དམ་པའ་ཆས་པད་མ་དཀར་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.58

intro.58

The Buddha tells of a time in the distant past when Buddha Mahābhijñā­jñānābhi­bhū spent ten intermediate eons under the Bodhi tree to attain enlightenment. His sixteen sons came to supplicate him for teachings, as did brahmās from quintillions of world realms in every direction. He gave the teachings of the four truths of the āryas and of dependent origination, and his saṅgha became innumerable. At a request from his sixteen sons for the highest Dharma, he taught The White Lotus of the Good Dharma for a hundred thousand eons. Then he entered solitude and each of the sixteen sons taught the sūtra to quintillions of beings. The Buddha states that the sixteen sons have become sixteen buddhas, one of whom is himself, and his students from that distant time are again his students in the present. He then gives the parable of a guide leading a great number of beings through a vast jungle on the way to an island of jewels. When they become exhausted and wish to turn back he magically creates a city for them to rest in. When they are rested he tells them the city was an illusion and that they should continue their journey. Similarly, the Buddha has taught the yānas and nirvāṇas of the śrāvakas and pratyeka­buddhas to beings so that they may rest on their journey to buddhahood, whereas there is truly only one nirvāṇa and yāna, that of buddhahood.