景德傳燈錄 1.59

1.59

Ānanda further reflected: 'If I favor one country and enter parinirvāṇa there, the kingdoms will fight; this would not be right. I should deliver sentient beings equally.' Thereupon, in the middle of the Gaṅgā River, he was about to enter tranquil extinction. At that moment, the mountains, rivers, and great earth shook in six ways. In the snowy mountains there were five hundred ṛṣis who, seeing this auspicious omen, flew through the air and arrived. Bowing at Ānanda's feet, they knelt on their right knees and said: 'Through the Elder, we are destined to realize the Buddha-Dharma. We pray you extend great compassion to deliver us.' Ānanda silently accepted their request. He immediately transformed the river Gaṅgā into golden ground and expounded the great Dharma for the host of ṛṣis. Ānanda further thought: 'The disciples I previously delivered ought to assemble.' In an instant, five hundred arhats descended from the sky and conferred ordination and full precepts upon the ṛṣis. Among the host of ṛṣis were two arhats: one named Śāṇavāsa, and the second named Madhyāntika. Knowing they were vessels of the Dharma, Ānanda addressed them: 'Formerly the Tathāgata entrusted the great Dharma eye to Mahākāśyapa; Kāśyapa entered samādhi and entrusted it to me. Now that I am about to pass into extinction, I pass it on to you. You who receive my teaching must listen to my verse:'