Overall Teaching

While the cause for longevity is abstaining from killing and giving food, the Buddha’s true lifespan is not eighty years, but immeasurable. There are no true relics, as the Buddha’s true body is the Dharma (Dharmakāya)—the relics and the entry into nirvāṇa (and a limited lifespan) of the Buddha are only an expedient means for the aid of beings. The Buddha is the same as the Dharma, and is unarisen and uncreated, their sphere is inconceivable and all buddhas are identical.

Summary

1.     The Bodhisattva Ruciraketu in Rājagṛha wonders why the Buddha’s life is only eighty years long.

2.     He considers, the reasons for long life include refraining from killing and giving away food—however, the Buddha has both upheld the ten good ways of acting and has even given away his own body as food.

3.     While considering this his dwelling became vast and made of jewels, and the buddhas of the four directions appeared on four lotuses around him. In the city, miraculous things appeared, such as light, flowers raining down, and beings suffering or afflicted had their sufferings and afflictions removed.

4.     Ruciraketu sees these and recalls the qualities of the buddhas—then considers Śākyamuni Buddha again, and again wonders why his lifespan is only eighty years.

a.     The buddhas then announced that no one is able to understand the full extent of Śākyamuni Buddha’s life.

5.     Thereupon countless beings and bodhisattvas appeared there and the buddhas proclaimed:

a.     No one can count Ś.B.’s life, unlike drops of water in the ocean, atoms on earth.

b.     He lives for so long due to not killing and giving food.

c.     The length is not countable.

6.     Then the Brahmin Kauṇḍinya, and other brahmins, heard that the Buddha would enter nirvāṇa, wept, and at the Buddha’s feet, asked for one boon:

a.     The Buddha remained silent, and the Litsavi[1] prince Sarvalokapriyadarśana[2] said he would grant it. The request was for a relic of the Buddha the size of a mustard seed, to place in a box and honour, as the merit thereof would grant rebirth in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three.

b.     The prince replied with a set of impossible things, saying, when these occur, then there will be a relic, e.g. when from a hare’s horns a ladder to the heavens are made, and a mouse climbs the mountain to eat the moon and vex Rāhu,[3] then there will be a relic.

c.     Kauṇḍinya replies that the question was asked by him as an expedient device for instigating the truth, and declares that:

                                               i.     The Buddha-sphere is inconceivable

                                             ii.     The buddhas are unequalled

                                            iii.     All Buddhas are benevolent and act perfectly

                                            iv.     All Buddhas have the same appearance

                                             v.     The Buddha is uncreated and unarisen

                                            vi.     His body that is as hard as Vajra manifests his transformed body[4]

                                          vii.     As he is really without bone or blood, there can be no relics

                                         viii.     Relics are only expedient devices for the welfare of beings

                                            ix.     The Buddha is the sphere of the Dharma (Dharmadhātu) and his true body is the Dharma (Dharmakāya)

7.     Thereupon thirty-two thousand gods resolved to attain Buddhahood and declared their understanding as follows:

a.     The Buddha does not enter nirvāṇa and the Dharma does not disappear: these are only expedient devices for the aid of sentient beings.

Then Ruciraketu was satisfied that his question had been answered, and countless beings in the vast jewel house resolved to attain Buddhahood, and the four Buddhas vanished.

[1] Licchavi, the ruling clan of Vaiśālī.

[2] Dear to the Sight of all Worlds. According to Tsongkhapa’s commentary on the Madhyāmakāvatara, this prince would be born in the future as Nāgārjuna.

[3] A legendary Asura who eats the moon, which causes an eclipse. In the Samyutta Nikāya, the Buddha asks Rāhu to release the moon, or his head will split into seven pieces, which Rāhu does: hence comes the end of eclipses.

[4] Nirmitakāya—nirmita means constructed, fashioned, made, and is also used to mean magic creation or illusion.