法苑珠林 11.5

11.5

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!