道宣律師感通錄 1.23

1.23

I asked again: "In this land it is commonly transmitted that the Buddha appeared during the Yin dynasty, during the time of King Zhao of Zhou, or during Duke Zhuang of Lu, their mutual accounts differing. How can this be definitively determined?" He replied: "All have their reasons. This disciple was born in the time of Jie of Xia and fully witnessed the Buddha descending to teach. Furthermore, the Buddha has three bodies: the dharmakāya and saṃbhogakāya cannot be seen by ordinary humans; they are seen together by those who have ascended to the stages and above. Only the nirmāṇakāya universally covers the three thousand, hundreds of millions of worlds. Therefore, there are hundreds of millions of Śākyamunis, and according to what people resonate with, the earlier and later are not fixed. Some were at the end of the Yin, and some were under Duke Zhuang of Lu, both being within the great trichiliocosm. Earlier and later, all transmit one teaching. Resonance and perception depend on the capacity of beings; earlier or later, the dharmakāya and saṃbhogakāya are always tranquil in themselves. There is no need to doubt this."