The Country of Sengjiashi

Going southeast from here eighteen yojanas, there is a country named Sengjiashi. It is the place where the Buddha came down after going up to the Trayastrimsha heaven and preaching the Law for three months for the sake of his mother. When the Buddha went up to the Trayastrimsha heaven, he used his spiritual power so that none of his disciples knew of it; but before seven days were full he let his spirit feet be seen. Aniruddha saw the World-honored One from afar with his heavenly eye and said to the venerable great Maudgalyayana, "Go and greet the World-honored One." Maudgalyayana went up at once, bowed his head to his feet, and greeted him. When the greeting was over, the Buddha said to Maudgalyayana, "Seven days from now I shall go down to Jambudvipa." When Maudgalyayana came back, the great kings of eight countries with their ministers and people, who had not seen the Buddha for a long while, all looked up for him thirstily and gathered like clouds in this country to await the World-honored One. Then the nun Utpala thought within herself, "Today the kings and the ministers and the people will all meet the Buddha. I am a woman. How am I to see the Buddha first?" At once, by her spirit feet, she changed herself into a wheel-turning holy king, and was the first of all to do reverence to the Buddha. The Buddha came down from the Trayastrimsha heaven facing east. As he came down, three jeweled stairways appeared. The Buddha walked on the middle way, on the stairway of the seven treasures. The king Brahma made a stairway of white silver and attended on the right, holding a white fly-whisk, and Shakra, lord of the gods, made a stairway of purple gold and attended on the left, holding a canopy of the seven treasures. Gods beyond number came down following the Buddha. When the Buddha had come down, all three stairways sank into the ground, and only seven steps were left showing. Later King Ashoka wished to know where their foot reached, and sent men to dig and look, and they went down as far as the yellow springs and still the foot did not end. The king grew all the more reverent and believing, and raised a vihara upon the stairway, and at the middle stairway made a standing image sixteen chi high. Behind the vihara he set up a stone pillar twenty cubits high with a lion on top of it. Within the pillar on its four sides there are images of the Buddha, and it is so clear within and without that it is as pure as glass. Once a debating master of another way argued with the shramanas over this dwelling place, and when the reasoning of the shramanas was hard pressed they swore an oath together, saying, "If this place is a place for shramanas to dwell, let there be a sign of power now." As soon as the words were said, the lion on the head of the pillar roared aloud and gave the proof, and those of the other way were struck with fear, submitted in their hearts, and withdrew. Because the Buddha had taken the food of heaven for three months, his body gave out a heavenly fragrance unlike that of the men of the world, and so he washed his body. Later men raised a bathhouse in that place, and the bathhouse is still there. At the place where the nun Utpala first did reverence to the Buddha a stupa has now been raised as well. The stupa raised of his hair and nails while the Buddha was alive, the places where the three Buddhas of the past and the Buddha Shakyamuni sat and walked, and the places where the images of those Buddhas were made, all have stupas, and they are all there today. Where Shakra, lord of the gods, and the king Brahma came down following the Buddha, a stupa has been raised as well.

In this place there are some thousand monks and nuns, and they all eat from the same pot, and study the Great Vehicle and the Lesser Vehicle mixed together.

In the place where they live there is a white-eared dragon (白耳龍) that acts as patron to these monks, giving the country rich harvests and rain in its season and keeping off every calamity, so that the monks live at ease. The monks are grateful for his kindness, and so they have built a house for the dragon and laid out a seat in it, and they set out food of blessing for the dragon and make their offering. Day by day the monks choose three men from the community to go and take their meal in the dragon's house. Every time the summer retreat ends, the dragon changes into a small snake with white along the edge of both ears. The monks know him, and they fill a bronze bowl with curds and set the dragon in it, and carry him from the highest seat to the lowest, as though he were going about to greet them. When he has been all around he changes and is gone. He comes out once every year.

That country is rich and abundant, its people flourishing, and their happiness beyond compare. When men come from other countries, there is none whom they do not look after, and they supply them with all they need.

Fifty yojanas northwest of the monastery there is a monastery named Huojing (火境). Huojing is the name of an evil spirit. The Buddha converted this evil spirit long ago, and later men raised a vihara in that place. When the vihara was given to an arhat, water was poured over his hands, and the place where the drops fell on the ground is still there, and however it is swept away it always shows and is never gone. There is also a stupa of the Buddha in this place, and good spirits are always sweeping it and sprinkling water, so that from the first no work of men is needed. A king of false views said, "If you can do so much, I shall bring many soldiers here and stay, and heap up more filth. Can you still clear it away?" The spirits at once raised a great wind, and it blew the place clean. In this place there are a hundred small stupas. A man may count them all day and never come to know their number. If one is set on knowing, he may station a man beside each stupa and then count them over, but the men come out now more and now fewer, and there is no coming to know it. There is one sangharama with some six or seven hundred monks. Inside it is the place where a pratyekabuddha took his food and the ground where he entered nirvana, as large as a cartwheel. Grass grows everywhere else, but on this spot alone it does not grow, nor does grass grow on the ground where he dried his robe. The mark where the edge of the robe touched the ground is there to this day.

Faxian passed the summer retreat at the Dragon Vihara.