"None Other Than the Buddha Śākyamuni, Now"
The identification arrives at last: the crown prince of this entire account was none other than Śākyamuni Buddha, and his father, the king Lord of All Treasures, is the buddha Ratnapuṣpa, presently teaching in a world far to the east — a buddha who, while still a bodhisattva, inspired every buddha within his own vast ocean of lands to first raise the mind of awakening.
The Prince Was the Buddha; the King Is Ratnapuṣpa, in the East
「佛子！爾時，太子增上功德主，豈異人乎？今釋迦牟尼佛是也。爾時，王寶主，寶華佛是也，寶華如來今在東方。過世界海微塵等世界海，有一世界海，名法界虛空光雲；中有世界，名佛圓滿光妙德燈；彼有道場，名曰一切天王光幢；彼佛始成正覺，與不可說佛剎微塵等菩薩大眾圍遶說法，彼寶華佛為菩薩時，淨彼剎海，彼剎海中三世諸佛出興世者，皆寶華佛為菩薩時，教化令發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心。」
"Child of the Buddha, at that time, could the crown prince, Lord of Supreme Merit, have been anyone else? He is none other than the buddha Śākyamuni, now. At that time, the king, Lord of All Treasures, is none other than the buddha Ratnapuṣpa; the tathāgata Ratnapuṣpa is, at this very time, in the east. Beyond oceans of worlds as numerous as motes of dust in every ocean of worlds, there is an ocean of worlds, named the Cloud of the Light of the Empty Space of the Dharma-Realm; within it, there is a world, named the Lamp of the Perfect, Full Light of Sublime Virtue of the Buddha; there, there is a bodhimaṇḍa, named the Banner of Light of Every Deva-King. That buddha has newly attained the most correct awakening, and, surrounded by an assembly of bodhisattvas as numerous as motes of dust in unspeakable buddha-lands, expounds the Dharma. When that buddha Ratnapuṣpa was a bodhisattva, he purified that ocean of lands; and every buddha of the three times who arose within that ocean of lands was, in every case, taught and transformed by that buddha Ratnapuṣpa, while he was still a bodhisattva, to raise the mind of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening."
This identification is among the boldest in the entire collection: the crown prince of this ancient account, whose courtship of a lotus-born girl opened this whole story, is revealed to be Śākyamuni Buddha's own past self — not a bodhisattva who will one day become him, but the very figure Sudhana himself now stands before Gopā to learn from, present here as a narrator of his own distant past. His father, meanwhile, is not merely deceased or transcended — he is Ratnapuṣpa, an active buddha teaching, at this very moment, in a specific world reachable by cosmic address, whose own historical role turns out to be extraordinary in its own right: every buddha who has ever arisen within his vast ocean of lands, across all three times, was first set upon the path by Ratnapuṣpa himself, back when he was still a bodhisattva.
Part 177 In Progress
The prince and king have now been identified. Part 178 turns to the remaining identifications — the girl's mother, the king's retinue — and opens the long list of sixty koṭis of nayutas of buddhas who arose after the buddha Supreme Sun-Light's own parinirvāṇa.
Continue to Part 178 →