付法藏因緣傳 1.11

1.11

摩訶迦葉說是偈已告諸比丘。佛已耶旬。世尊舍利非我等事。何以故。國王長者大臣居士。求最勝福自當供養。我等宜當結集法眼。無令法炬速疾磨滅。為未來世當作照明。紹隆三寶使不斷絕。爾時迦葉與諸比丘。至王舍城賓鉢羅窟。阿闍世王得無根信。及至如來滅度之後群臣相與咸共議曰。大王信心猶如巨海。超諸人天世界之上。若聞世尊入涅槃者。沸血必當從面流出。身體分散命不云遠。當設何方令免斯難。時有一臣名曰雨舍。智慧淵廣善於方便。造一銅池縱廣數仞。以淨香油盈注其內。令阿闍世王坐斯池中。而復更以鮮淨白㲲。圖畫如來本行之像。所謂菩薩從兜率天化乘白象降神母胎。父名白淨母曰摩耶。處胎滿足十月而生。生未至地帝釋奉接。難陀龍王及跋難陀吐水而浴。摩尼跋陀大鬼神王。執持寶蓋隨後侍立。地神化華以承其足。四方各行滿足七步。至於天廟令諸天像悉起奉迎。阿私陀仙抱持占相。既占相已生大悲苦。自傷當終不覩佛興。詣師學書技藝圖讖。處在深宮六萬婇女娛樂受樂。出城遊觀至迦毘羅園。道見老人及以沙門。還詣宮中見諸婇女。形體狀貌猶如枯骨。所有宮殿塜墓無異。厭惡出家夜半踰城。至欝陀伽阿羅邏等大仙人所。聞說識處及非有想非無想定。既聞是已深諦觀察。知非常苦不淨無我。捨至樹下六年苦行。便知是苦不能得道。爾時復到阿利跋提河中洗浴。

After Mahākāśyapa had spoken these verses, he addressed the monks: "The Buddha has already been cremated. The World-Honored One's śarīra are not our affair. Why is this? The kings, elders, ministers, and householders, seeking the most supreme merit, will naturally make offerings to them. We should compile the eye of the Dharma, so as not to let the torch of the Dharma quickly be extinguished, but to serve as illumination for future generations and make the Three Jewels flourish and continue without interruption." Then Kāśyapa and the monks went to the Pippala Cave in Rājagṛha. King Ajātaśatru had attained rootless faith, and after the Tathāgata entered extinction, the ministers consulted together, all saying: "The Great King's faithful mind is like a vast sea, transcending all the worlds of humans and gods. If he hears that the World-Honored One has entered nirvāṇa, boiling blood will surely gush from his face, his body will fall apart, and his death will not be far off. What method should we devise to spare him this disaster?" At that time there was a minister named Varṣākāra, whose wisdom was deep and broad, and who was skilled in expedients. He made a bronze pool several fathoms across and filled it to the brim with pure fragrant oil, causing King Ajātaśatru to sit in this pool. Furthermore, on fresh, clean, white cotton cloth, he had painted images of the Tathāgata's past deeds: namely, the Bodhisattva transforming himself to ride a white elephant down from the Tuṣita Heaven to enter his mother's womb; his father named Śuddhodana and his mother named Māyā; staying in the womb for a full ten months before being born; before he touched the ground upon birth, Śakra receiving him; the dragon kings Nanda and Upananda spouting water to bathe him; the great spirit king Māṇibhadra holding a jeweled parasol and attending behind him; the earth deity manifesting flowers to support his feet; his walking seven full steps in each of the four directions; his reaching the divine shrine and causing the statues of all the gods to rise in welcome; the rṣi Asita holding him to examine his marks; having examined his marks, giving way to great sorrow and lamenting that he would die and not behold the Buddha's arising; his going to a teacher to study writing, arts, and divination; his dwelling in the inner palace with sixty thousand palace women, making merry and enjoying pleasures; his going out of the city on an excursion to the Kapilavastu park; his seeing on the road an old man and an ascetic; his returning to the palace and seeing the palace women looking like dry bones, and all the palace halls no different from tombs; his disgust, his leaving home, and his leaping over the city walls at midnight; his going to the great rṣis Udraka-Rāmaputra, Ārāḍa-Kālāma, and the others; his hearing them expound the sphere of consciousness and the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception; having heard this, his deep and thorough contemplation, knowing them to be impermanent, suffering, impure, and non-self; his abandoning them to undergo six years of ascetic practice beneath a tree, and his knowing then that this suffering could not attain the Path; and his going again to bathe in the Nairañjanā River.