諸經要集 4.71

4.71

Furthermore, the Baiyuan jing says: The Buddha was in the country of Śrāvastī, at the Jetavana, Anāthapiṇḍada's Park. At that time, wealthy elders of that city all gathered together, going to a spring where they performed music and entertained themselves, holding a flower festival for the kingdom of Vārāṇasī. At that time, they dispatched one man from the assembly to go into the forest to gather Vārāṇasī flowers to make garlands. When the flower-gatherer was bringing them to the assembly, on the road he saw the World-Honoured One, his marks and signs and radiance shining universally like hundreds of thousands of suns. With a joyful heart, he stepped forward, bowed at the Buddha's feet, scattered the gathered flowers over the Buddha, and left. He went back up into a tree to gather flowers; a branch broke, and he fell to his death. When his life ended, he was born in the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven, upright and remarkably exquisite, with a palace made of Vārāṇasī flowers. Śakra asked him, 'Where did you cultivate meritorious deeds so as to come and be born here?' He reported fully to Śakra the original causes and conditions. At that time, Śakra praised him with a verse: