法苑珠林 11.5

11.5

蓋聞。大聖應期有感昭著。蔭覆十方。化周三界。是四生之導首。六趣之舟航。至如兜率上生。閻浮現滅。冠日處胎殞星晦迹。林微尼園。啟四八之瑞。畢利叉樹。放十種之光。鑒彼四門捐茲五慾。捨嚴城而獨往。依道樹而超登。合四鉢於連河。度五隣於鹿苑。蕩愛著於綿區。湔塵冥於曩劫。慧日既開光清八獄。玄功闡化慈照四生。敷演一音各隨類解。像教攸興其來久矣。

We have heard: When the Great Sage responds to the era, his sympathetic resonance is manifest and bright; he shelters the ten directions, and his conversion extends throughout the tridhātu. He is the guide of the four modes of birth, and the ferry across the six destinies. As for his being born above in Tuṣita, his manifesting extinction in Jambudvīpa, his crowning the sun while dwelling in the womb, and his obscuring his traces like a falling star: in the Lumbinī Grove he revealed the thirty-two auspicious signs; beneath the Pippala Tree he radiated the ten kinds of light. Beholding those four gates, he cast aside these five desires; renouncing the magnificent city, he departed alone; relying on the Bodhi Tree, he transcended and ascended. He united the four bowls at the Nairañjanā River; he saved the five companions in the Deer Park. He washed away loving attachment across the vast domain; he cleansed the dark defilements of bygone kalpas. Once the Sun of Wisdom rose, its light illumined the eight hells; his profound merit unfolded its conversion, and his benevolence shone upon the four modes of birth. Expounding with a single voice, each understood according to their kind. The arising of the teaching of images has indeed a long history!