釋迦譜 5.9

5.9

A tradition says: Having attained faith, the king asked a man of the Path, "Hitherto I have killed and harmed without proper reason. What wholesome deed may I now cultivate to be spared from this calamity?" [The man of the Path] replied, "There is only erecting stupas to make offerings to the Saṅgha, pardoning convicts, and giving relief to the poor and destitute." The king asked, "Where may stupas be erected?" The man of the Path then used his supernormal power to conceal the sun with his left hand; the sunlight divided into eighty-four thousand rays, shining out over Jambudvīpa. Wherever the light shone, a stupa could be erected. The sites of all the present stupas are these.