佛祖統紀 3.102

3.102

In the fifteenth year (jiawu), the Buddha returned again to Kapilavastu. He preached the Dharma for his father the king and delivered eighty-four thousand Śākyas to attain the fruit of srotāpanna (Sūtra of Twelve Years' Wandering). When the Buddha returned to his native land, his feet rose and walked in the air level with people's heads, only allowing his father the king to receive his feet without wishing him to bend down his body (Sūtra on the Differentiation of Merits; this is proof that making one's parents reverse their respect produces merit. Yet this is acceptable for the Buddha; if monks in the degenerate age, having rather shallow practices, [attempted this], one fears they could not properly receive their parents' veneration). The Buddha preached the samādhi of contemplating the Buddha for his father the king and the great assembly. The Buddha's body was golden in color, emitting boundless radiance. At that time, five hundred Śākya youths, on account of their sinful obstacles, saw the Buddha's physical body as an ashen, emaciated brāhmaṇa. The Buddha preached to them the sins of their past wrong views. Now chanting the Buddha's name and bowing down in repentance, they immediately saw the Buddha's body golden like Mount Sumeru; requesting the Buddha to leave the household, they attained arhatship (Sūtra on the Contemplation of the Buddha Samādhi). Initially, when the Buddha returned to his country, Mahāprajāpatī sought to leave the household (the Buddha's maternal aunt, Mahāprajāpatī). Three times he refused. When the Buddha returned to the country again, she sought to leave the household once more, and was refused as before. Ānanda addressed the Buddha: 'Mahāprajāpatī sincerely desires to receive the Dharma and Vinaya. We pray that the Buddha permit it.' The Buddha instructed her to practice the Eight Rules of Respect for the rest of her life. Thereupon Mahāprajāpatī was permitted to leave the household, marking the beginning of the bhikṣuṇīs (Middle Sūtra of Past Origins). A bhikṣuṇī receives the Eight Rules of Respect: First, a bhikṣuṇī of one hundred years must pay homage at the feet of a bhikṣu of the first summer retreat; second, she must not revile or slander a bhikṣu; third, she must not raise the faults of a bhikṣu, while a bhikṣu may speak of a bhikṣuṇī's faults; fourth, a śikṣamāṇā must seek the full precepts from the saṅgha of monks; fifth, a bhikṣuṇī who commits a saṅghāvaśeṣa must [undergo penance] for half a month before both assemblies of the saṅgha; [sixth, every half-month she must] seek an instructor [among the monks]; seventh, she must not observe the summer rain-retreat in a place where there is no bhikṣu (Four-Part Vinaya). The Buddha told Ānanda: 'After my parinirvāṇa, the True Dharma would have lasted one thousand years. Because women have left the household, it is diminished by five hundred years. Having subsequently preached the Eight Rules of Respect, it will recover the one thousand years' (Samantapāsādikā, Record of the Duration of the Dharma).