ABSTRACT
1. In days of old Buddha was residing in Magadha, under the tree that overshadowed the Bodhimanda. Having by the power of his presence (virtue) overpowered Mâra, he was considering with himself that the five men whom formerly his father had sent to look after him, 1 and provide him with sufficient food, were in a condition to hear the sound of the drum of the Law of eternal life; and perceiving that they were at Benares, he immediately rose from underneath the tree, whilst the heaven and earth were lit up with a supernatural light, and the ground underneath him shook. Rejoiced at these indications, he went forward, and in the mid-road he encountered a Brahmachârin named Upaka (Yeon-fu), who had left his relations and home in search of a teacher to guide him in the way of truth. Beholding the World-honoured one, how reverend his appearance and joyous his mien as he went on the way, he cried to him with a loud voice, “O sir! full of religious thought and spiritual discernment,. What is your history, and who has been your teacher, that you have arrived at such a condition as this?” To whom Buddha replied in the following stanzas:—
“Of myself, and by myself, have I attained to the eightfold Wisdom 2 —there is now nothing to remove, nothing that defiles. All love of earthly things is at an end. I have destroyed the net of lust. Of myself, without any master, have I attained this position; nor need I now any protector or patron. Alone I stand, without any associate in conduct; having had this one aim, I have become Buddha (enlightened), and by this, have attained perfect holiness.”
