འཕགས་པ་གསར་འད་དམ་པ་མད་སྡའ་དབང་པའ་རྒྱལ་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 1.6

1.6

In his mind was the thought, “Why is it that the Bhagavat Śākyamuni has this short lifespan of eighty years?”

Those buddha bhagavats were aware of and understood these thoughts and said to the bodhisattva Ruciraketu, “Noble son, do not think, ‘The Bhagavat Śākyamuni has such a short lifespan.’ Why is that? Noble son, except for the tathāgata arhat samyak­saṃbuddhas, we do not see anyone in the world with its devas, with its Māra, with its Brahmā, with its many beings who are mendicants and brahmins, and with its devas, humans, and asuras who has the ability to know the length of the Bhagavat Tathāgata Śākyamuni’s lifespan to its future limit.”

As soon as those buddha bhagavats described the Tathāgata’s lifespan, at that moment, through the power of the buddhas, the devas in the desire realm, the devas in the form realm, the nāgas, the yakṣas, the gandharvas, the asuras, the garuḍas, the kinnaras, the mahoragas, and the many hundreds of thousands of quintillions of assembled bodhisattvas arrived in the house of the bodhisattva Ruciraketu.

Those tathāgatas then recited verses that taught in brief the lifespan of the Bhagavat Śākyamuni to that complete assembly:

“The drops of water in all
The oceans can be calculated,
But no one can calculate
The lifespan of Śākyamuni.

“The number of atoms in all
Sumerus⁴² can be calculated,⁴³
But no one can calculate
The lifespan of Śākyamuni.

“Someone might calculate
The number of atoms in the earth,