傳法正宗記 2.10

2.10

Soon after, he made obeisance to the great assembly, mounted the Dharma seat, and said, 'Thus have I heard: At one time the Buddha was at such-and-such a place, preaching such-and-such a sūtra teaching, down to devas and humans faithfully accepting and upholding it.' At that time Mahākāśyapa asked the assembly again, 'Is what Ānanda said mistaken?' They all said, 'It is no different from what the World-Honoured One preached.' When Mahākāśyapa was about to enter meditative absorption on Mount Kukkuṭapāda, he entrusted to him the eye of the True Dharma conferred by the Tathāgata, bidding the Venerable One transmit it without letting it be severed. From then on, he traveled and transformed various regions through the Dharma. One day, the Venerable One arrived in a bamboo grove and initially heard a monk erroneously reciting a verse: 'If a person lives for a hundred years / Without seeing a water crane, / It is not as good as living for a single day / And being able to behold it.' The Venerable One sighed at this, saying, 'The Tathāgata is the eye of the world's True Dharma; why has he passed into extinction so quickly, causing these living beings to lose their reliance and become confused about the sacred teachings?' He then said to that person, 'This is not the Buddha's intent; you must not rely upon it. You should listen to me expound the correct verse: 'If a person lives for a hundred years / Without understanding the dharma of arising and ceasing, / It is not as good as living for a single day / And being able to understand it.'' That monk reported this to his master, but the master on the contrary said that Ānanda was frail and old, and his words were erroneous and absurd—how could one believe them? 'You may recite it as before.' When the Venerable One on another day heard him reciting his former verse again, he asked him why it was so and why he did not follow what he had taught. That monk then related his master's view. The Venerable One, because they did not value his own words, was all the more deeply moved; thereupon he entered samādhi, wishing to seek a venerable sage to bear witness to it, yet in the end he could find none. Thereupon he reflected: 'The Buddha and all the sages have already entered nirvāṇa; whence can I clarify it?' At that very moment the earth quaked; shortly after, a light suddenly radiated forth, and suddenly a senior noble mahāsattva manifested, expounding a verse for them and bearing witness, saying: