Chinese literature : $b Comprising the Analects of Confucius, the Sayings of Mencius, the Shi-King, the Travels of Fâ-Hien, and the Sorrows of HanFaxian
Philosophy
Chinese literature : $b Comprising the Analects of Confucius, the Sayings of Mencius, the Shi-King, the Travels of Fâ-Hien, and the Sorrows of Han
Faxian
China -- Literary collections; Chinese literature; Chinese literature -- Translations into English
There is a monastery, containing perhaps six hundred or seven hundred
monks, in which there is a place where a Pratyeka Buddha used to take
his food. The nirvâna ground where he was burned after death is as large
as a carriage wheel; and while grass grows all around, on this spot
there is none. The ground also where he dried his clothes produces no
grass, but the impression of them, where they lay on it, continues to
the present day.
[Footnote 1: The heaven of Indra or Sâkya, meaning "the heaven of
thirty-three classes," a name which has been explained both historically
and mythologically. "The description of it," says Eitel, "tallies in all
respects with the Svarga of Brahmanic mythology. It is situated between
the four peaks of the Meru, and consists of thirty-two cities of devas,
eight on each of the four corners of the mountain. Indra's capital of
Bellevue is in the centre. There he is enthroned, with a thousand heads
and a thousand eyes, and four arms grasping the vajra, with his wife and
119,000 concubines. There he receives the monthly reports of the four
Mahârâjas, concerning the progress of good and evil in the world," etc.,
etc.]
[Footnote 2: Buddha's mother, Mâyâ and Mahâ-mâyâ, died seven days after
his birth.]
[Footnote 3: Anuruddha was a first cousin of Sâkyamuni, being the son of
his uncle Amritodana. He is often mentioned in the account we have of
Buddha's last moments. His special gift was the "heavenly eye," the
first of the six "supernatural talents," the faculty of comprehending in
one instantaneous view, or by intuition, all beings in all worlds.]
[Footnote 4: This was Brahma, the first person of the Brahmanical
Trimurti, adopted by Buddhism, but placed in an inferior position, and
surpassed by every Buddhist saint who attains to bodhi.]
[Footnote 5: A note of Mr. Beal says on this:--"General Cunningham, who
visited the spot (1862), found a pillar, evidently of the age of Asoka,
with a well-carved elephant on the top, which, however, was minus trunk
and tail. He supposes this to be the pillar seen by Fâ-hien, who mistook
the top of it for a lion. It is possible such a mistake may have been
made, as in the account of one of the pillars at Srâvasti, Fâ-hien says
an ox formed the capital, whilst Hsüan-chwang calls it an elephant."]
[Footnote 6: These three predecessors of Sakya-muni were the three
Buddhas of the present or Mahâ-bhadra Kalpa, of which he was the fourth,
and Maitreya is to be the fifth and last. They were: (i) Kra-kuchanda,
"he who readily solves all doubts"; a scion of the Kasyapa family. Human
life reached in his time forty thousand years, and so many persons were
converted by him. (2) Kanakamuni, "body radiant with the color of pure
gold"; of the same family. Human life reached in his time thirty
thousand years, and so many persons were converted by him. (3) Kasyapa,
"swallower of light." Human life reached in his time twenty thousand
years, and so many persons were converted by him.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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