ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ་པ 34.7

34.7

Upholding the holy life,
May I take up the practice of going for alms.

“And if worthy, when I then receive
Spiritual instruction, let my comportment be
Just as I have been instructed.
This would be my suffering’s end.

“Should it not come to pass,
Then when my lifespan, worn out, slips away
Let me take birth
As a god of Akaniṣṭha.

“Blessed One, I am a stream enterer. Sugata, I am a stream enterer. It is my hope to one day be a once-returner.”

“Very good, Kauśika, very good!
The good fortune with which you are blessed
The heedful can also achieve.”

Śakra replied:

“That which made me so peaceable,
And brought me stream entry as well,
Belongs only to you, Blessed One,
And only comes from your teaching.

“Its foundation is uncommonly vast—
What place is there, then, for another?
Anything like it accomplished before,
Was not something received from another.

“Lord, as I stand here before you
In the form of a god,
Please, wise one, I request—
Grant that I live long.”

When this Dharma teaching had been explained, Śakra, King of the Gods, and his suite of eighty thousand divine attendants were able to see these things unobscured, with the Dharma vision that has no trace of dust or stain with respect to phenomena. And having seen the truths, Śakra died, transmigrated, and took birth again right where he sat.

The Blessed One knew by touching his body that he had died, transmigrated, and taken rebirth without so much as closing his eyes or disappearing. Śakra, King of the Gods, the young demigoddess Śacī, and the others recognized it too, and the young demigoddess Śacī and the others asked Śakra, King of the Gods, “Kauśika, have you died and taken rebirth?”

“Yes, Śacī,” Śakra replied, “and all of you—I did die, transmigrate, and take rebirth. I acquired an extension of my lifespan right here where I sit.”