集神州三寶感通錄 1.4

1.4

First, the manifestation of stūpas through relics is clarified. In the past, when the Tathāgata was walking for alms, a boy was playing by the roadside. Taking sand and earth for rice flour, he went to welcome [the Buddha] and offered this earthen flour. The Buddha accepted it because of [his intention], and instructed his attendant to turn it into an earthen wash to coat the Buddha's dwelling room, which covered the entire south side. [The Buddha] prophesied, saying: "One hundred years after my extinction, this boy will be king over Jambudvīpa, within forty li into the sky and beneath the earth. All ghosts and spirits will be his vassals. He will open the previous eight stūpas to obtain their relics, and within a single day and night, he will employ the ghosts and spirits to build eighty-four thousand stūpas." This is described extensively in various sūtras, and so is not fully recorded here. (This land is the eastern border of the continent, so the appearance of stūpas here gives no cause for doubt.) "Śarīra" is the western speech of Brahmā; here it is called "skeletal body." (Fearing it might be confused with the bones of ordinary persons, it is distinguished according to its original name.)