出三藏記集 10.21

10.21

Saṅgharakṣa was a native of the country of Surāṣṭra. He was born in this country seven hundred years after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa. Leaving home to study the Way, he traveled to teach throughout various lands. Arriving in Jiantuoling in the land of Gandhāra, he became the master to the king of Kapiśa. Eminent and unmatched in his generation, he wrote and compiled extensively; the Yogācārabhūmi-sūtra and the Great Sūtra on the Stages of the Path of this land were compiled by him. He also authored the regulations of this scripture: from the World-Honoured One's initial attainment of the Way until his entry into the void, no deed was too large or small not to be expounded in connection with its circumstances, and his travels and rains retreats were all comprehensively detailed. Although scriptures such as the Lalitavistara and the Crossing the World record the Buddha's daily activities, this one is exceedingly detailed and thorough. Now surveying this scripture, what one realizes is even greater. Tradition says that when he was about to pass away, he said: "If my establishment of the faculties and attainment of the powers as a great being is truly not in vain, I shall stand beneath this tree, hand over its leaves, and cast off this body, so that even the strength of Nārāyaṇa and the force of great elephants will not be able to move me by a single hair. Even when brought to cremation, this leaf shall not be scorched." Having spoken thus, he passed away standing. The King of Kapiśa came in person but could not move him, and even hauling him with giant ropes and elephants failed to shake him in the slightest. When they proceeded to cremation, the leaf in the flames was undamaged. Soon he ascended to Tuṣita to engage in elevated discourse with the Great Being Maitreya; in that palace, he will fill the position of a Buddha as the eighth in the Auspicious Kalpa. In the twentieth year of the Jianyuan era, the Kapiśa śramaṇa Saṅghabhadra brought the original manuscript of this scripture and arrived in Chang'an. Zhao Wenye, the Grand Protector of Wuwei, requested that it be produced. Zhu Fonian translated it, and Huisong was the scribal recorder. It happened to coincide with Murong's revolt in the near suburbs, but the translation was not abandoned. I collated and verified it together with Fahe, and it was finished on the thirtieth day of the eleventh month. In this year, the Madhyama-āgama in sixty fascicles and the Ekottarika-āgama in forty-six fascicles were also produced. Amidst the beating of war drums and sounding of night-watches, these 105 fascicles were produced; that our calm composure did not alter whether in adversity or prosperity—how could this not be the legacy of our late master?