Dighanikaya 20.331_16

20.331_16

Evaṃ sannipatitāhi devatāhi sakalacakkavāḷagabbhaṃ yāva brahmalokā sūcighare nirantaraṃ pakkhittasūcīhi viya paripuṇṇaṃ hoti. Tatra brahmalokassa evaṃ uccattanaṃ veditabbaṃ. Lohapāsāde kira sattakūṭāgārasamo pāsāṇo brahmaloke ṭhatvā adho khitto catūhi māsehi pathaviṃ pāpuṇāti. Evaṃ mahante okāse yathā heṭṭhā ṭhatvā khittāni pupphāni vā dhūmo vā upari gantuṃ, upari vā ṭhatvā khittasāsapā heṭṭhā otarituṃ antaraṃ na labhanti, evaṃ nirantaraṃ devatā ahesuṃ. Yathā kho pana cakkavattirañño nisinnaṭṭhānaṃ asambādhaṃ hoti, āgatāgatā mahesakkhā khattiyā okāsaṃ labhantiyeva, parato parato pana atisambādhaṃ hoti, evameva bhagavato nisinnaṭṭhānaṃ asambādhaṃ, āgatāgatā mahesakkhā devatā ca mahābrahmāno ca okāsaṃ labhantiyeva. Apisudaṃ bhagavato āsannāsannaṭṭhāne mahāparinibbāne vuttanayeneva vālaggakoṭinitudanamatte padese dasapi vīsampi sabbaparato tiṃsampi devatā sukhume sukhume attabhāve māpetvā aṭṭhaṃsu. Saṭṭhi saṭṭhi devatā aṭṭhaṃsu.

Because of the devas having gathered in this way, the interior of the entire world system up to the Brahmā world was packed full, as if with needles inserted without spaces into a needle-case. Here, the height of the Brahmā world should be understood in this way: It is said that a stone equal in size to the seven-storied gabled pavilion of the Lohapāsāda, dropped from the Brahmā world, reaches the earth in four months. In such a vast space, just as flowers or smoke thrown by one standing below would find no interval to go up, or mustard seeds thrown by one standing above would find no interval to descend below, in such a manner were the devas packed without gaps. But just as the place where a wheel-turning monarch sits is uncrowded, and eminent khattiyas who arrive continually find space, while further and further away it becomes extremely crowded, even so the place where the Blessed One was seated was uncrowded, and eminent devas and Great Brahmās who arrived continually found space. Indeed, in the place close to the Blessed One, in the very manner stated in the Mahāparinibbāna, creating subtle physical forms, even ten, twenty, or at the furthest thirty devas stood in an area merely the size of the point of a hair-tip. Sixty devas stood [there].