經律異相 10.30

10.30

'Ānanda, when I originally sought the Path, my hardships were countless. In a past life, I was a king's crown prince named Manifesting to the Multitude, upright and handsome in bearing. Coming out from a garden viewing, he saw a man on the road severely and gravely ill. Seeing him, he asked the sick person: 'What medicine can cure your disease?' The sick person replied: 'Only the blood of a royal prince's body can cure my disease.' The prince then cut his body with a sharp knife to draw blood and give it to the sick person, bestowing it with utmost sincerity and without regret in his mind. That prince was myself. Ānanda, the water of the four great oceans can still be measured by the bushel, but the blood of my body given in charity is without limit, all for the sake of seeking right awakening' (Extracted from the Sūtra on the Questions of Maitreya on His Past Vows).