三彌勒經疏 1.43

1.43

" 'Having spoken these words, he threw himself into the fire pit, sharing his life with the hares. The earth moved and the heavens shook. Through spiritual power, the trees emitted light; golden and white light shone upon a thousand lands. Sentient beings saw the light, followed it and came to the place; they saw that the ṛṣi and the hares had both died in the fire, and after obtaining the verses spoken and the Buddhist sūtras, they brought them back and presented them to their king. The king made a proclamation, and all gave rise to the aspiration for great bodhi.' The Buddha told the brahmacārins: 'The king of hares at that time was my own body now. That hare's child was Rāhula. The ṛṣi chanting the sūtras was Maitreya now. The five hundred hares were the five hundred people including Mahākāśyapa. The spirits of the mountain and trees were the two hundred and fifty people including Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana. The kings of the thousand lands at that time were the one thousand bodhisattvas including Bhadrapāla now. The sentient beings of those lands who heard the sūtras were those who attained the Path under the Buddhas of the Bhadrakalpa.' By this it is definitely known that he first met Maitreya Buddha and generated the resolute aspiration, and therefore was named Maitreya. However, because the *Damamūka-nidāna-sūtra* refers to a later stage, it speaks of the time of Puṣya Buddha."