Buddhist birth stories; or, Jataka tales, Volume 1
Religion
Buddhist birth stories; or, Jataka tales, Volume 1
Jataka stories, English
75. Then, unrivalled and glorious, reverentially saluting the throne
of Bodhi,
At the foot of an Indian fig-tree he shall attain Buddhahood.
76. The mother that bears him shall be called Māyā,
His father will be Suddhodana, he himself will be Gotama.
77. His chief disciples will be Upatissa and Kolita,
Void of human passion, freed from desire, calm-minded and tranquil.
78. The servitor Ānanda will attend upon the Conqueror,
Khemā and Uppalava_nn_ā will be his chief female disciples,
79. Void of human passion, freed from desire, calm-minded and tranquil.
The sacred tree of this Buddha is called Assattha.
The hermit Sumedha, exclaiming, “My prayer, it seems, will be
accomplished,” was filled with happiness. The multitudes, hearing the
words of Dīpankara Buddha, were joyous and delighted, exclaiming, “The
hermit Sumedha, it seems, is an embryo Buddha, the tender shoot that
will grow up into a Buddha.” For thus they thought, “As a man fording
a river, if he is unable to cross to the ford opposite him, crosses to
a ford lower down the stream, even so we, if under the dispensation
of Dīpankara Buddha we fail to attain the Paths and their fruition,
yet when thou shalt become Buddha we shall be enabled in thy presence
to make the paths and their fruition our own,”--and so they recorded
their prayer (for future sanctification). And Dīpankara, Buddha also
having praised the Bodhisatta, and made an offering to him of eight
handfuls of flowers, reverentially saluted him and departed. And the
Arhats, also, four hundred thousand in number, having made offerings to
the Bodhisatta of perfumes and garlands, reverentially saluted him and
departed. And the angels and men having made the same offerings, and
bowed down to him, went their way.
And the Bodhisatta, when all had retired, rising from his seat and
exclaiming, “I will investigate the Perfections,” sat himself down
cross-legged on a heap of flowers. And as the Bodhisatta sat thus, the
angels in all the ten thousand worlds assembling shouted applause.
“Venerable hermit Sumedha,” they said, “all the auguries which have
manifested themselves when former Bodhisattas seated themselves
cross-legged, saying, ‘We will investigate the Perfections,’--all these
this day have appeared: assuredly thou shalt become Buddha. This we
know, to whom these omens appear, he surely will become Buddha; do
thou make a strenuous effort and exert thyself.” With these words they
lauded the Bodhisatta with varied praises. Therefore it is said,
80. Hearing these words of the incomparable Sage,
Angels and men delighted, exclaimed, This is an embryo Buddha.
81. A great clamour arises, men and angels in ten thousand worlds
Clap their hands, and laugh, and make obeisance with clasped hands.
82. “Should we fail,” they say, “of this Buddha’s dispensation,
Yet in time to come we shall stand before him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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