中天竺舍衛國祇洹寺圖經 1.34

1.34

West of the great gate, there are another seven courtyards. The first on the easternmost edge to the south is called the Courtyard of the Bodhisattva Four Truths. Inside is a great hall; its gate faces the northern lane, and it is filled with groves and ponds. The bodhisattvas elaborate in detail upon the Four Truths, their words and principles expansive yet succinct; the existing and the empty, bondage and liberation, the ordinary and the holy, obstruction and penetration—all gather within it. The schools of study in the various courtyards follow this pattern, so they are not detailed comprehensively. The courtyard has a golden bell with a triple loop bearing the forms of nine dragons. When the time arrives, the dragons' mouths billow out great clouds of mist, and the bell spontaneously rings, its sound like a celestial zither, heard for twenty li. It was made and donated by the Nāgarāja Vāsuki. Long ago, when Krakucchanda Buddha was on the causal stage, a master craftsman of the Buddha exercised his own ingenuity to make it, [vowing:] 'May I in the future attain a golden body, and perpetually cause this bell to make offerings to the Buddhas.'