འཕགས་པ་ཀླའ་རྒྱལ་པ་མ་དྲས་པས་ཞས་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 71

71

we will continue to worship your exalted body, undivided and whole, and will seek the seven precious materials so as to make a shrine for it.”

Then Venerable Mahākāśyapa said to the young nāgas, “If out of great compassion for all beings the Thus-Gone One manifests relics the size of mustard seeds, then you noble sons saying, ‘We will worship the Thus-Gone One’s exalted body, undivided and whole,’ amounts to wanting to obstruct virtuous qualities for most beings.”

The five hundred young nāgas replied to Venerable Mahākāśyapa, “Revered Kāśyapa, do not say such things! Your insight does not compare to the insight and wisdom of the Thus-Gone One! The Thus-Gone One is omniscient and all seeing. He is endowed with the power of wisdom that manifests blessings and miraculous power. If he so wishes, he could project his body, undivided and whole, into each of the many realms of gods, nāgas, and yakṣas in this great trichiliocosm, and all those beings would know that they were worshiping the Thus-Gone One and no one else. Revered Mahākāśyapa, when the Thus-Gone One passes into parinirvāṇa, the minds of all those beings, through their devotion, will be blessed with bodily relics. Revered Mahākāśyapa, just one such bodily relic the size of a mere mustard seed in the Highest Heaven could illuminate the whole of Jambudvīpa. Such is the miraculous power of the Buddha.”

Venerable Subhūti then said to those sons of the nāga king, “Noble sons, do thus-gone ones