Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v2.c29.498

v2.c29.498

After birth, the Bodhisatta is presented to the soothsayers for their prognostications and they reassert that two courses alone are open to him—either to be a Cakkavatti or a Buddha. They also discover on his body the thirty-two marks of the Great Man (Mahāpurisa, q.v.).²⁹ The Bodhisatta has also the eighty secondary signs (asīti anubyañjana) such as copper-coloured nails glossy and prominent, sinews which are hidden and without knots, etc.³⁰ The Brahmāyu Sutta³¹ gives other particulars about Gotama, which are evidently characteristic of all Buddhas. Thus, in walking he always starts with the right foot, his steps are neither too long nor too short, only his lower limbs move; when he gazes on anything, he turns right round to do so (nāgavilokana). When entering a house he never bends his body³²; when sitting down, accepting water to wash his bowl, eating, washing his hands after eating, or returning thanks, he sits with the greatest propriety, dignity and thoroughness. When preaching, he neither flatters nor denounces his hearers but merely instructs them, rousing, enlightening and heartening them.³³ His voice possesses eight qualities: it is frank, clear, melodious, pleasant, full, carrying, deep and resonant; it does not travel beyond his audience.³⁴ A passage in the Aṅguttara³⁵ says that a Buddha preaches in the eight assemblies—of nobles, brahmins, householders, recluses, devas of the Cātummahārājika-world, and of Tāvatiṃsa, of Māras and of Brahmās. In these assemblies he becomes one of them and their language becomes his.