On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c5.28

v1.c5.28

For the words in italics the original is *hsien-shêng-hsien-mie* (現生現滅) which Julien renders "tantôt ils apparaissent, tantôt ils s'éteignent". This does not seem to express the author's meaning and is not quite correct. All the Buddhas, the writer tells us, exercise their spiritual sovereignty ("send down their transforming influence") in one or other of the four great divisions of the habitable world; in one of these each Buddha becomes incarnate as a man, teaches saints and common people, and passes into Nirvana.