddha. . . . . . The Buddha, the eye of the world, Now after long ages appears; Through pity for the living In the world he is revealed, Surpassing in Perfect Enlightenment . . . . . All our palaces, made beauteous With this supernal Light, We offer to the World-Honoured. . . . . . World-Honoured! roll the Law-wheel! Beat the drum of the dew-sweet Law, Save the suffering living Reveal the Nirvana-Way!”

Then the Buddha Universal-Surpassing-Wisdom is represented as following the tactical method of Buddhas, that of preaching first the four noble truths concerning Pain and its cure, i.e. the fact and nature of suffering; the assembling (or, 135focussing) of suffering; the possibility of the extinction of suffering; the way of its extinction. This he followed with the Law of the Twelve Causes of reincarnation and their annihilation. Such is, of course, the preparatory or hinayana method; yet, as the result of it, the sixteen princes and myriads of others “were freed from faults, all obtaining the profound, mystic meditations, the Three Clear (Views) and the Six Transcendent (Faculties) and thus accomplished the Eight Emancipations”. Likewise, at a second, a third, and a fourth time of preaching the Law, “beings as sands of the Ganges were freed from faults.”

The sixteen royal sons became monks, served myriads of Buddhas, and then besought the Buddha, their father, to preach the Law of Perfect Enlightenment! The vast host added their appeal, and “after two myriad kalpas had passed, in the midst of the four groups he preached this Mahayana Sutra named ‘The Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law’.” “For eight thousand kalpas he continued preaching this Sutra without cessation. When he had finished, he then entered a quiet room and remained in meditation during eighty-four thousand kalpas.” During this period his sixteen sons preached everywhere the Sutra of the Wonderful Law-Flower, saving incalculable numbers of beings.

After eighty-four thousand kalpas had passed, the Buddha, Great Universal Master of Wisdom, arose from his trance-like meditation, ascended the Law-throne, and addressed the vast assembly, calling 136on them to pay homage to his sixteen sons because they had universally preached the Lotus Sutra.

.....

Śakyamuni, having told this story of the former Buddha, now declared that the sixteen sons, who became Buddhas, possessed their Buddha-realms in the eight directions. Two of them were in the eastern region, two in the south-eastern, and so on. Their titles are given. The fifteenth and sixteenth were in the north-eastern region, one of them being named “Destroyer of Fear in all the world”, the other was Śakyamuni himself, who has now at last reached the stage of Perfect Enlightenment in this world.

He tells the disciples, that they have all been his disciples in former states of existence. “All those beings, innumerable as the sands of Ganges, whom I converted at that time, are you yourselves, and you will be my disciples in future worlds after my extinction.” “In other realms I shall still be Buddha though under different names.” The meaning seems to be that the One Buddha appears in countless worlds, One yet infinite in number. Each personal incarnation of the Buddhas, each embodiment, so to speak, has its own characteristic, but there is only One Buddha in and through all these various manifestations. It is, of course, not clear from this chapter alone that the One Buddha is personal, and not an abstraction like Wisdom, but the general interpretation favours one personal 137Buddha, whom Dr. Timothy Richard has not hesitated to call God.

“Monks!” says the Buddha, “If a Tathagata himself knows that the time of his Nirvana has arrived, and that his assembly is purified, is firm in faith and discernment, penetrated with the Law of the Void, and profound in meditation, then he gathers together his bodhisattvas to preach this Sutra to them. In the world there is no second vehicle for attaining to extinction; there is only the One Buddha-Vehicle for such attainment. Know, bhikshus! The tact of the Tathagata penetrates deeply into the natures of all living beings, and knows that they are bent on the enjoyment of trifling things and deeply attached to human desires. It is for the sake of these he preaches Nirvana.”