經律異相 6.6

6.6

King Aśoka equipped a fourfold army and went to open the seven old stūpas to take their śarīra, leaving only the nāga's stūpa. The nāga brought the king into his palace and said: "I make offerings to this stūpa; please leave it behind." The king consented. Returning to his kingdom, he crafted 84,000 precious caskets and distributed the śarīra evenly within them. He also made 84,000 precious vases, as well as banners and parasols, and entrusted them to yakṣas to erect stūpas throughout all the lands of Jambudvīpa, and even to the great ocean. He first consulted the arhat Yaśas, saying: "I wish to erect 84,000 stūpas in a single day and single thought, having them all completed at the same moment." The arhat Yaśas praised him greatly. Later, the king compared his merit with that of the nāga, weighing their two images together, and the nāga was heavy while the king was light. The king widely invited the saṃgha to plant merit without cease. Later, they weighed them together again, and the scale was balanced. The king practiced even further, knowing his merit grew day by day. He raised an army to go attack, but when he had just set out on the road, all the nāga kings, great and small, came out to welcome him. They respectfully presented the śarīra from their one stūpa to the king. Later, visiting the places where the Buddha had attained the Way and converted people, he built stūpas at each of them. (Drawn from the first fascicle of the *Aśokāvadāna* and the upper fascicle of the *Saṃyuktāvadāna Sūtra*.) Within the king's domain there were one thousand two hundred monasteries. He had one thousand two hundred banners woven with gold thread made. He also wished to hang and scatter one thousand-petaled gold flowers with his own hands. But just after preparing them, he contracted a severe illness. Fearing that his original wish would be thwarted, he shed tears. A śramaṇa said to the king: "The merit you have cultivated is beyond count. You should simply open your mind; what use is sorrow? Merely focus your mind, and I will enable you to achieve what you wished." With his spiritual power, the śramaṇa caused all one thousand two hundred monasteries to appear before the king. His painful illness was instantly eradicated. When he wished to attach the banners, all the stūpa pillars lowered themselves into the king's hands, fulfilling his original vow. His lifespan was extended by twenty-five years. (Drawn from the *Kāśyapa Sūtra* and the *Saṃyuktāvadāna Sūtra*.) Furthermore, over twenty years of promoting meritorious deeds, when approaching the end of his life, his continuous recollection of the Three Jewels was unbroken from thought to thought. Grudging nothing, he dedicated everything toward bodhi. (Drawn from the twenty-fifth fascicle of the *Saṃyuktāgama*.)