法苑珠林 35.40

35.40

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."