Chapter IX
KoÒca, and May|ra.
He had three hundred thousand female attendants. His Chief Consort was PadumÈ
DevÊ, His son Usabhakkhandha. The duration of His reign was ten thousand years.
When He renounced the world, He went forth on an elephant. When He became
Buddha, He lived at NandÈrÈma (Nanda Park).
Living throughout such a long period, Buddha DÊpa~karÈ saved large numbers of
beings (from suffering).
Having made the three divisions of the True Dhamma, such as Learning
(
Pariyatti
), Practice (
PaÔipatti
) and Penetration (
PaÔivedha
), shine forth throughout
the world, and having liberated beings, Buddha DÊpa~karÈ and His Disciples
realized final Peace, the way a mass of fire went out after blazing with bright
flames.
Contemplation on Impermanence, etc. (saÑvega)
The glory of that Buddha DÊpa~karÈ, His assemblage of four hundred thousand
arahats
,
etc., who were all His Disciples, and the signs on both His feet, had all ceased to exist.
Impermanent are all conditioned things! They are indeed unsubstantial!
Erection of A CetÊya
In this way, Buddha DÊpa~karÈ, who had penetrated all the Four Noble Truths without
exception, attained ParinibbÈna at Nandarama Park. In the same Park was erected a
cetiya
,
thirty
yojanas
in height and dedicated to Him. It was made of powdered red orpiment
mixed with oil and butter, and in it were enshrined His relics which were in an
indestructible and undispersed mass, a natural phenomenon common to all long-lived
Buddhas. People of JambudÊpa came together and completed the
cetiya
with decorations of
seven kinds of gems.
Here ends DÊpa~karÈ BuddhavaÑsa.
________________________
2. KOªDA©©A BUDDHAVA¥SA
The aeon in which Buddha DÊpa~karÈ appeared came eventually to an end. When
asa~khyeyya
(incalculable) aeons had passed after that, there appeared Buddha KoÓÉaÒÒa in
a certain aeon.
(Though
asa~khyeyya
is a number which is incalculable, the period between the
previous Buddha DÊpa~karÈ and the following Buddha KoÓÉaÒÒa is called
Buddhantara
-
asa~khyeyya
as it is to be understood as an interval between two
Buddhas.)
This is how Buddha KoÓÉaÒÒa appeared: At the end of His fulfilment of the Perfections
for sixty
asa~khyeyya
and a hundred thousand aeons, while enjoying His life in the divine
abode of TusitÈ which is a tradition followed by all Bodhisattas, and having complied with
the request made by other devas for becoming a Buddha, He descended to the human world
to be conceived in the womb of Queen SujÈtÈ at King Sunanda's palace in the city of
Rammavati.
(At the moment of His conception there occurred the usual thirty-two portent
phenomena.)
The Bodhisatta was born after ten months had passed. At the moment of his birth also,
the portents became manifest and other miraculous events that were associated with every
Bodhisatta took place.
(All this will be mentioned in detail when we come to the chronicle of Buddha
Gotama.)
Royal Household Life