佛說觀佛三昧海經 9.21

9.21

Then Bodhisattva Dhanada addressed the Buddha, saying: "Bhagavat! I recall that in the past, countless ages ago, there was a Buddha, a Bhagavat, also named Śākyamuni. After that Buddha's parinirvāṇa, there was a prince named Suvarṇadhvaja, who was arrogant, held wrong views, and did not believe in the true Dharma. A spiritual friend who was a monk, named Samādhīśvara, said to the prince: 'There is an image of the Buddha in the world, adorned with many jewels and extremely lovely. You may briefly enter the stūpa to contemplate the Buddha's form.' Then that prince, following the good friend's advice, entered the stūpa and contemplated the image. Seeing the marks and signs of the image, he said to the monk: 'If the stately solemnity of the Buddha's image is already like this, how much more so the Buddha's true body?' Having said this, the monk told him: 'Now, seeing the image, if you cannot bow, you should recite: "Namo Buddhāya!"' At that time, the prince joined his palms reverently and recited: 'Namo Buddhāya!' Upon returning to his palace, he fixed his mindfulness and kept remembering the image in the stūpa, and in the latter part of the night he saw the Buddha's image in a dream. Because he saw the Buddha's image, he rejoiced greatly in his mind, abandoned wrong views, and took refuge in the Three Jewels. When his life came to an end, through the causes, conditions, and merits of having previously entered the stūpa and recited 'Namo Buddhāya', he constantly encountered nine hundred million billion nayutas of Buddhas. Under those Buddhas he was constantly diligent and vigorous, and attained the profound mindfulness-of-the-Buddha samādhi. Through the power of the samādhi, the Buddhas appeared before him and bestowed prophesies upon him. From then on, for a million asaṃkhyeya kalpas, he did not fall into the evil destinies, up to today when he attained the profound śūraṅgama-samādhi. That prince at that time was none other than myself, Dhanada!" Great bodhisattvas such as these were immeasurable in number, each recounting their original causes and conditions attained through mindfulness of the Buddha, as expounded in the Jātaka Sūtras.