A Record Of Buddhistic Kingdoms - Being An Account By The Chinese Monk Fa-hien Of His Travels In India And Ceylon (a.d. 399-414) By James Legge
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The Rishi Kala Devala Saw Them On The Body Of The Infant Sakya
Prince To The Number Of 328, Those On The Teeth, Which Had Not Yet
Come Out, Being Visible To His Spirit-Like Eyes (M. B., Pp.
148, 149).
[13] Probably="all Buddhas."
[14] The number may appear too great. But see what is said on the size
of topes in chapter iii, note 4.
[15] In Singhalese, Pase Buddhas; called also Nidana Buddhas, and
Pratyeka Jinas, and explained by "individually intelligent,"
"completely intelligent," "intelligent as regards the nidanas."
This, says Eitel (pp. 96, 97), is "a degree of saintship unknown to
primitive Buddhism, denoting automats in ascetic life who attain to
Buddhaship 'individually,' that is, without a teacher, and without
being able to save others. As the ideal hermit, the Pratyeka Buddha
is compared with the rhinoceros khadga that lives lonely in the
wilderness. He is also called Nidana Buddha, as having mastered the
twelve nidanas (the twelve links in the everlasting chain of cause
and effect in the whole range of existence, the understanding of which
solves the riddle of life, revealing the inanity of all forms of
existence, and preparing the mind for nirvana). He is also compared
to a horse, which, crossing a river, almost buries its body under the
water, without, however, touching the bottom of the river. Thus in
crossing samsara he 'suppresses the errors of life and thought, and
the effects of habit and passion, without attaining to absolute
perfection.'" Whether these Buddhas were unknown, as Eitel says, to
primitive Buddhism, may be doubted.
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