釋迦方志 2.20

2.20

Next, in a grove to the south, there is a stupa where the Buddha received the offering of an old robe from an impoverished mother. In the grove east of the magically created pond is a dragon pond, clear, dark, and sweet-tasting. In a small vihāra on the west bank is an image where, upon first attaining enlightenment, the Buddha sat for seven days and entered samādhi, and the Nāga King circled the Buddha seven times, transforming into multiple heads to shelter the Buddha. In a vihāra in the grove east of the dragon pond, an emaciated image of the Buddha is made. Beside it are the traces of his walking for over seventy paces. To the north and south there is a pippala tree at each; he walked back and forth, grasping them before standing up. This is the place of his six years of austerities, where he ate one hemp seed and one grain of wheat a day. Today, when those afflicted with disease smear the image with fragrant oil, many are healed. There is also a stupa at the dwelling place of the five men. Furthermore, there is a stupa to the southeast where the Buddha entered the Nairañjanā River to bathe. Next, close to the river, is the place where the Buddha ate the milk-rice and then attained liberation beneath the Bodhi tree. Beside it are two stupas where the householders offered honey and roasted flour. The stupa southeast of the tree is where the Four Heavenly Kings came from the four quarters, each holding a golden bowl and various jewel bowls, none of which the Buddha would accept; they then each held a stone bowl, deep blue and translucent, and only then did he accept them all, pressing them into a single bowl that displayed four rims on the outside. Beside it is a stupa where, after attaining enlightenment, he preached the Dharma to his mother and manifested supernatural transformations; the place where he converted Uruvilvā Kāśyapa and a thousand men; and to the northwest, the place where he subdued the fire-breathing nāga. The place where five hundred pratyekabuddhas entered extinction, and south of the Mucilinda dragon pond, the place where Kāśyapa thought the Buddha was drowning, and the place where the demon frightened the Buddha—commemorative stupas are erected to mark all of them. Outside the north gate of the wall of the tree is the Mahābodhi Monastery. Its courtyard encompasses six residential courts with three-storied watchtowers and pavilions, and the surrounding wall is about fifty feet high. The Buddha images are cast in gold and silver, adorned with craftsmanship of the utmost worldly splendour. The stupa is also tall and vast, housing a relic of the Buddha as large as a finger joint, lustrous and pure white, translucent throughout. The inner relic is as large as a blue-green gem, tinged with red. Every year in the month of the Buddha's Great Miracle, it is brought out to show to people (that is, the thirtieth day of the twelfth month in India, corresponding to the fifteenth day of the first month under the Tang). At this time, it emits light and rains down flowers, evoking profound faith. The monastery usually has fewer than a thousand monks, who study the Mahāyāna Sthaviranikāya, and its monastic discipline is pure and solemn. It was established by the King of Siṃhala in the Southern Sea upon petitioning the King of Great Auspiciousness in Central India, some four hundred years ago; thus, many in the monastery are men from the Lion Kingdom. Furthermore, for more than ten li across the area around the Bodhi tree, holy traces adjoin one another, so numerous that it is hard to enumerate them completely. Each year, when the bhikṣus conclude the rains retreat, hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of laypeople from the four quarters offer worship and celebrate with incense, flowers, and music throughout the grove for seven days and seven nights. The monks of India enter the rains retreat on the sixteenth day of the fifth month under the Tang, and end the retreat on the fifteenth day of the eighth month under the Tang. This also varies with circumstances and cannot be universally fixed. For example, there are countries north of the Snow Mountains that observe a spring or an autumn retreat. The intention is to stipulate a three-month stay during the hot and humid period of the year, within which an extension or shortening of a month before or after is not fixed. If considered from the standpoint of cultivating the Path, when is one not at peace? Thus wandering during the three seasons is generally prohibited as an offense, but where there are binding affairs, it is also permitted to combine them for the benefit of others, without being rigid. Crossing the Nairañjanā River to the east of the Bodhi Tree compound, to the north of the stupa in the great forest is a pond where the Buddha in the past was the calf of a scent-elephant, serving his blind elephant mother. In front of it is an erected stone pillar; formerly, Kāśyapa Buddha sat here in serene meditation, and beside it are the walking and sitting traces of the four buddhas. A small stone pillar in the forest marks the place where Udraka [Rāmaputra] made an evil vow. Further east, crossing the great wilderness of the Mahī River for more than a hundred li, one reaches Kukkuṭapāda Mountain (meaning 'Cock's Foot'), also called Gurupāda Mountain (meaning 'Venerable's Foot'). Three peaks rise straight up, shaped like a cock's foot; precipitous and isolated, they tower high into the sky. The lower half is dense forest, and the upper half is tangled grasses. It is so named because the Venerable Mahākāśyapa entered serene extinction within it. Formerly, the Buddha took the gold-threaded kāṣāya woven by his maternal aunt and transmitted it to Maitreya Buddha, bidding him to save the fourfold assembly of disciples remaining from the Dharma; Kāśyapa, having received the directive, took the robe into the mountain in the twentieth year after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa to await Maitreya. On top there is a stupa; gazing upon it in the quiet of night, a bright torch illuminates of itself. More than a hundred li northeast of Kukkuṭapāda Mountain, one reaches Buddhavana Mountain. In a great stone chamber on the northern cliff, the Buddha stayed for several years; beside it is a flat boulder where Śakra ground candana to smear on the Buddha, which is still fragrant today. Coming out of the empty valley to the east for over thirty li, the Yaṣṭivana (meaning 'Forest of Staves') fills the mountain valley. Formerly, someone measured the Buddha with a sixteen-foot bamboo staff, but the Buddha always exceeded the top of the staff; he thereupon threw the staff down and departed, and it took root and covered the mountain. In the middle is a stupa where the Buddha once preached the Dharma for seven days. In the forest is the lay devotee Jayasena, who used powdered incense as clay to make stupas of five or six inches, inscribing sūtra texts upon them, called Dharma-relics. For thirty years, without slacking day or night, he made a total of seven hundred million; for every one hundred million small stupas, he made one large stupa to house them, inviting the saṅgha to a Dharma assembly to celebrate the occasion, all of which emitted light. More than ten li southwest of the Yaṣṭivana, on the sunny south side of a great mountain, are two hot springs that are exceedingly hot, where the Buddha transformed himself to bathe; when those from near and far bathe there, their chronic afflictions are all cured. Beside them are an image and a stupa of the Buddha's walking place. About seven li southeast of the forest, on the ridge of a great mountain, is a stone stupa where the Buddha preached the Dharma to devas and humans for two or three months; King Bimbisāra piled stones to make a path, over twenty paces wide and about four li long. About four li northeast of the great mountain, one reaches an isolated mountain, the chamber of a ṛṣi. Further northeast for five li, in a cliff stone chamber on a small isolated mountain that can seat a thousand people, the Buddha preached the Dharma for three months; on a flat boulder above the chamber, Brahmā and Śakra ground candana here to smear on the Buddha, which is still intensely fragrant today.