Zeitaltern für die Dauer eines Kap-Asankya ein höchster Buddha
fehlte, konnte kein Verdienst erworben, und so Nirwana nicht
was born as the son of the monarch of Kappawati. After remaining in the state
of a laic 10,000 years, he became an ascetic and subsequently a supreme Buddha.
From this Buddha, the Bodhisat who afterwards became Dipankara Buddha, then
a Brahman, received the assurance, that he would become a Buddha. In the
same age Gotama Bodhisat was a prince and one day, when sitting in his palace,
having seen Dipankara Bodhisat carrying the alms bowl he sent an attendant
to enquire, what was his business, when he was informed that he was seeking
oil. On hearing this, the prince called him to the palace and filling a golden
vessel with oil of white mustard-seed, sidharttha, put it upon his head, saying
at the same tim e .. „By virtue of this act may I hereafter become a Buddha
and as this is sidharttha oil, may my name in that birth be Sidharttha.“ This
oil was presented by Dipankara Bodhisat to Purana Dipankara Buddha, who declared,
that the, prince would in an after age become a supreme Buddha. Throughout
the whole o f the ages, in what birth soever he appeared, Gotama Bodhisat (since
he had formed the wish to become Buddha) continually exercised manopranidhana,
the wish to become a supreme Buddha. Als Gotama Bodhisat’s (als Sohn des
Monarohen von Dhannya) magischer Wagen von seinem himmlischen Platz zur
Erde stieg, erklarte einer seiner Grossen: „This sign betokens either the near
approach of the death of the chakrawartti, or that the chakrawartti will become
an ascetic, or th at a supreme Buddha has appeared in the world, but as your
majesty has yet many years to liv e , it cannot portend your death and it must
therefore have been caused by Sakya, the Buddha, who at present is blessing
the world.“ In the time of Tanhankara, Gotama Bodhisat was born as the son
of Sunanda, king of the city of Puspawati. In the Manda-Kalpa (31 Kalpas
previous to the present) there were two Buddhas (Sikhi and Wessabhu) and the
names of Gotama Bodhisat were Arindama-raja and Gudarshana-raja. After the
dissolution of Wessabhu there were 29 Kalpas in which no supreme Buddha
appeared. This long period of remediless ignorance was succeeded by the Maha-
bhadra Kalpa, in which five Buddhas are to appear: Kakusanda. Konagamana,
Kasyapa, Gotama and Maitri. Kakusanda (born in Mekhala) proclaimed the bana
to his disciples near Benares. The name of Konagamana' was received from the
circumstance, th a t at the instance of his b irth , there was a golden [Semele]
shower (Kanakawassan) throughout Jambudwipa. At the time of Kasyapa Gotama
Bodhisat was the brahman Jotipala. After the WessantaTa b irth , Bodhisat was
born in the Dewa-loka, called Tusita, where , he received the name of Santusita
[Santos]. At the end of this period, as it had been announced, that a supreme
Buddlra was about to appear, the Dewas and brahmas of the various worlds
enquired, who it was to be and when they discovered, that it was Santusita, they
went in a vast multitude to that Dewa and requested him, to assume the high
office, th at the different beings might be released from the sorrows connected
erlangt werden. Das von Brahma in Gaya, wo Hiuenthsang
von den Heiligen (Buddhisten) stammende Brahmanen fand, als
with existence. To this request Santusita made no re p ly , but exercised the
five great perceptions. The Dewas on perceiving the signs of his leaving the
celestial regions, offered him their congratulations. On the arrival of the proper
period, he vanished from Tusita and was conceived in the womb of Mahamaya.
The womb, that bears a Buddha is like a casket, in which a relic is placed, no
other being can be conceived in the same receptacle, the usual secretions are
not formed, and from the time of conception, Mahamaya was free from passion
and lived in the strictest continence. In her dream (at the festival) she saw the
guardian Dewas of the four quarters take up the couch upon which she lay and
convey it to the great forest of Himala, where they placed it upon a rock. The
queens of the four Dewas then brought water from the lake of Anatatta (after
they had themselves, bathed in it to take away from it all human contaminations),
with which they washed her body, and they afterwards arrayed her in most
beautiful garments and anointed her with divine ungueuts. The four Dewas then
took her to a rock of silver, upon which was a palace of gold, and having made
a divine couch, they placed her upon i t , with her head towards the east [Jeder
vollfuhrt seine Verpflichtung mit republikanischem Zusammeuwirken des Kosmos,
ohne autokratischen Befehl, durch die sich selbst im Ganzen verstehende Ver-
nunft]. Whilst there reposing Bodhisat appeared to he r, like a cloud in the
moonlight coming from the north and in his hand holding the lotus. After
ascending the rock, he thrice circumambulated the queen’s couch. At this
moment Santusita, who saw the progress of the dream, passed away from the
Dewa-loka and was conceived in the world of men and Mahamaya discovered,
after the circumambulations were concluded, that Bodhisat was lying in her
body, as the infant libs in fhe womb of his mother. The Brahmans (learned in
the four Vedas) of whom the king (Sudhadana) enquired the meaning of the
queen’s dream, replied, that she had become pregnant of a so n , if the child she
would in due time bring forth continued a laic, they declared, that he would
be invested with the dignity of a Chakrawartti, bu t if he renounced the world,
they foretold, that the would become a supreme Buddha. At the time of the
conception great wonders were represented. During the whole period of gestation,
the Dewas of the four quarters remained near the person of-Mahamaya. The
body of the queen was transparent and the child could be distinctly seen, like
a priest seated upon a throne in the act of saying bana or like a golden image,
inclosed in a vase of crystal, so that it could be known, how much he grew every
succeeding day. At the conclusion of the then months, Mahamaya informed the
king, that she wished to pay a visit to her parents. Attended by her maids she
entered the garden, until she came to a sal tre e , when she put forth her hand
to lay hold of one of its branches, bu t it, bent towards her of its own aceord
and as she held it, the birth of Bodhisat commenced. Without pain whatever
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