The History of Buddhist Thought c19.7

c19.7

The author divides his account into three parts, nidānas, the “occasions” or causes which led to the events recorded in the tales. The first is the “distant occasion”, the whole period from the time when Gotama as the ascetic Sumedha saw Dīpankara Buddha, and made the resolution that he would not there and then realize the Doctrine, but would put that aim deliberately aside, and first win omniscience and become a Buddha. He resolved that after having done so he would “embark on the ship of the Doctrine, and take great multitudes across the ocean of transmigration, and then attain Nirvāṇa”. He meditated on the eight conditions for attaining Buddhahood, and especially on the ten Perfections, the ten virtues which Bodhisattas perfectly attain during their career—almsgiving, morality, renunciation, wisdom, exertion, patience, truth, resolution, friendliness, equanimity. Dīpankara prophesied that his vow would be fulfilled, and so did all the succeeding Buddhas, under all of whom he repeated his vow, until he was born as a god in the Tusita heaven.