Overall Teaching

When visiting a farming village, the Bodhisattva, meditating under a rose apple tree, enters the four dhyānas. Five sages cannot fly past the grove. Descending to see who is the source of this power, they see the Buddha and praise him. When the king and his retinue searches for him, they see that the shade under the tree has not moved. The king bows to the Bodhisattva, who teaches the king.

Summary

1.     When the Bodhisattva was a little older, and with sons of ministers visited a farming village, going to a park at the edge of the fields and sitting under a rose apple tree, he entered a one-pointed state of mind.

2.     He gradually went through the four dhyānas and abided in the fourth dhyāna.

3.     When five extremist sages flying, came above the grove, they couldn’t proceed. They wonder what force dissolves their great powers, which can reduce a mountain to ashes.

4.     A goddess told the sages that it was the Śākya prince meditating, with his power gained from merit in millions of lives.

a.     Despite this, they wondered whether it was various gods, or a Buddha.

b.     The goddess insisted that the splendour of the various gods is miniscule compared with that of the Bodhisattva.

5.     The sages, after descending, saw the Bodhisattva meditating and blazing with light. The praised him by saying:

a.     He is a lake that will soothe beings in the fire of afflictions.

b.     He is an illuminating torch in the world benighted by ignorance.

c.     He is a sublime vessel that will ferry beings across the sea of sorrow.

d.     He is a saviour who will save beings from the fetters of afflictions.

e.     He is a doctor who will help those afflicted with old age and sickness.

6.     After circumambulating him, they returned to the sky.

7.     When Śuddhodana searched for the prince, a minister saw him beneath the tree. However, while most of the trees’ shade had shifted, the shade beneath the rose apple tree had not shifted; he told the king.

8.     The king, going to the tree, saw him blazing, which made his limbs tremble. He bowed down to him—the second time his father bowed to him, the first being the birth.

9.     The ministers told the other boys to quiet down as the prince practices in the shade.

10. The episode is recounted again in verse form, which emphasis upon Chanda, who is related to be the one who had invited the prince in order to see the girls in the village. Moreover, the tree bowed down when it’s shade did not move, and many gods around also bowed down. The king, also, admitted that he knew the prince would become a Buddha.

11. The prince, arising from his meditation, told the father, with the voice of Brahmā, to relinquish his fields and seek nothing more. He said that he can provide everyone with their material needs.

12. After this, he instantly returned to the city, and dwelt there, yet fixed his mind on renunciation.