法苑珠林 9.48

9.48

Now, the Supreme Sage is without fixed form, manifesting or concealing in accordance with conditions. He clarifies his spirit in empty illumination, responding to needs like an echo. This is what is meant by 'tranquil and motionless, yet stimulated and thus penetrating everywhere.' Thereupon, he descended in spirit into the Tuṣita Palace, and projected his form into the realm of Kapilavastu. In lineage, cakravartin kings succeeded one another; in pedigree, the holy paths were mutually linked. The central land of the three-thousand [worlds] differs indeed from the city of Luoyi; the court of eighty thousand [realms] surpasses Mount Kuaiji. His clan and kin were so illustrious—who could fully describe them? Even if Dame Lü's reading of the physiognomy of Emperor Gaozu is called by the world 'knowing men', if compared to Asita's viewing of our Teacher, they cannot be mentioned in the same breath. Comparing their superiority and inferiority, their rising and sinking are vastly different.