法苑珠林 35.40

35.40

爾時文殊便白佛言。今有少疑欲有所決。未知許不。佛告文殊。可隨汝意。我觀大眾心皆有疑。前云。迦葉佛小珠函。唯長三寸三分。盛彼僧伽梨一衣亦恐不受。何況容受迦葉佛三藏教迹一切經典邪。佛告文殊大眾等。是諸佛力不可思議。唯佛與佛乃能知之。非汝等境界之所籌度。世尊又令文殊師利捧函。世尊起禮。以指觸函如開大城門。大眾咸覩。一切眾事。珠塔絹衣金銀樓觀。其數十萬盛諸三藏。復有天樂而常供養。臺高四十里。塔高十由旬。然函無增減。依本三寸。十方諸來佛等。各讚牟尼。能於惡世廣度眾生。各施僧伽梨及一珠函。用助牟尼尊者住持遺法。佛命文殊令開佛函。其中各有大衣臺觀三藏教迹。一如迦葉佛塔。平等無異。佛告文殊。汝將此塔還至祇桓戒壇北臺內安置。待我涅槃時。自當有付囑。因此文殊重問。世尊涅槃後。此函塔等當付何人何處。世尊對諸大眾。今付文殊置戒壇上。經三年已移置東南角。經三十年住。過是年已。後移西印度頻伽羅山頂光明池南住。如來滅度後經四十五年。有一惡王出現於世。破損佛法逼掠僧尼。不可具述。時有魔王兵眾及四天王等。便下大石壓殺惡王。娑竭龍王陷彼宮殿成大池水。惡王種族無有遺餘。唯有伽藍及諸民眾。西印度人甚弘熾盛。寺有十三萬。僧有六十萬。及菩薩眾亦有無量。經有十三萬藏。金縷字經有八萬藏。金銀七寶像大者高百尺。小者丈六。合有一百三十萬軀。自餘小者數不可量。此之經像皆是忉利天王工匠具相造之。以是因緣故。其衣塔等往彼山住。至像法末時一千七百年。我此閻浮提及諸四天下多惡比丘。起造伽藍不修禪慧亦不讀經不識文字。縱有識者千有一二至彼惡世。令文殊師利。擎持衣函塔等遍歷諸國教化人民令造衣塔。以神通力普被大千。令彼惡比丘等改惡修善。習讀三藏令法久住。所作既已。還將衣塔置于本處。至彌勒下時。令文殊師利將塔付彌勒佛。是為安置處。所以相付囑也。

At that time, Mañjuśrī said to the Buddha: "Now I have a slight doubt and wish to have it resolved, but I do not know if it is permitted." The Buddha told Mañjuśrī: "It may be according to your wish. I observe that the assembly all have doubts in their minds: earlier it was said that Kāśyapa Buddha's small jewel casket is only three inches and three-tenths long, and even holding that single saṃghārāṭī robe might be feared impossible, how much less could it accommodate all the scriptures and traces of Kāśyapa Buddha's Tripiṭaka teachings?" The Buddha told Mañjuśrī and the great assembly: "The power of the Buddhas is inconceivable; only a Buddha together with a Buddha can know it, and it is not what can be measured within your realm." The World-Honoured One further ordered Mañjuśrī to hold up the casket. The World-Honoured One arose, bowed, and touched the casket with his finger, as if opening the gate of a great city. The great assembly all saw all manner of things: jewel towers, silk robes, and gold and silver pavilions, numbering one hundred thousand, containing the various Tripiṭakas; there were also celestial musicians who constantly made offerings. The platform was forty li high, and the towers were ten yojanas high. Yet the casket had neither increased nor decreased, remaining at its original three inches. The Buddhas who had arrived from the ten directions each praised Śākyamuni for being able to widely deliver sentient beings in an evil age, and each offered a saṃghārāṭī and a jewel casket to assist the venerable Śākyamuni in maintaining the bequeathed Dharma. The Buddha instructed Mañjuśrī to open the Buddhas' caskets; within each were great robes, pavilions, and the traces of the Tripiṭaka teachings, exactly like Kāśyapa Buddha's tower, equal and without difference. The Buddha told Mañjuśrī: "Take this tower back to the inside of the platform north of the ordination platform at Jetavana and place it there; wait until my nirvāṇa, and there will naturally be an entrustment." Because of this, Mañjuśrī questioned again: "After the World-Honoured One's nirvāṇa, to whom and where should this casket and tower be entrusted?" The World-Honoured One addressed the great assembly: "I now entrust it to Mañjuśrī to place upon the ordination platform. After three years have passed, it will be moved to the southeast corner and remain for thirty years. After those years have passed, it will later be moved to the southern side of the Pool of Light atop Mount Piṅgala in Western India, to stay there. Forty-five years after the Tathāgata's extinction, an evil king will appear in the world, destroying the Buddha-Dharma and persecuting monks and nuns beyond complete recounting. At that time, the forces of the Demon King along with the Four Heavenly Kings and others will cast down a great stone to crush and kill the evil king; Sāgara Nāgarāja will submerge his palace, turning it into a great pond of water, leaving no remnants of the evil king's clan. Only the saṃghārāmas and the common people will remain. The people of Western India will flourish greatly: there will be one hundred and thirty thousand monasteries, six hundred thousand monks, and immeasurable assemblies of bodhisattvas. There will be one hundred and thirty thousand collections of scriptures, eighty thousand collections of scriptures in gold-threaded script, and one million three hundred thousand gold, silver, and seven-jeweled images, the large ones being one hundred feet tall and the small ones sixteen feet tall; the rest of the small ones will be countless. These scriptures and images will all be crafted by the divine artisans of the king of Trāyastriṃśa Heaven in complete possession of the marks. For this reason, the robe, tower, and other items will go to that mountain to abide. When it comes to one thousand seven hundred years into the end of the Semblance Dharma, in this Jambudvīpa of ours and the four continents there will be many evil monks who erect saṃghārāmas but do not cultivate dhyāna or wisdom, nor read the sūtras, not even recognizing the characters; even if there are those who recognize them, there will only be one or two in a thousand. When that evil age arrives, Mañjuśrī will be made to carry the robe, casket, tower, and other items, traveling through all the kingdoms to transform and educate the people, causing them to construct robe-towers, and using his supernormal powers to pervade the great thousand worlds, causing those evil monks to reform their evil and cultivate good, and to study and recite the Tripiṭaka so that the Dharma may abide long. Having completed what was to be done, he will return the robe and tower to their original place. When Maitreya descends, Mañjuśrī will be made to take the tower and entrust it to Maitreya Buddha. This is the place of installation and the reason for the entrustment."