When Maitreya appears
in the world, and begins to turn the wheel of his Law, he will in the
first place save those among the disciples of the Law left by the
Sakya who have quitted their families, and those who have accepted the
three Refuges, undertaken the five Prohibitions and the eight
Abstinences, and given offerings to the three Precious Ones; secondly
and thirdly, he will save those between whom and conversion there is a
connexion transmitted from the past.'"[10]
(Such was the discourse), and Fa-hien wished to write it down as a
portion of doctrine; but the man said, "This is taken from no Sutra,
it is only the utterance of my own mind."
NOTES
[1] Possibly, "and asked the bhikshu," &c. I prefer the other way of
construing, however.
[2] It seems strange that this should have been understood as a
wrapping of the immense pyre with the cloth. There is nothing in the
text to necessitate such a version, but the contrary. Compare
"Buddhist Suttas," pp. 92, 93.
[3] See the description of a funeral car and its decorations in the
Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxviii, the Li Ki, Book XIX.
