“Whoever, Ananda, has developed himself and ascended to the very heights of the four paths to Power, thus transcending bodily conditions and using these Powers for good may if he desires it, remain in the same birth for an age, or that portion of the age which is yet to run. Now He who has thus Attained has developed these Powers and could therefore live on yet for an age or that portion of the age which has yet to run.” But even though this suggestion was given by the Blessed One, the venerable Ananda did not comprehend it, nor did he say, “Vouchsafe, Lord, to remain! Live on for the good and happiness of the peoples, out of pity for the world and the weal of Divine Beings and men.” And a second time did the Blessed One say this, and yet did not the beloved Ananda speak. Now the Blessed One addressed him thus: “You may leave me, Ananda, for awhile.” And rising from his seat, Ananda saluted the Lord, and sat down at the foot of a tree not far off, and when he was gone, the Evil One, the Tempter, approached the Lord and stood beside him, and he said: “Pass away now, Lord, from existence. Let the Blessed One die. For did he not say that when the Order was established, and the lay-people, and the truth made known, that then the time would be come? And all this is now done, and the time is here. Pass away now, therefore, Lord. Let the Blessed One die.” And when he had spoken, the Blessed One said to the Evil One: “Be happy. At the end of three months from this time the Blessed One will die.” Thus did the Lord deliberately and consciously reject the rest of his possible sum of life. And there followed an earthquake and tremblings and thunders. And Ananda returned in haste and said: “Wonderful and marvellous is this earthquake, Lord, and what is its cause?” And the Lord said: “Of the eight causes of earthquake and tremblings, this is one—when an Awakened One,—He who has thus Attained, consciously and deliberately rejects the remainder of his life, then is the earth shaken.” And, still speaking of the mastery of the Powers, the Lord continued: “Now I call to mind, Ananda, how when I used to enter into an assembly of many hundred nobles with discourse of religion I would instruct and gladden them, and they would say,—‘Who may this be who thus speaks? A man or a God?’ And having taught and gladdened them, suddenly I would vanish away. But they knew me not even when I vanished away, and they would say in bewilderment, ‘Who may this be who has thus vanished away? A man, or a God?’” And he spoke also of the eight stages of deliverance from errors of perception, passing beyond the apprehension of form through infinite space and infinite reason and finally beyond sensation and ideas, even into the eighth stage of deliverance. And having given this instruction the Lord related to the venerable Ananda how that in three months’ time he should hear his voice no more, and the venerable Ananda cried out vehemently: