Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 21.djvu/256

Rh under the rule 1 of that £ina. Then also shall beings like grains of sand of the Ganges produce in this world what is the cause of Buddha-enlightenment.

In that assembly were eight thousand Bodhisattvas who had newly entered the vehicle. To them this thought presented itself: Never before did we have such a sublime prediction to Bodhisattvas, far less to disciples. What may be the cause of it? what the motive? The Lord, who apprehended in his mind what was going on in the minds of those Bodhisattvas, addressed them in these words: Young men of good family, I and Ananda have in the same moment, the same instant conceived the idea of supreme and perfect enlightenment in the presence of the Tathdgata DharmagahandbhyudgatarS^a 2, the Arhat, &c. At that period, young men of good family, he (Ananda) constantly and assiduously applied himself to great learning, whereas I was applying myself to strenuous labour. Hence I sooner arrived at supreme and perfect enlightenment, whilst Ananda-Bhadra was the keeper of the law-treasure of the Lords Buddhas ; that is to say, young men of good family, he made a vow 8 to bring Bodhisattvas to full development.

When the venerable Ananda heard from the Lord the announcement of his own destiny to supreme and perfect enlightenment, when he learned the good qualities of his Buddha-field and its divisions, when he heard of the vow he had made in the

I.e. reign, epoch inaugurated by him.

Var. lect. Dharmagagan£° and Dharmagamana.

Prawidhdna.