Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 17.djvu/18

4 overseers over the townships; and he addressed the venerable Sâgata, and said: 'Show them now, Sâgata, a still greater wonder, beyond the power of men.'

'Even so, Lord!' said the venerable Sâgata, in assent, to the Blessed One. And rising up into the air he walked, and stood, and sat, and lay down, and gave forth smoke and fire, and disappeared in the sky.

8. Then the venerable Sâgata, when he had shown in the open sky wonders of various kinds beyond the power of men, fell down with his head at the feet of the Blessed One, and said to the Blessed One:

'My teacher, Lord, is the Blessed One; and I am the disciple. My teacher, Lord, is the Blessed One; and I am the disciple.'

Then those eighty thousand overseers over the townships thinking, 'Wonderful is it, most marvellous! If even the pupil be so mighty and so powerful, how much more then the master!' paid more respect in their hearts to the Blessed One than to the venerable Sâgata.

9. Then the Blessed One perceived by his mind the thoughts of the minds of those eighty thousand overseers over the townships, and held to them a discourse in due order; that is to say, he spake to them of giving, of righteousness, of heaven, of the danger, the worthlessness, the depravity of lusts, and of the advantages of renunciation. And when the Blessed One perceived that they had become pliant, softened, unprejudiced, upraised and believing in heart, then he proclaimed that which is the special doctrine of the Buddhas; (that is to say), Suffering, its Origin, its Cessation, and the Path.