A Dream of the Buddha
Beside the very garden the prince is travelling toward, a buddha has attained awakening only seven days before — and the maiden, drifting briefly into sleep, dreams of him, before a heavenly voice names every kind of spirit already gathering to see him.
A Dream of the Buddha
The story turns aside for a moment from the prince and the maiden's mother to a buddha just seven days awakened, glimpsed first only in a dream.
「彼香芽園側，有一道場，名：法雲光明。時，有如來名：勝日身，十號具足，於中出現已經七日。時，彼童女暫時假寐，夢見其佛；從夢覺已，空中有天而告之言：『勝日身如來，於法雲光明道場成等正覺已經七日，諸菩薩眾前後圍遶。天、龍、夜叉、乾闥婆、阿脩羅、迦樓羅、緊那羅、摩睺羅伽、梵天乃至色究竟天，諸地神、風神、火神、水神、河神、海神、山神、樹神、園神、藥神、主城神等，為見佛故，皆來集會。』
"Beside that Garden of Fragrant Shoots, there was an awakening-site named Dharma-Cloud Light. At that time, there was a tathāgata named Victorious Sun Body, complete in all ten epithets, who had already appeared there seven days before. At that time, that young maiden, drifting for a moment into sleep, dreamed she saw that buddha; and when she awoke from the dream, a deva in the sky spoke to her, saying: 'The tathāgata Victorious Sun Body, at the awakening-site of Dharma-Cloud Light, has already, seven days now, accomplished perfect and complete awakening, surrounded before and behind by every bodhisattva assembly. Gods, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras, and mahoragas, the Brahmā heavens on up to Akaniṣṭha, every earth-spirit, wind-spirit, fire-spirit, water-spirit, river-spirit, ocean-spirit, mountain-spirit, tree-spirit, garden-spirit, medicine-spirit, and city-guardian spirit — all of them, for the sake of seeing the buddha, have gathered together in assembly.'
諸地神、風神、火神、水神、河神、海神、山神、樹神、園神、藥神、主城神 — every earth-spirit, wind-spirit, fire-spirit, water-spirit, river-spirit, ocean-spirit, mountain-spirit, tree-spirit, garden-spirit, medicine-spirit, and city-guardian spirit. Counted directly, eleven kinds of nature-spirit follow the standard eightfold list of gods, nāgas, and their kin — a second census layered onto the first, this one naming what presides over the physical world itself rather than what inhabits its skies and underworlds.
Part 1211 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle seventy-five. Part 1212 gives the maiden her own voice — a hymn declaring her beauty and her wish to serve the prince despite her mother's refusal.