萬善同歸集 2.63

2.63

「或散華供養，嚴飾道場，盡作菩提之緣因，成佛之正行。《法華經》云：『若人散亂心，乃至以一華，供養於畫像，漸見無數佛。』《大思惟經》云：『若不散華獻佛，雖得往生，而依報不具。』《賢愚經》云：『舍衛國內，有豪富長者，生一男兒，面首端正；天雨眾華，積滿舍內，即字華天。乃至出家，得阿羅漢。阿難白佛：「華天何福而得如是？」佛言：「過去有佛，名毘婆尸；有一貧人，見僧歡喜；即於野澤採眾草華，用散大眾。爾時貧人，今華天比丘是。散華之德，九十一劫，身體端正；意有所須，如念而至。」』經云：『若以一華散虛空中，供養十方佛，乃至畢苦，其福無盡。』論云：『億耳阿羅漢，昔以一華施於佛塔，九十一劫，人天中受樂；餘福力得阿羅漢。』

"Or scattering flowers as an offering to adorn the bodhimaṇḍa, all serve as contributory conditions for bodhi and the correct practice for becoming a Buddha. The Lotus Sūtra says: 'Even if a person with a distracted mind / offers a single flower / to a painted image, / he will gradually see countless Buddhas.' The Sūtra of Great Contemplation says: 'If one does not scatter flowers to offer to the Buddha, although one may attain rebirth [in a pure land], one's environmental rewards (adhipati-phala) will not be complete.' The Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish says: 'In the country of Śrāvastī, an affluent elder gave birth to a boy whose face and head were upright and handsome; heaven rained various flowers that piled up filling the house, so he was named Flower-Heaven (Puṣpadeva). Eventually he left the household and attained arhatship. Ānanda said to the Buddha: "By what merit did Puṣpadeva obtain such a reward?" The Buddha said: "In the past there was a Buddha named Vipaśyin; a poor man, seeing the saṅgha, was filled with joy; he then gathered various wild herbs and flowers in the marshland and scattered them over the great assembly. That poor man at that time was none other than the present monk Puṣpadeva. By the virtue of scattering flowers, for ninety-one kalpas his body has been upright and handsome; whatever his mind needed arrived as soon as he thought of it."' A sūtra says: 'If one scatters a single flower into empty space as an offering to the Buddhas of the ten directions, until suffering is exhausted, that merit is inexhaustible.' A treatise says: 'In the past, the Arhat Śroṇakoṭīkarṇa offered a single flower to a Buddha's stūpa; for ninety-one kalpas he enjoyed pleasure among humans and devas, and by the remaining power of this merit he attained arhatship.'"}, kindness, he attained arhatship.'"