諸經要集 19.57

19.57

Furthermore, the Sūtra on the Buddha's Mother's Nirvāṇa states: The nun Mahāprajāpatī was the Buddha's maternal aunt. Unable to bear seeing the Buddha enter parinirvāṇa later, she wished to pass into extinction first, together with five hundred hunger-dispelling women (which means bhikṣuṇīs; Kang Senghui's commentary on the Fajing jing says that ordinary people are greedily attached to the six dusts just as starving people crave food and know no satiety, and since the sage causes them to sever greed and eliminate the hunger of the six senses, renunciant nuns are called 'hunger-dispellers'). Stroking the Buddha's feet with their hands, they circumambulated the Buddha three times, bowed their heads, and departed. Manifesting the power of miraculous abilities, vanishing from their own seats, they came from the eastern direction, performing eighteen transformations in the open sky; so too in the eight directions, above, and below. They emitted great light to illuminate the dark places and shine upward upon the heavens. The five hundred hunger-dispellers all performed transformations in the same manner, and passed into nirvāṇa together in front of him. The Buddha encouraged householders to make five hundred bier-beds, sesame oil, fragrant flowers, and various kinds of catalpa timber—five hundred of each—and with pure instrumental music and proper tones to make offerings. When all the ordinary and sage persons beheld it, none did not weep with grief. The cremation (jhāpita) being finished, they carried the relics and proceeded to the Buddha's place. Thereupon, from the four directions, two hundred and fifty arhats (yingzhen) with miraculous abilities flew from each direction, bowed their heads at the Buddha's feet, and arrived at the place of the relics. The thousand bhikṣus all took their seats. The Buddha told Ānanda: 'Take the relics, put them in a bowl, and place them in my hand.' Ānanda did as ordered. The Buddha told the bhikṣus: 'These relics were originally an impure body—ferocious, foolish, evil, and violent, with jealousy and hidden schemes, ruining the Path and destroying virtue. Now this mother was able to pull herself out, practice the conduct of a noble man, attain the arhat path, and transfer her spirit to the ultimate void. How valiant indeed!' He ordered that stūpas be erected to make offerings.