Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 21.djvu/278

 it stand in the sky above the assembled congregation when this Dharmapary&ya of the Lotus of the True Law is being preached by some Lord Buddha or another, and let this Sttipa of the frame (or form) of my proper body give a shout of applause to those Buddhas while preaching this Dharmapary&ya of the Lotus of the True Law 1. It is that Sttipa, Mahfipratibhina, of the relics of the Lord Prabhtltaratna, the Tath&gata, &c, which, while I was preaching this Dharmaparyiya of the Lotus of the True Law in this Saha-world, arose above this assembled congregation and, standing as a meteor in the sky, gave its applause.

Then said Mahfipratibh&na, the Bodhisattva Mahsattva, to the Lord: Show us, O Lord, through thy power the frame of the aforementioned TathSgata. Whereon the Lord spake to the Bodhisattva MahAsattva MahipratibhAna as follows: This Lord Prabhtitaratna, MahApratibhAna, has made a grave and pious vow. That vow consisted in this: When the Lords, the Buddhas, being in other Buddha-fields, shall preach this Dharmaparyiya of the Lotus of the We shall see that the 'extinct Lord Prabhutaratna ' is to sit in the middle of the Stupa along with the Buddha. The moon is 'completely extinct' when in conjunction with the sun, and it seems sufficiently clear that Prabhutaratna, the Tathigata, the Arhat, &c, is the moon at the time of am^vdsyi, conjunction. The Stupa, in the centre of which sun and moon are sitting together at that period, cannot be the rainbow, so that we have in the sequel again to take Stupa in the sense of dhishwya, asterism; see note 1, p. 227. The crescent surmounting the Stupa-symbols on coins (see Senart, 1. c.) is not exactly the representation of the 'extinct Lord'—who is difficult to be represented—but of the same nature. The appearance of this symbol on those coins is by itself sufficient to show the high antiquity of a refined nature-worship in Buddhism.