佛祖統紀 30.41

30.41

The tenth small kalpa (decreasing and increasing). When [lifespan] decreases to eighty thousand years, the fifth buddha, Maitreya, will appear in the world. At that time, the ground of Jambudvīpa will be level and even like a vaiḍūrya mirror. Woods and groves will flourish to a height of thirty li. Eighty-four thousand small cities made of various gems will cover the world. The great city among them will be named Ketumatī, with pavilions of the seven treasures, sevenfold rows of trees, gardens, groves, and bathing ponds filled with water of eight virtues. Its streets and thoroughfares will be twelve li wide. That land will be secure and peaceful, free from the afflictions of bandits, thieves, floods, fires, weapons, and famine. There will be a bright pearl pillar twelve li high, its radiance surpassing the sun and shining constantly day and night. Fragrant breezes will blow from time to time upon the pearl pillar, raining down precious necklaces, which the people will take for adornment. Nets of diverse jewels will cover the city, and when the wind blows upon the jewelled bells, they will proclaim refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha. Human bodies will be sixteen zhang tall, and their lifespan will reach eighty thousand years with no premature deaths. Women will marry only at five hundred years of age. Daily they will experience wonderful pleasures and wander deeply in dhyāna, like the gods of the Third Dhyāna Heaven. People will always have compassionate minds, reverent and harmonious, all because Maitreya instructs them with a compassionate heart and they uphold the precept of not killing. There will be only three ailments: first, eating and drinking; second, bodily evacuations; third, aging. There will be a fragrant and delicious rice that yields seven harvests from a single planting, complete with the hundred flavours, digesting as soon as it enters the mouth. At the time of evacuation, the earth will cleave and produce red lotus flowers to cover the foul odours. When people grow old, they will spontaneously walk beneath the trees, recollecting the Buddha and awaiting their end, to be reborn in the Great Brahmā Heaven or before the buddhas. There will be a wheel-turning holy king named Śaṅkha, endowed with the seven treasures and a thousand sons; four great treasuries of jewels will be filled with precious items. When the multitude sees them, their minds will harbour no greed or attachment, and each will say: "In the time of Śākyamuni Buddha, ancient beings stole and robbed from one another for the sake of these treasures, creating offenses leading to birth and death." At that time, Maitreya Bodhisattva in the Tuṣita heaven palace will be about to descend to become a buddha. He will be born into a great brāhmaṇa family; his father's name will be Subrahma and his mother's name will be Brahmavatī. Descending and entering the womb, his body will be purple-golden with the thirty-two marks, sitting on a precious lotus with immeasurable light. His body will be thirty-two zhang tall, like a mountain of yellow gold. Contemplating with right mindfulness suffering, emptiness, and impermanence, he will take no pleasure in the household life. At that time, King Śaṅkha will offer a terrace of seven treasures. Having accepted it, Maitreya will bestow it on the brāhmaṇas, who will immediately tear it apart and divide it among themselves. Seeing this precious terrace destroyed in an instant, Maitreya will realize that conditioned phenomena are all subject to obliteration; cultivating the contemplation of impermanence, he will praise the impermanence verse of past buddhas: / All conditioned phenomena are impermanent, / This is the law of arising and ceasing; / When arising and ceasing have ceased, / Extinction is bliss. / Having spoken this verse, he will go forth from the household life to learn the Path, proceeding outside the city of Ketumatī to the Diamond Adorned Bodhimaṇḍa under the Dragon Flower Bodhi Tree (its branches are like jewelled dragons disgorging hundreds of precious flowers, hence the name Dragon Flower). On that very day in the initial watch of the night, he will subjugate Māra and attain the Path. Śakra, Brahmā, and the Four Heavenly Kings will entreat him to turn the wheel of the Dharma. King Śaṅkha together with eighty thousand ministers will all request to go forth; their beards and hair will fall away spontaneously, and they will become śramaṇas. At that time, Maitreya Buddha, along with King Śaṅkha and the other monks and the eight classes of devas and nāgas, will enter the center of the city of Ketumatī. In that place, the diamond jewel throne upon which past buddhas sat will spontaneously well forth from the earth, and the Buddha will turn the wheel of the true Dharma from this throne. The brāhmaṇa elder Sudatta of that time will be the present elder Anāthapiṇḍada; the wheel-turning king's precious woman (that is, the jade-woman treasure) Śyāmāvatī will be the present mother of Viśākhā; and Maitreya's relative Sumati will be the present bhikṣuṇī Bhadrā. Each along with eighty-four thousand people will go forth to learn the Path. At that time, the thousand sons of King Śaṅkha will all request to go forth, leaving only one son behind to succeed to the throne. At the first assembly, the World-Honoured Maitreya will preach the Dharma upon the diamond throne, and ninety-six billion people will attain arhatship. At the second assembly, he will preach the Dharma in the Flower Grove Park outside the city, and ninety-four billion people will attain arhatship. At the third assembly, he will preach the Dharma again in the Flower Grove Park, and ninety-two billion people will attain arhatship (The Record of the Western Regions notes: At the place in the country of Vārāṇasī where Maitreya received the prophecy of becoming a buddha, the Buddha told Maitreya, "Those liberated at the three assemblies of preaching the Dharma are all sentient beings who planted merit in my bequeathed Dharma. Household and renunciant, those upholding precepts and those breaking precepts, all will receive conversion and guidance, realizing the fruit and attaining liberation. The liberation of the three assemblies is indeed the conversion of good friends with shared affinity"). At that time, Maitreya together with immeasurable people will ascend to the summit of Mount Gṛdhrakūṭa and split open the mountain peak with his hand. Mahākāśyapa will immediately rise from samādhi, take the saṃghāṭī robe of the Buddha, and present it to Maitreya. Leaping into the air, he will perform eighteen transformations and enter parinirvāṇa. They will collect his bodily relics and erect a stūpa on the mountain summit. Maitreya Buddha will dwell in the world for sixty thousand years. After he enters extinction, gods and humans will collect his relics and erect eighty-four thousand jewel stūpas in each of the four under-heavens. The true Dharma will abide in the world for sixty thousand years, and the semblance Dharma will also abide for sixty thousand years (Drawn collectively from the Scripture on the Descent of Maitreya, the Scripture on the Coming of Maitreya, the Scripture on Maitreya Attaining Buddhahood, and the Scripture of the Wise and the Foolish. Note: The Scripture on the Bodhisattva in the Womb says there are 5,670,000,000 years until Maitreya's time. The Scripture of Various Places says 5,070,600,000 years. The Scripture on Maitreya's Descent and the Scripture on Maitreya's Ascent both say 560,000,000 years. The Zhuangchun lu says that from the Buddha's extinction to Maitreya's birth is 8,809,200 years. The various accounts differ and have not been harmonised through calculation).