佛說彌勒下生成佛經

Thus have I heard:

At one time the Tathāgata was dwelling on the summit of Mount Gṛdhrakūṭa, in the city of Rājagṛha, together with a great assembly of bhikṣus. The Venerable Śāriputra, foremost in great wisdom and the first among the Buddha's disciples in the Dharma, out of compassion for sentient beings, rose from his seat, arranged his robe to bare his right shoulder, knelt with his right knee touching the ground, and reverently joined his palms and addressed the Buddha:

"World-Honored One! I have a few matters I wish to ask about. I humbly beg you to permit it."

The Buddha said to Śāriputra:

"Ask as you wish, and I shall answer you."

The Venerable Śāriputra used verses to entreat the World-Honored One:

"The Buddha has bestowed a prophecy

That in the future a Buddha shall be born below,

Named Maitreya, the Loving One,

As set forth in due order in the scriptures.

I humbly beg the Buddha, the World-Honored One,

To summarize and analyze

That majestic virtue and spiritual power—

Now I wish to hear of it."

The Buddha said to Śāriputra:

"You should listen single-mindedly and attentively.

Of the future Buddha, the Loving One,

I shall expound at length for you.

At that time the waters of the great ocean

Shall gradually recede by three thousand

Two hundred yojanas,

And the land shall be built up into roads.

The Sahā world shall broaden further,

More than ten thousand yojanas.

The sentient beings of that realm

Shall be complete and flourishing.

The land shall be rich and excellent,

Without punishments or calamities.

The men and women of this realm

Shall be born from wholesome karma.

The earth shall have no thorns or brambles,

And green grass shall grow soft and tender,

Like a spread of soft velvet carpet,

So that those who walk upon it are well pleased.

Fragrant rice shall arise naturally,

Complete with delicious flavor.

The trees shall bring forth garments,

Their colors all beautiful and fine.

The trees shall be three krośas tall,

Their flowers and fruits luxuriant and abundant.

The people in this land

Shall have a lifespan of eighty thousand years.

They shall have no afflictions or illnesses;

Their bodies and minds shall ever be at peace.

Endowed with the marks of dignity and majesty,

Their complexion and strength fully perfect.

Only three concerns shall remain:

Eating, aging, and bodily elimination.

A daughter at five hundred years of age

Shall then perform the marriage rite.

When a person relieves themselves,

The earth shall split open and close again.

When a person is about to pass away,

They shall go of themselves to the Forest of Śīta.

There is a city, Wondrous Banner Marks,

The capital of the Wheel-Turning King,

Twelve yojanas in length

And seven yojanas in breadth.

The people who dwell within that city

Have all planted wholesome causes.

This city, with its lofty virtue,

Is one where all who dwell are at peace and joy.

The towers and pavilions are all beautiful and fine,

Made of the seven treasures.

The great halls and the gates

Are adorned with jewels and gems.

The jeweled ponds surrounding the city

Are filled with precious and rare gems.

Beautiful flowers bloom throughout the gardens,

And many lovely birds warble sweetly.

Seven rows of tāla trees

Encircle the city all around,

Also adorned with the seven treasures,

With jeweled nets and wind-bells.

When the breeze wafts through the jeweled trees,

It produces wondrous sounds,

Like the music of the eight tones,

So that those who hear it give rise to joy.

Everywhere there are ponds and lakes

Covered all over with beautiful flowers.

Parks and gardens fragrant with sweet flowers

Adorn this walled city.

The emperor who governs the realm

Bears the title Śaṅkha,

A Golden-Wheel King who governs,

Wealthy and noble, of great might and power.

By the merit and karma of this king,

Mighty and possessing the four armies,

Accomplished through the seven treasures,

The king is fully endowed with a thousand sons.

The four seas are all at peace and joy,

With no affairs of war and conflict.

The True Dharma teaches the multitude of beings,

And punishments and laws are all impartial.

The king has four treasuries,

Each treasury in one direction.

All four treasuries possess

A million koṭis of precious gems.

The treasury Piṅgala

Is in the country of Kaliṅga;

The treasury Pāṇḍuka

Is in the country of Mithilā;

The treasury Elapatra

Is set in the country of Gandhāra;

The treasury named Śaṅkha

Is in the country of Vārāṇasī.

These four hidden treasuries

Belong to King Śaṅkha,

Arising from a hundred merits,

The fruit and recompense of cultivation accomplished.

The great minister who protects the realm

Is the brahmin Subrahmā,

Who has mastered the four Vedas,

A learned teacher of broad knowledge,

And an erudite scholar of philosophical treatises,

Skilled in teaching so that listeners receive and accept,

Wise and clear in understanding,

Thoroughly versed in all things.

His wife is named Brahmāvatī,

The lady of the great minister.

Of dignified, graceful, and beautiful appearance,

Whoever meets her is filled with affection.

The great hero, the Loving One,

From the Tuṣita Heaven,

Descended into the lady's womb,

Making it his final place of birth.

The lady bears the great sage,

Carrying him for the full ten months.

One day the mother of the Loving Honored One

Went strolling in the beautiful flower garden.

Within that flower garden,

Neither sitting nor lying down,

Gracefully grasping a flowering branch,

She gave birth to the Loving One.

At that moment the Most Victorious One

Emerged from his mother's right side,

Like the radiant sun

Shining its light in all directions,

Untainted by the odor of worldly defilement,

Like a lotus flower rising clear of the water.

His light illumined the three realms,

And all took refuge in and revered the Greatly Loving One.

When the Bodhisattva descended to birth,

The devas and Lord Śakra

Extended their hands to support the Bodhisattva,

Rejoicing to meet the Honored One of Two-Footed Beings.

The Bodhisattva, at this very moment,

Naturally walked seven steps,

And everywhere beneath his feet

Appeared precious lotus flowers.

He gazed throughout the ten directions

And declared to all the devas and humans:

"This is my final body;

I shall realize the unborn Nirvāṇa."

Dragons poured forth cool, clear water,

Bathing and cleansing his body.

The devas scattered exquisite flowers,

Covering the Greatly Loving One.

All, with minds of wonder,

Guarded the place of the Bodhisattva.

The nurse cradled the infant,

Endowed with the thirty-two excellent marks,

Complete with radiant light,

And presented him to his loving mother.

A carriage was brought to receive them in procession,

Adorned with jewels and gems.

Mother and child entered the city,

The devas following in attendance.

Ten thousand kinds of beautiful music

Led the way back to the palace.

When the Loving One entered the walled city,

Heavenly flowers fell like rain.

On the day the Bodhisattva was born,

The palace women who were with child

All had their bodies brought to peace and ease,

Giving birth to sons of wisdom.

His father, Subrahmā,

Seeing his son so beautiful and wondrous,

Endowed with the thirty-two marks,

Was filled with the greatest joy.

The father examined his son's destiny

And knew his son had two possible marks:

To be a Wheel-Turning King in the world,

Or to leave home and attain Perfect Enlightenment.

When the Bodhisattva grew to maturity,

Compassionate toward the multitude of beings,

Suffering amid perils and dangers,

Forever revolving in saṃsāra—

His body was like gleaming gold,

His voice like that of the great Brahmā King,

His eyes like blue lotus petals,

His every limb full and round.

He was eighty cubits tall,

His shoulders twenty cubits broad,

His face wide and his shoulders well-proportioned,

Beautiful as the full moon.

The Bodhisattva mastered the arts and skills,

Skillfully teaching and transforming all people.

Those who came seeking to learn from him

Numbered eighty-four thousand.

King Śaṅkha, hearing of his fame,

Constructed a banner-pillar of the seven treasures,

The banner-pillar seventy feet tall

And more than sixteen feet wide.

When the jeweled banner-pillar was completed,

The king gave rise to the mind of great relinquishment,

Giving alms to the brahmins,

Opening a boundless assembly of giving.

At that time the brahmin practitioners,

Numbering one thousand people,

Received this beautiful jeweled banner-pillar,

But in but a moment it shattered to pieces.

The Bodhisattva, seeing this,

Reflected that life is likewise so:

Birth and death, suffering and toilsome bondage—

Why not seek liberation?

"If one longs for the path of cessation,

One should renounce the world and leave home.

Amid birth, aging, sickness, and death,

How shall one find a way out?"

When the Loving One had made his vow,

The eighty-four thousand people

All gave rise to minds of weariness and disenchantment,

And followed in cultivating the holy life.

Day and night they all gave rise to the aspiration

To leave home and forsake the worldly life.

At midnight of that night

He realized the stage of Equal Enlightenment.

There is a tree of awakening,

Also called the Nāga-flower tree,

Four yojanas tall,

Luxuriant and shady-cool,

Its branches spreading evenly in the four directions,

Its shade covering six krośas.

The Loving One, the greatly compassionate Honored One,

Attained Perfect Enlightenment beneath the tree.

Most victorious among all people,

He possessed the eight kinds of Brahmā-voice,

Expounding the Dharma to liberate sentient beings,

Helping them part from afflictions.

Suffering, and the place where suffering arises,

Are all extinguished and removed.

Diligently cultivating the Eightfold Noble Path,

They reach the shore of awakening, Nirvāṇa.

He spoke the Four Truths

To those who are pure and faithful.

Having heard the wondrous Dharma,

With utmost sincerity they reverently practiced accordingly.

In the beautiful, flourishing flower garden,

The assembly gathered like clouds,

Filling a hundred thousand yojanas,

Together with their full retinue of kin.

The Golden-Wheel King Śaṅkha,

Hearing the profound and wondrous Dharma,

Forsook his jeweled palace,

His heart entreating to leave home.

Eighty-four thousand people

Followed the king in leaving home.

And eighty-four thousand

Young brahmins,

Hearing that the king had forsaken the dusty world,

Also entreated to leave home.

The elder, lord of the treasury,

Named Sudhana,

Together with a thousand of his kin,

Also came to entreat to leave home.

The jeweled woman Viśākhā,

Together with all her attendants,

Eighty-four thousand people,

Also came to entreat to leave home.

And more than a hundred thousand

Of those present, virtuous men and women,

Hearing the Buddha expound the wondrous Dharma,

Also came to entreat to leave home.

The Unsurpassed One, Honored among the Assembly,

The Holy Lord of Great Loving-Kindness and Compassion,

Surveyed the minds of all sentient beings

And expounded the essential Dharma.

He told the great assembly that they should know:

"Śākyamuni Buddha, with loving-kindness and compassion,

Taught people to cultivate the right path;

They are now born within my Dharma.

Some offered fragrant flower garlands,

Banners, pennants, and jeweled canopies,

Making offerings to Śākyamuni Buddha;

They are now born within my Dharma.

Some, with sandalwood and aloeswood,

And powdered incense to anoint and adorn,

Made offerings to the stūpa of the Muni;

They are now born within my Dharma.

Some took refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha,

Ever reverently drawing near,

Devotedly cultivating wholesome conduct;

They are now born within my Dharma.

Some, toward the Buddha's Dharma,

Received and upheld the scriptures and texts,

Skillfully keeping them without defect or omission;

They are now born within my Dharma.

Toward the Saṅgha of the four directions,

They offered food and garments,

And all manner of fine medicines;

They are now born within my Dharma.

Some kept the four days of fasting,

And the ten fasting days, and the monthly fast,

Upholding the eight precepts of fasting;

They are now born within my Dharma.

Some cultivated the three spiritual penetrations,

Transmitting and teaching the realm of the spirit,

Teaching and transforming the assembly of śrāvakas,

Helping them sever afflictions."

In the first assembly he expounded the Dharma,

Liberating throughout the assembly of śrāvakas,

Ninety-six koṭis of people,

Causing them to be free of the hindrance of afflictions.

In the second assembly he expounded the Dharma,

Liberating throughout the assembly of śrāvakas,

Ninety-four koṭis of people,

Who crossed beyond the ocean of ignorance.

In the third assembly he expounded the Dharma,

Liberating throughout the assembly of śrāvakas,

Ninety-two koṭis of people,

Who skillfully knew how to tame their minds.

Three times he turned the Dharma-wheel,

And the minds of devas and humans were made pure.

Bringing all his disciples,

He entered the city to beg for alms.

When he came to the city of Wondrous Banner,

The roads and ways were all adorned

In order to make offerings to the Buddha,

And the heavens rained down mandārava flowers.

The Four Heavenly Kings and the Brahmā King,

Together with all the assembly of devas,

Offered fragrant incense and flowers,

Attending beside the Greatly Loving One.

The devas of great majestic virtue

Offered fine and beautiful garments.

Throughout the city, in bustling crowds,

They beheld the Great King of Healing.

Bearing fragrant flowers and precious gems,

They scattered them clean over all the roads,

Covering the surface of the earth in full,

Like a layer of fine cotton-wool.

Music and banners and pennants

Lined both sides of the road.

The assemblies of humans, devas, and Lord Śakra

Praised the World-Honored One:

"Homage to the One Honored above the Devas!

Homage to the Most Victorious Buddha!

How excellent is the Tathāgata,

Who takes pity upon all the mortal world!"

There were devas of great majestic virtue

Who were acting as kings of the māras,

Single-mindedly paying reverent homage,

Taking refuge in and revering the Teacher.

The Brahmā King and the assembly of devas,

Together with their retinues surrounding them,

Bearing the sound of the Brahmā Heaven,

Proclaimed and extolled the wondrous Dharma.

Within this world,

The greater part became arhats,

Exhausting the karma of the outflows,

So that the suffering of afflictions remained no more.

The assemblies of devas, humans, and dragon-spirits,

Gandharvas and asuras,

Rākṣasas and yakṣas,

All joyfully made offerings.

The great assembly at that time

Severed hindrances and removed doubts,

Crossed beyond the stream of birth and death,

And skillfully cultivated pure conduct.

All the members of the great assembly

Were not greedily attached to wealth and possessions.

Without self and without what belongs to self,

They skillfully cultivated pure conduct.

All the members of the great assembly

Tore apart the net of craving,

Their minds of meditative stillness fully perfected,

And skillfully cultivated pure conduct.

The Loving One, honored by devas and humans,

Out of compassion for sentient beings,

For sixty thousand years in the world

Expounded the Dharma to liberate sentient beings,

Teaching and transforming hundreds of thousands of koṭis,

Delivering them from the ocean of afflictions.

When all those with the affinity to be liberated were liberated,

He then entered Nirvāṇa.

The Loving One, the greatly compassionate Honored One,

After entering Nirvāṇa—

The True Dharma abides in the world

For likewise the full sixty thousand years.

Whoever, within my Dharma,

With a mind of deep faith and acceptance,

When in the future he is born below,

Shall surely serve the greatly compassionate One.

If there be people of penetrating wisdom

Who hear these matters spoken,

Who among them would not rejoice

And vow to meet Maitreya Buddha?

Whoever seeks liberation,

Longing to meet the Nāga-flower assembly,

Should ever make offerings to the Triple Gem,

Striving and never being heedless.

At that time, Śāriputra and the great assembly, having heard the World-Honored One teach of the future matters of the Loving One, the Buddha further said to Śāriputra:

"If there be any man or woman who hears this Dharma and receives and upholds it, reads and recites it, expounds it to others so that they practice according to the teaching, makes offerings of incense and flowers, and copies out the scripture, in the future such people shall surely meet Maitreya Buddha when he is born below, and within the three assemblies they shall all receive the grace of his deliverance."

When the Buddha had spoken these verses, the Venerable Śāriputra and all the great assembly, joyfully believing and accepting them, bowed their heads in homage and reverently put them into practice.

THE SŪTRA SPOKEN BY THE BUDDHA ON MAITREYA'S

BIRTH BELOW AND ATTAINMENT OF BUDDHAHOOD

The End