大方便佛報恩經 5.9

5.9

When Śāriputra had consoled the great assembly with these verses, he manifested great supernormal powers: he rose into the sky and transformed himself into a thousand-headed precious elephant. The bodies of the elephants were intertwined with one another, their thousand heads facing outward. Each elephant had seven tusks; upon each tusk were seven bathing pools; in each bathing pool were seven lotus flowers; upon each flower dais were seven transformed Buddhas; each transformed Buddha had an attendant Śāriputra; each Śāriputra emitted a great radiance that universally illuminated immeasurable worlds as numerous as the sands of the Ganges in the ten directions, summoning those with affinity from afar. When those with affinity had assembled, Śāriputra manifested a great body filling the sky, and from being large he manifested as small; he entered the earth as if it were water, emerging without gaps and entering without openings; or fire issued from the lower part of his body and water issued from the upper part, leaping and disappearing in the sky; or he became a thousand, a hundred, even countless. Having manifested various supernormal transformations, he descended from the sky, went into the midst of the great assembly, and broadly preached the Dharma for them, instructing, guiding, benefiting, and gladdening them, causing immeasurable hundreds of thousands of sentient beings to give rise to the aspiration for anuttarasamyaksaṃbodhi. Furthermore, immeasurable hundreds of thousands of sentient beings attained the path of srotāpanna up to the fruit of arhatship; furthermore, immeasurable hundreds of thousands of people gave rise to the aspiration of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas.