Chapter 3 Section 2 The Situation of Birth in Lumbini Garden

(1) Various auspicious signs at birth Sakyamuni was a native of Kapilavatthu, India (now Nepal).Prince Jingfan, whose surname is Gautama and whose first name is Siddhartha, translates into all meanings in Chinese.Because he is a great sage in the Sakyamuni family, he is called Sakyamuni.When Prince Siddhartha was born, it was in the middle of the sixth century BC. According to ancient Indian customs, a woman must return to her natal home to give birth when she gave birth to a child. When Mrs. Maya returned to her natal home, she passed by the Lumbini Garden and saw a tree in the garden. The beautiful and very bright worry-free big tree, she will hold the branches of this big tree with her right hand.At this time, Prince Siddhartha was born from his mother's right flank.The site of Lumbini Garden is now protected as a Buddhist holy place by the Nepalese government as a historic site, so that people can visit and pay their respects.

When the prince was born, there were many auspicious auspicious signs. According to "King Kong Immortals", there are three kinds of strange auspicious signs. One is to use supernatural powers to fly in the air.The second is that lotus flowers of seven treasures appear naturally to support the Buddha's feet, and the third is that when walking, the soles of the feet are four fingers high from the ground, so that the thousand-spoked wheel appearance on the soles of the Buddha's feet is clearly reflected on the ground.Walk seven steps from east to west, north to south, point to the sky with one hand, and point to the ground with the other, saying: "In the sky and in the world, I am the only one." Look: how great the courage of these two sentences is!It's an earth-shattering lion's roar.Because the lion is the king of all beasts, when the lion roars, all the beasts will have their brains cracked and their fur stand on end.At the same time, Kowloon spit out perfume, which dropped from the air like drizzle.Two pools naturally sprang up on the ground: one with hot water and one with cold water, for the prince to bathe in.To this day, Buddhist temples, in order to commemorate the birthday of the Buddha, hold a large-scale Buddha Bathing Festival every year on the eighth day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar. This is the largest festival in Chinese Buddhist tradition.

When Prince Siddhartha was born, our world suddenly magnified light and illuminated the world in the ten directions.In China, we also see the five-color auspicious light penetrating into Taiwei Star.At that time, King Zhao of Zhou was surprised to see the five-color auspicious light, so he asked all the ministers.There was a Grand Historian named Su You, who said in a narration: "There is a great sage born in the west." The king asked again, what is the mighty virtue of this sage?Su Yu said: "This great sage, he should not try his best to rule the world, and the people of the world will naturally obey and respect him; he should not open his mouth, but the people of the world will naturally believe in and return to him; Naturally, he will cultivate the Tao and do good deeds." It is so majestic that the people can't name it.This means that Buddha Shakyamuni's merit and wisdom are inconceivable, as great as that towering mountain, which cannot be described.King Zhou Zhao asked again, since the Buddha is such a great saint, when did his teachings come to China?Su Yu Taishi said: "Thousands of years later, the holy religion spread to China." So King Zhou Zhao ordered this historical fact to be engraved on a large stone tablet and set up in front of the Tian Temple outside the South Gate, leaving it to future generations. The introduction, knowing the origin.

(2) The prophecy of Immortal Ashita After Prince Siddhartha was born in the Lumbini Garden, everyone in the Kapila Kingdom smiled and ran to tell each other. At that time, a minister rode a horse and ran back to the palace to announce the good news. King Jingfan knew that Mrs. Maya had given birth to a prince. Very happy.So many immortals were invited to look after Prince Siddhartha.All the immortals said with one voice: The prince has thirty-two physical characteristics and eighty good qualities. If he is at home, he will definitely be a wheel-turning holy king; if he is a monk, he must become a Buddha.The king said: "All the immortals, should the prince become a Buddha or become a wheel-turning holy king at home?" The immortal said: "We all have limited wisdom and cannot decide, but there is a world-renowned Immortal Asituo who is a long-lived monk. Only he can know the wisdom of the immortal." The king said: "The immortal Ashita, where does he live, and how can we invite him?" The immortal said: "This great immortal has no fixed place to live. Your Majesty burns three sticks of incense and sincerely invites Heaven, and he will come." King Jingfan immediately burned incense to invite.Just as the cigarettes were lingering, Immortal Ashita suddenly came before the king.Mrs. Maya, took the prince out and asked the immortal to look at it. Immortal Ashituo held the prince in both hands, looked at it carefully from head to toe, and finally held the prince high on his head, crying immediately arose, and wept bitterly.Everyone was baffled, especially King Jingfan, and asked the immortal: "Why are you crying so sadly? Is there something wrong with the prince's appearance?" The immortal said: "No, the prince's appearance is really good. He is really full of blessings and wisdom, and his appearance is so solemn. He has thirty-two appearances, the first is the appearance of the top of the meat bun, and the third is the appearance of the thousand-spoke wheel under the feet. Because there are only two people in the world with thirty-two appearances. One is Buddha, one is the holy wheel-turning king, but the thirty-two faces of the holy wheel-turning king are incomparable with the thirty-two faces of the Buddha. Now the thirty-two faces of Prince Siddhartha are clearly distinct and in the right position , I must become a monk and become a Buddha in the future. I am already one hundred and twenty years old. When the crown prince becomes a Buddha and saves sentient beings with the Dharma, I will already be dead. I will not be able to see the golden body of the Buddha or hear the Buddha. My heart is very sad, and my karma is heavy, so I feel deeply sad."

King Jingfan wholeheartedly hoped that the prince would inherit the throne in the future and carry on the family line, and he never wanted him to become a monk and become a Buddha.He tried his best to seduce the prince's pure body and mind with the best sight, sound, smell, taste, and the world's desires, so as not to make him feel unhappy at all.However, the prince has practiced diligently and practiced hard for many years, his roots are deep, and his wisdom is like an ocean. Facing all these, of course he is spotless and his six sense organs are pure. When the prince was born, after seven days, his mother Mrs. Maya, because she gave birth to a great blessing and virtue Sakyamuni Buddha, her merit and wisdom greatly increased, and she was born in the Trayali Heaven according to cause and effect. It is the second heaven of our Desire Realm, on the top of Mount Sumeru, also known as Earth Jutian.There are eight days in the southeast, north and west respectively, and the middle day is Emperor Shitian, named Shi Tihuanyin, translated into Chinese as Nengzhu, which means that Neng can be the God of thirty-three days.After Mrs. Maya was born, the prince was brought up by his aunt Mahapajapati (Chinese translation of Daaidao).Later, she also became a monk with the Buddha and became the first bhikkhuni among the four disciples of Buddhism. To commemorate her, the place where the bhikkhuni lived was called the Hall of Love.