om waxed apace; whilst all
the Rishis of the Ikshvaku clan who had received a heavenly birth,
beholding Buddha thus benefitting men, were filled with joy and
satisfaction; and whilst throughout the heavenly mansions religious
offerings fell as raining flowers, the Devas and the Naga spirits, with
one voice, praised the Buddha's virtues; men seeing the religious
offerings, hearing, too, the joyous hymn of praise, were all rejoiced in
turn; they leapt for unrestrained joy; Mara, the Devaraga, only, felt in
his heart great anguish. Buddha for those seven days, in contemplation
lost, his heart at peace, beheld and pondered on the Bodhi tree, with
gaze unmoved and never wearying:--"Now resting here, in this condition,
I have obtained," he said, "my ever-shifting heart's desire, and now at
rest I stand, escaped from self." The eyes of Buddha then considered
"all that lives," and forthwith rose there in him deep compassion; much
he desired to bring about their welfare, but how to gain for them that
most excellent deliverance, from covetous desire, hatred, ignorance, and
false teaching, this was the question; how to suppress this sinful heart
by right direction; not by anxious use of outward means, but by resting
quietly in thoughtful silence. Now looking back and thinking of his
mighty vow, there rose once more within his mind a wish to preach the
law; and looking carefully throughout the world, he saw how pain and
sorrow ripened and increased everywhere. Then Brahma-deva knowing his
thoughts, and considering it right to request him to advance religion
for the wider spread of the Brahma-glory, in the deliverance of all
flesh from sorrow, coming, beheld upon the person of the reverend monk
all the distinguishing marks of a great preacher, visible in an
excellent degree; fixed and unmoved he sat in the possession of truth
and wisdom, free from all evil impediments, with a heart cleansed from
all insincerity or falsehood. Then with reverent and a joyful heart,
great Brahma stood and with hands joined, thus made known his
request:--"What happiness in all the world so great as when a loving
master meets the unwise; the world with all its occupants, filled with
impurity and dire confusion, with heavy grief oppressed, or, in some
cases, lighter sorrows, waits deliverance; the lord of men, having
escaped by crossing the wide and mournful sea of birth and death, we now
entreat to rescue others--those struggling creatures all engulfed
th