法苑珠林 99.50

99.50

There was also another courtyard called the Sūtra Courtyard. It had a stone bell shaped in the style of Wu, like blue-green jade, which could hold ten bushels. On its suspension lug were images of the Thirty-three Heavens, and its four sides were embossed in gold and silver. On the east and west sides were large precious jewels inset into its belly, as large as five pints, with eight facets radiating light, shaped like flowers. All around it were images of the Buddhas of the ten directions when they first attained awakening. When the sun first rose, transformed Buddhas upon the bell would expound the twelve divisions of scriptures. Young boys and girls from the city of Śrāvastī all came to listen to it, and hearing the Dharma, they realized sagehood. Those who had violated desire could not hear the Dharma. The great general Maṇi struck it with a vajra pestle. Its sound reached across ten billion worlds; within the light, all could hear hundreds of thousands of Śākyamuni Buddhas preaching the sūtras. This bell had been made by Krakucchanda Buddha. After that Buddha's parinirvāṇa, the dragon king Sāgara took it away. When Śākyamuni Buddha arose, the dragon brought it back again. When the Buddha was about to pass into extinction, the bell first proclaimed, 'After three months he shall attain parinirvāṇa.' Hearing this, the devas on the suspension lug all wept. Afterwards, the dragon took it away.