Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v2.c29.481

v2.c29.481

The Mahāpadāna Sutta¹⁸ and the Acchariyabbhutadhamma Sutta¹⁹ contain accounts of other miracles which attend the conception and birth of a Buddha. Later books²⁰ have greatly enlarged these accounts. They describe how the Bodhisatta, having practised the thirty pāramī, and made the five great gifts (pañcamahāpariccāgā), and thus reached the pinnacle of the threefold cariyā—ñāṭatthacariyā, lokatthacariyā and buddhicariyā—gives the seven mahādānā, as in the case of Vessantara, making the earth tremble seven times, and is born after death in Tusita. The Bodhisatta, who later became Vipassī Buddha, remained in Tusita during the whole permissible period—fifty-seven crores and sixty-seven thousand years. But most Bodhisattas leave Tusita before completing the full span of life there. Five signs appear to warn the devaputta that his end is near²¹; the gods of the ten thousand worlds gather round him, beseeching him to be born on earth that he may become the Buddha. The Bodhisatta thereupon makes the five investigations (pañcamahāvilokanāni).