法苑珠林 96.12

96.12

Furthermore, the Summary of the Chapter on the Ancient Accounts of Bodhisattva Bhaiṣajyarāja in the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra says: At that time, the Buddha told the Bodhisattva Nakṣatrarājasaṃkusumitābhijña: In the past, countless kalpas ago, as many as the sands of the Gaṅgā, there was a buddha named Candrasūryavimalaprabhāsaśrī Tathāgata. At that time, that buddha expounded the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra for Bodhisattva Sarvasattvapriyadarśana, as well as for the assemblies of bodhisattvas and śrāvakas. This Bodhisattva Sarvasattvapriyadarśana delighted in practicing austerities. Within the Dharma of the Buddha Candrasūryavimalaprabhāsaśrī, he vigorously practiced walking meditation and single-mindedly sought buddhahood. When twelve thousand years were fulfilled, he reflected: 'Although by divine power I have made offerings to the Buddha, it is not as good as making an offering of my body.' Thereupon he consumed various perfumes, and after twelve hundred years were fulfilled, he anointed his body with fragrant oil, and before the Buddha Candrasūryavimalaprabhāsaśrī, wrapped his body in heavenly jeweled garments, poured various fragrant oils over it, and by supernormal power burned his own body. Its light universally illuminated eighty kotis of worlds, as many as the sands of the Gaṅgā. The buddhas therein praised him simultaneously, saying: 'Splendid, splendid! This is called true vigor; this is called the true offering of Dharma to the Tathāgata.' His body burned with fire for twelve hundred years, and only after that was his body exhausted. After Bodhisattva Sarvasattvapriyadarśana made this Dharma offering, when his life ended, he was reborn in the land of the Buddha Candrasūryavimalaprabhāsaśrī, being spontaneously born by transformation in the household of King Vimaladatta. He addressed his father, saying: 'The Buddha Candrasūryavimalaprabhāsaśrī is even now still present. Having previously made offerings to the Buddha, I obtained the dhāraṇī of understanding the languages of all sentient beings, and again heard this Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra. I should now return to make offerings to this Buddha.' Up to when that buddha entered nirvāṇa, he gathered the Buddha's relics and built eighty-four thousand jeweled stūpas. Then, before the eighty-four thousand stūpas, he burned his arms adorned with the hundred merits for seventy-two thousand years to make offerings, causing countless assemblies seeking to be śrāvakas and immeasurable asaṃkhyeyas of people to generate the aspiration for anuttarasamyaksaṃbodhi. At that time, all the bodhisattvas, gods, humans, asuras, and others, seeing that he had no arms, were sorrowful and grieved: 'Bodhisattva Sarvasattvapriyadarśana is our teacher who transforms and guides us; yet now, having burned his arms, his body is incomplete.' Then Bodhisattva Sarvasattvapriyadarśana made this vow among the great assembly: 'Having relinquished both my arms, I shall certainly obtain the golden body of a buddha. If this is true and not false, let both of my arms be restored as before.' Having made this vow, they were naturally restored as before. At that time, the trichiliocosm shook in six ways, the heavens rained down jeweled flowers, and all humans and gods attained what was unprecedented. The Buddha told Bodhisattva Nakṣatrarājasaṃkusumitābhijña: 'What do you think? Could Bodhisattva Sarvasattvapriyadarśana be anyone else? He is the present Bodhisattva Bhaiṣajyarāja. If there is someone who resolves to attain anuttarasamyaksaṃbodhi, and can burn a finger or even a toe as an offering to a buddha stūpa, it surpasses offering kingdoms, cities, wives, and children, as well as the rare treasures of a great trichiliocosm.'