釋迦譜 3.20

3.20

Śakra, Lord of the Gods, invited the Buddha to go to Trāyastriṃśa Heaven to preach the Dharma for his mother. The World-Honoured One thought: "Among the assembly of the fourfold assembly, many are indolent and do not listen to the Dharma. I shall now make the fourfold assembly yearn for the Dharma." Without informing the fourfold assembly and without taking an attendant, in the time it takes to bend and extend an arm, he arrived at Trāyastriṃśa Heaven. At that time, the people of the world had not seen the Tathāgata for a long time. King Udayana and others went to Ānanda's place and said: "Where is the Tathāgata?" Ānanda replied: "Great King, I also do not know the Tathāgata's whereabouts." King Udayana and King Prasenajit, longing to see the Tathāgata, consequently fell ill from grief. At that time, the king commanded all the marvelous craftsmen and artisans within his realm, addressing them, saying: "I now wish to make an image of the Tathāgata's form." At that time, King Udayana thereupon used ox-head sandalwood to make an image of the Tathāgata's form five feet tall. (The Guanfo sanmei jing says: When the Buddha ascended to Trāyastriṃśa, King Udayana, yearning for the World-Honoured One, cast a golden image. Hearing that the Buddha was about to descend, an elephant carried the golden image to welcome the World-Honoured One. At that time, the golden image descended from the elephant; just like a living Buddha, its feet walked through empty space, and flowers rained beneath its feet. It also emitted bright light to welcome the World-Honoured One. Then the cast gold image joined its palms, crossed its hands, and paid homage to the Buddha. At that time, the World-Honoured One also knelt long with joined palms. Then, hundreds of thousands of transformed Buddhas in empty space all joined their palms and knelt long facing the image. At that time, the World-Honoured One addressed the image, saying: "You shall perform great Buddha-works in future ages. After my parinirvāṇa, I entrust my disciples to you." With different mouths but a single voice, the transformed Buddhas in the sky all made this utterance: "If there are sentient beings who, after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, create images and make various offerings to them, these people in future ages will certainly attain the pure samādhi of recollecting the Buddha.")