Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 21.djvu/426

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378
SADDHARMA-PUNDARÎKA.
xxii.

sattvapriyadarrana applied himself to his difficult course. He wandered twelve thousand years strenuously engaged in contemplation. After the expiration of those twelve thousand years he acquired the Samâdhi termed Sarvarûpasandarcana (i. e. the sight or display of all forms). No sooner had he acquired that Samidhi than satisfied, glad, joyful, rejoicing, and delighted he made the following reflection: It is owing to this Dharmaparyâya of the Lotus of the True Law that I have acquired the Samâdhi of Sarvartipasandanrana. Then he made another reflection: Let me do homage to the Lord Kandravimalasûryaprabhâsasri and this Dharmaparyâya of the Lotus of the True Law. No sooner had he entered upon such a meditation than a great rain of Mandârava and great Mandârava flowers fell from the upper sky. A cloud of Kâlânusârin sandal was formed, and a rain of Uragasâra sandal poured down. And the nature of those essences was so noble that one karsha of it was worth the whole Saha-world.

After a while, Nakshatrarâgasaṅkusumitâbhia, the Bodhisattva Mahâsattva Sarvasattvapriyadarsana rose from that meditation with memory and full consciousness, and reflected thus: This display of magic power is not likely to honour the Lord and Tathâgata so much as the sacrifice of my own body will do[1]. Then the Bodhisattva Mahdâsattva Sarvasattvapriyadarsana instantly began to eat Agallochum, Olibanum, and the resin of Boswellia Thurifera, and to drink oil of Kampaka[2]. So, Nakshatrarâgasaṅkusumitâbhia,


  1. In the story of Sarvasattvapriyadarsana it is easy to recognise a Buddhist version of the myth of the Phœnix.
  2. In the Old English poem of the Phœnix, verse 192, we read that