The History of Buddhist Thought c24.47

c24.47

The tenth stage, *Dharmameghā*, “cloud of dharmas,” is also called *Abhiṣeka*, “consecration.” The bodhisattva attains all forms of concentration. A vast lotus appears, and the bodhisattva sits on it in the concentration called the knowledge of the omniscient. Other lotuses appear, on which other bodhisattvas from the ten quarters sit and gaze at him. An earthquake shakes all the universes, and rays of light issue appeasing the pains of all creatures. Rays issue from the foreheads of the assembled Buddhas and rest on his head. He is thus consecrated (abhishikta, lit. sprinkled). and called a fully enlightened Buddha, just as a universal monarch takes his eldest son and “sprinkles” him as viceroy with water from the four oceans. The bodhisattva through his skill in remembering is able to take up and keep in mind all the clouds of dharmas showered on him by the buddhas in his presence, but he still has to be reborn once. Then when he descends from the Tushita heaven to this world, he is ready to undertake all the prescribed actions of a Buddha in saving creatures. It is easy to see, without a special theory of docetism, why such a being in his last existence acts by merely conforming to the custom of the world.