དམ་པའ་ཆས་པད་མ་དཀར་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 4.20

4.20

I know many hundreds of eons. {7}

“Bhikṣus, the lifespan of the tathāgata, the arhat, the perfectly enlightened buddha Mahābhijñā­jñānābhi­bhū was fifty-four hundred thousand quintillion eons. Before that bhagavān attained the highest, complete enlightenment of perfect buddhahood, he went to the sublime, supreme Bodhimaṇḍa. He conquered and defeated the entire army of Māra. Having defeated and conquered it, he thought, ‘I shall attain the highest, complete enlightenment of perfect buddhahood.’

“While those qualities had not yet manifested, he sat on the Bodhimaṇḍa at the foot of the Bodhi tree for an entire intermediate eon. He sat there for a second intermediate eon but still did not attain the highest, complete enlightenment of perfect buddhahood. During a third, a fourth, a fifth, a sixth, a seventh, an eighth, a ninth, and a tenth intermediate eon he sat on the Bodhimaṇḍa at the foot of the Bodhi tree, with legs always crossed, never standing up, with his mind unwavering and his body motionless, but even so, during that time those qualities did not manifest for him.

“Bhikṣus, the devas of Trāyastriṃśa erected for that bhagavān, who had come to the sublime, supreme Bodhimaṇḍa, a great lion throne, which was five hundred yojanas high, for the highest, complete enlightenment of perfect buddhahood. As soon as that bhagavān sat on the Bodhimaṇḍa, the Brahmakāyika devas sent down a rain of flowers up to ten yojanas around the Bodhimaṇḍa, and from the sky a breeze would come that removed all the withering flowers. In that way a rain of flowers fell and fell continuously on the Bhagavān sitting on the Bodhimaṇḍa.