ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ་པ 17.10

17.10

that he went forth in the doctrine of the Blessed One, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifested arhatship; and that by entrusting themselves to him, the people of his house pleased the Blessed One, and did not displease him?”

“It came about by the power of his prayers,” the Blessed One replied.

“Lord, where did he make these prayers?”

“Monks, in times past, in the ninety-first eon, when people lived as long as eighty thousand years and the tathāgata, the arhat, the totally and completely awakened buddha possessed of insight and perfect conduct, the sugata, the knower of the world, the tamer of persons, the charioteer, the unsurpassed one, the teacher of humans and gods, the blessed buddha known as Vipaśyin was in the world, he performed all of the deeds of a buddha and then passed beyond all sorrow into the realm of nirvāṇa without any remainder of the aggregates, like a fire when all the wood is gone.

“The king of the city of Bandhumatī built a reliquary stūpa and was preparing to raise the life pillar¹²² when a great crowd gathered. So the king exhorted them, ‘Whoever generates the most wealth on behalf of this stūpa will raise the stūpa’s life pillar.’

“A certain householder’s son in that region heard of the king’s declaration, and an idea came to him, ‘If I can generate a lot of wealth on behalf of the stūpa, I shall get to raise the life pillar. I’m not that wealthy, but I will go see my family and generate some wealth.’

“The householder’s son went to his family, and they said, ‘Be strong. You have to believe. Whatever wealth you generate, we will match.’ When he heard this, the young man immediately began to generate greater sums than the king, generating 600 million in gold¹²³ all together.