中天竺舍衛國祇洹寺圖經 2.31

2.31

The western lane-gate of the great courtyard naturally divides into six courtyards to the west. The first courtyard to the south has three gates opened, with the west blocked off, and is named the Courtyard of Impermanence. In the center is a single hall made entirely of white silver, surrounded on four sides by white covered corridors and filled with white flowers; painted depictions of white bones are everywhere, so that all who are about to undergo impermanence are brought here to be made to look upon the white bones and various marks of impermanence. Once their lives have ended, they are carried out through the south gate. The west gate of the great west wall is the route by which all who undergo impermanence pass. The courtyard has eight bells: four of white silver and four of crystal. The silver bells are in the four corners of the courtyard, mounted upon raised platforms. The crystal bells are at the four corners of the Hall of Impermanence. The four silver bells each weigh one hundred thousand catties, shaped like Mount Sumeru. Nine dragons encircle the platform bell, whose suspension loop rests upon the platform within an upright silver lotus blossom. Beside each bell is a white silver figure wearing a heavenly crown with a maṇi jewel atop its head, twelve feet tall, holding a silver mallet in its hand. When a bhikṣu is about to pass away, the silver figures in the four corners strike the bells simultaneously. Within their sounds, they expound the Dharma of all Buddhas entering nirvāṇa. When the devas of Paranirmita-vaśavartin hear this bell, heavenly youths descend carrying white floral banners to make offerings to the bhikṣu's corpse. The Tuṣita devas then take sixteen kinds of celestial flowers and scatter them down into the courtyard. When this sick bhikṣu hears the sound of the bell, he does not lose his fundamental mind and attains rebirth in a good destiny. The crystal bell is shaped like a waist-drum; on its suspension loop is a golden kumbhīra riding a golden lion, holding a white whisk in its hand. When a sick monk's breath is about to expire, this golden kumbhīra proclaims with its mouth impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and non-self. Raising the white whisk in its hand, the bell sounds of itself, its tones also proclaiming: 'All conditioned things are impermanent; they are phenomena subject to arising and ceasing. When arising and ceasing have ceased, tranquil extinction is bliss.' When the sick monk hears the sound, his afflictions and anguish are instantly dispelled, and he attains cool bliss as if entering the third dhyāna, on the verge of rebirth in a pure land. If he is a person of great virtue, the waists of the four crystal bells emit a great radiance, within which the six pāramitās of a bodhisattva are expounded; seeing this light, the sick person is reborn in the Buddha lands. And the light of this bell follows the deceased spirit to the place of rebirth, outshining the light of the sun and moon and eclipsing the light of all devas. The silver bells above were crafted by Śakra; the crystal bells were crafted by the Moon Deva. Their sound reaches throughout ten billion worlds. After the Buddha entered extinction, the two kinds of bells ascended, each returning to its native realm.