諸經要集 3.11

3.11

Furthermore, the Aśokāvadāna states: King Aśoka, having gained faith, asked a man of the Way: "Hitherto I have slaughtered without heed to principle. What good may I cultivate now to escape this calamity?" The reply was: "There is only erecting stūpas to make offerings to the saṃgha, rescuing prisoners, and relieving the impoverished." (Therefore the Avadāna-sūtra says that within the royal palace, he constantly offered the four requisites to twenty thousand śramaṇas, paying homage with utmost dedication beyond description.) The king asked, "Where can stūpas be erected?" The man of the Way then, through spiritual power, covered the sunlight with his left hand, creating eighty-four thousand rays of light scattering across Jambudvīpa: wherever the light shone, stūpas could be erected; these are the places where the various stūpas stand today. At that time, wishing to construct relic stūpas, the king led an army of four divisions to Rājagṛha, retrieved the relics from the stūpa of the Buddha erected by King Ajātaśatru, and repaired that stūpa to be no different from before. In this manner, he retrieved relics from the stūpas of seven other buddhas, arriving at the village of Rāmagrāma. At that time, the nāga kings led the king into the nāga palace. The king requested relics from the nāgas to make offerings, and the nāgas divided them and gave them to him. The king then made eighty-four thousand caskets of gold, silver, lapis lazuli, and crystal to hold the Buddha's relics, and also made eighty-four thousand precious vases to hold these caskets. He also made immeasurable hundreds of thousands of pennants, banners, and parasols, causing various spirits to each hold relics and offering utensils. He commanded the spirits, saying, "Across Jambudvīpa, down to the seacoast, in cities and villages where there are a full hundred million households, erect a stūpa for the World-Honoured One." At that time there was a country named Takṣaśilā with thirty-six hundred million households. The people of that country said to the spirits, "Give us thirty-six caskets of relics to erect Buddha stūpas." The king used an expedient means, ordering those countries with fewer households to share with them, so as to fulfill the required number of households to erect stūpas. At that time in Pāṭaliputra there was an elder monk (thera) named Yaśas. The king went to him and said to the thera, "I wish to erect eighty-four thousand Buddha stūpas throughout this Jambudvīpa within a single day; this is my wish." The thera said to him, "Excellent, Great King! Set the appointed time for precisely midday on the fifteenth day, when throughout this Jambudvīpa all the Buddha stūpas shall be raised at once." In this manner, according to the count, eighty-four thousand stūpas were erected within a single day. The people of the world rejoiced boundlessly and jointly proclaimed them the Stūpas of King Aśoka.