勅修百丈清規 2.12

2.12

帝師涅槃

well for over twenty years, that he learned the Dharma as seamlessly as water

poured into a vessel of any form [takes the shape of that vessel], and hence

he wanted Ānanda to record his last teaching in the Nirvana Sutra. Mañjuśrī

conveyed the Buddha’s wish to Ānanda and brought him back to the place.

Furthermore, the Buddha told Ānanda that the brahman Subhadra, who

was one hundred and twenty years old and who had not yet discarded his

attachment to self, must be brought to listen to the Tathāgata’s last teaching

by being informed that the Buddha would enter nirvana that night. At once,

Subhadra came to listen to the Buddha’s teaching and immediately attained

the state of arhatship. Thus, the Buddha announced: “Immediately after I

realized the path, I converted Kauṇḍinya, and now I have converted Subhadra

at last. I have thus completed my task. What ought to be done has been done.”

At midnight of the fifteenth day of the second month, he once again addressed

his disciples: “O disciples, after my death, you must pay respect to the prā-

timokṣa rules and disciplines. [The prātimokṣa] is your master regardless of

whether I am or am not in this world. There is no lessening of its impor-

tance.” He lay his right side on a cloth decorated with seven kinds of pre-

cious gems. There was not a single voice heard anywhere, and the Buddha

passed away.

Aniruddha immediately went to the Tuṣita Heaven to tell Queen Māyā

that the Buddha had entered parinirvāṇa. As she came down from heaven,

the Buddha once again raised himself to preach, in order to console his

mother, and then said to Ānanda, “You must know that because I fear there

might appear some unfilial people in the future, I have exemplified filial piety

by coming out of the golden coffin to greet my mother.” At that moment,

Mahākāśyapa, leading the group of five hundred disciples, arrived running

from the hills of Mount Gṛdhrakūṭa (Vulture Peak) and greeted him with

lamentation. Once again the Buddha miraculously revealed the mark of the

sacred symbol of the “Wheel of One Thousand Spokes” on the soles of his feet. Heavenly beings brought aromatic woods to the cremation site, and the cremation fire continued to burn by itself for seven days.

Lay followers deposited the Buddha’s relics in eight golden vases. King Ajātaśatru as well as the kings of eight countries, the god Indra, and other gods as well as the nāga kings, all vied for acquisition of the relics. Minister Upakitta remonstrated with them to stop fighting [over the relics] and advised them to divide and distribute them among themselves. Thus, they divided the relics into three portions, one for the heavenly gods, a second for the nāga kings, and the third was further divided among the eight kings. King Ajātaśatru obtained eighty-four thousand pieces, placed each within a purple and gold case, and enshrined them in stupas he had built in the regions of the five major rivers that flow into the Ganges River.

IV. Nirvana Day of the Emperor’s

Religious Counselor

1. The Memorial Rite for the Master

When the memorial day comes, the tablet of the master’s name must be respectfully placed on the altar and properly enshrined. Offerings of incense, flowers, candles, tea, fruit, and delicacies should be carefully prepared. The director of practitioners’ affairs is obliged to have the word of tribute composed and approved. (The procedure is identical to that of the Buddha’s Memorial Day.) In the evening before the day [of the memorial], the attendants of the practice hall official are instructed to inform the practitioners of the following day’s event and post the signboard indicating the sutra chanting. On the appointed day, the bell is tolled to assemble the practitioners, and they line up facing the rostrum seat. Notified of their readiness, the abbot comes out to offer incense, sweet hot water, food, a monetary gift, and tea, and then performs three prostrations with opened sitting cloth. When he picks up incense and utters the word of insight, the director of practitioners’ affairs with a bow signals the dual order officials to step forward, in pairs, to offer incense, while the practitioners perform prostrations with opened sitting cloth in unison. The abbot kneels to offer incense at a portable incense burner, while at the same

time the director [of practitioners’ affairs] reads the word of tribute. He then

subsequently calls for the chanting of the prayer verses and concludes with

the following invocation of merit transference:

The merit accrued from the foregoing deed of chanting shall be dedi-

cated to the one [designated] “Above the Emperor” under the imperial

heaven (i.e., the emperor), the great sage who assisted imperial gover-

nance by introducing religion and propagating letters, the spiritual ruler

who, endowed with supreme virtue, universal enlightenment, and true

illumination, unfailingly assisted the throne in ruling the nation, the

Buddhist disciple from the Western Heaven (i.e., Tibet) and the impe-

rial counsel of the great Yuan. We wish to discharge our indebtedness

to him for the compassionate refuge bestowed upon us. Veneration to

the Buddhas of the ten directions and the three times, and so on.

2. The Word of Tribute