無量壽經連義述文贊 1.20

1.20

Regarding the passage in the sūtra, "Descending from that heavenly palace, [the bodhisattva] lowered his spirit into his mother's womb": The commentary states: This is the second [aspect]: lowering his spirit and entering the womb. Desiring to cause sentient beings to give rise to a reverent mind so that they would easily accept what he taught, he therefore descended from the heavenly palace and entered the womb. That sūtra says: Twelve years before the bodhisattva was to descend and be born, there were [gods of the] Śuddhāvāsa Heaven who descended to the land of Jambudvīpa, disguised as Brahmins, preaching the treatises of the Vedas [and proclaiming]: "Twelve years from now, a superior person will manifest the form of a white elephant and enter his mother's womb, fully endowed with the marks of a Great Man; if he leaves home, he is certain to attain Buddhahood." Moreover, gods descended to Jambudvīpa and announced to the pratyekabuddhas: "You ought to abandon this land; a bodhisattva will descend with his spirit and enter a womb." At that time, in Mount Vipula near Rājagṛha, there was a pratyekabuddha named Mataṅga. Having heard these words, he leaped into the empty air to a height of seven tāla trees, transformed his body into fire, incinerated himself, and entered nirvāṇa, leaving only relics that fell from the sky. The five hundred pratyekabuddhas of the state of Vārāṇasī also did the same. As the bodhisattva resided in the heavenly palace, he observed the proper time, direction, land, and lineage; ascending a great palace hall named High Banner, sixty-four yojanas square, he taught the assembly of gods the one hundred and eight Dharma-gates, from the Dharma-gate of faith down to the Dharma-gate of consecration; from that heavenly palace he descended to be born and enter the womb. A deva named Prabhāśreṣṭha (Sheng Guang) made this utterance: "What is stated in the treatises of the Vedas is that when the bodhisattva descends to be born, he shall take the form of an elephant to enter his mother's womb." After the winter season had passed, in the vernal equinox, in the month of Vaiśākha, at the time of conjunction with the constellation Viśākhā when it is neither cold nor hot, when the bright fortnight was round and pure and the constellation Puṣya was in exact conjunction with the moon, as his mother was observing the pure precepts of the fast and sleeping peacefully, [the bodhisattva], taking the form of a white elephant fully endowed with six tusks—its tusks being golden, its head emitting red light, and its form, marks, and sense faculties all perfectly complete—in right mindfulness and clear comprehension, lowered his spirit and entered through his mother's right side. One should not raise the objection: "Since the text is praising the virtues of all the bodhisattvas, how can you explain it using these passages on the nine aspects?" [For] the eight aspects of Śākyamuni are precisely the superior progressive practices of all bodhisattvas. Furthermore, when the eight aspects are manifested, every single bodhisattva manifests these aspects, and because their similarities are so close, sentient beings consider them to be one. Therefore, in citing that sūtra's account of the World-Honoured One's adornments to explain the passage on the nine aspects of these bodhisattvas, what contradiction could there be? However, since the sūtra text is burdensome and extensive, and we fear wasting words, we now deduce the meaning with concise language, matching the sūtras while being fully equipped with the principle. Although the bodhisattva's adornments while dwelling in the womb are numerous, we briefly state three kinds. The first is the palace halls: namely, the devas of the desire realm each brought splendid palaces to King Śuddhodana, and the king also built a magnificent palace for the bodhisattva such as does not exist in the human world. Due to the bodhisattva's majestic power, the holy queen Māyā's body appeared in every single palace, with the bodhisattva seated cross-legged at her right side; the devas each thought to themselves, "The bodhisattva's mother resides only in my palace." The bodhisattva's jeweled palace hall was three hundred yojanas square, with a threefold perimeter of adornments, all made of heavenly Gośīrṣa sandalwood incense, a single portion of which was worth a trichiliocosm. The palaces of all the devas of the desire realm appeared within the bodhisattva's palace hall. Whenever he was about to enter the womb, this hall existed first at his mother's right side; only then did he lower his spirit from heaven to enter the womb and sit cross-legged within this hall. The second is food and drink: on the night the bodhisattva entered the womb, a lotus flower welled up from the bottom of the water limit, pierced through the earth wheel, and reached up to the Brahma world, being sixty-eight lakṣa yojanas square; with the sole exception of the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and Mahābrahmā, none were able to see it. All the fine delicacies of the trichiliocosm appeared within this flower like ambrosia. The heavenly king Mahābrahmā held this pure and marvelous taste of ambrosia in a vaiḍūrya vessel and offered it to the bodhisattva, and the bodhisattva accepted and consumed it. With the sole exception of a bodhisattva bound to a final rebirth, no one could eat it; this was brought about by the karmic reward of having rescued the sick with medicine and attended holy ones with marvelous flowers throughout the long night [of saṃsāra]. The third is transforming beings: while the bodhisattva was dwelling in the womb, the light of his bodily marks pervaded the worlds. The Four Heavenly Kings and their yakṣa generals with their retinues, Śakra Devānām Indra with the Trāyastriṃśa devas, and the Sahā world lord Mahābrahmā with immeasurable assemblies of Brahmā devas, in their proper sequence, all appeared before the bodhisattva in the morning, at midday, and in the late afternoon in order to hear the Dharma; the bodhisattva consoled them, preached the Dharma for them, and they bowed and departed. Immeasurable bodhisattvas of the ten directions came at sunset to engage in questions and answers for the sake of hearing the Dharma; only those of identical practice could see them, whereas Māyā was not able to see them. Furthermore, according to that sūtra, immeasurable [bodhisattvas] of the ten directions bound to one final rebirth, and devas of the desire and form realms from the worlds of the ten directions, all came to Tuṣita to make offerings to the bodhisattva; the bodhisattva thereupon descended to be born from the supreme Tuṣita heavenly palace. At that time, his body emitted light that illuminated the trichiliocosm, the six kinds of quaking occurred, and there were eighteen marks. That these are absent in the present text is simply due to brevity.