法苑珠林 14.63

14.63

又問。此土常傳。有佛是殷時周昭莊王等造。互說不同。如何取定。答曰。皆有所以。弟子夏桀時生天。具見佛之垂化。且佛有三身。法報二身則非凡見。並化登地以上。唯有化身被該三千。百億釋迦隨人所感。前後不定。或在殷末。或在魯莊。俱在大千之中。前後咸傳一化。感見隨機前後何定。若據法報常自湛然。不足難也。

It was also asked: "In this land it is often traditionally said that there were Buddhas made by King Zhao and King Zhuang of Zhou, or during the Yin dynasty. The accounts differ from one another. How is this to be determined?" It was answered: "Each has its reason. I, your disciple, was born in the heavens during the reign of Jie of Xia and fully witnessed the Buddha's descending transformations. Furthermore, the Buddha has three bodies. The dharma-body and retribution-body are not seen by ordinary mortals; both are transformations [manifested to those] on the [bodhisattva] grounds and above. Only the transformation-body covers the trichiliocosm. The hundred billion Śākyamunis manifest in accordance with what people evoke, without a fixed sequence in time. Some were at the end of the Yin, and some were under Duke Zhuang of Lu. All are within the trichiliocosm, and earlier and later are all transmitted as one transformation. As they are evoked and seen according to individual capacities, how could their sequence be fixed? If considered based on the dharma-body and retribution-body, they are ever calm and clear; there is no need to question it."