The Country of Ayoutuo阿逾陁國

The country of Ayoutuo is more than five thousand li around. The great capital city of the country is more than twenty li around. Grain and crops are rich and abundant, and flowers and fruits are many and thick. The climate is mild and pleasant, and the customs are good and gentle. The people like to work at making merit, and they are diligent in study and in the arts. There are more than a hundred monasteries and more than three thousand monks, and they put their strength into studying both the Greater Vehicle and the Lesser Vehicle. There are ten temples of the gods, and followers of other ways are few.

In the great city there is an old monastery. This is the place where the bodhisattva Fasupandu, over some tens of years, composed here the various differing treatises of the Greater and the Lesser Vehicle. The old foundation beside it is the hall where the bodhisattva Shiqin expounded the meaning and spoke the Law for the kings of the various countries, for the men of talent of the west, for shramanas and for Brahmans.

Four or five li north of the city, in a great monastery that looks out over the bank of the Qingqie river, there is a stupa. It is more than two hundred feet high, and it was raised by King Wuyou. This is the place where the Tathagata spoke the various wondrous teachings of the Law here for three months for the host of gods and men. The stupa beside it is the place where the four Buddhas of the past left the traces where they sat and walked.

Four or five li west of the monastery there is a stupa of the hair and nails of the Tathagata. North of the stupa of the hair and nails are the remaining traces of a monastery. Long ago the master of treatises Shililuoduo of the Sautrantika school composed here the Piposha lun of the Sautrantika school.

Five or six li southwest of the city, in a great anmoluo grove, there is an old monastery. This is the place where the bodhisattva Asengqie asked for instruction and led the common people. The bodhisattva Wuzhu would rise at night to the palace of heaven and receive from the bodhisattva Cishi the Yuqie shidi lun, the Zhuangyan dasheng jing lun, the Zhongbian fenbie lun and others, and by day he expounded their wondrous meaning for the multitude. More than a hundred paces northwest of the anmoluo grove there is a stupa of the hair and nails of the Tathagata. The old foundation beside it is the place where the bodhisattva Shiqin came down from the Dushiduo heaven and met the bodhisattva Wuzhu. The bodhisattva Wuzhu was a man of the country of Jiantuoluo. In the thousandth year after the Buddha left the world he was born with a spirit that saw to the profit of others. He took up the teaching that came down to him and awoke to the Way, and he left his house to study in the Mahisasaka school; before long he turned his faith to the Greater Vehicle. His younger brother, the bodhisattva Shiqin, left his house and received instruction in the Sarvastivada school. He heard widely and remembered firmly, and he was thorough in learning and searching in judgment. Wuzhu's disciple Fotuosengqie was beyond measure in his hidden practice, and he was known for his high talent. These two or three worthy men used always to say to one another, "In all our work of practice, our wish is to behold Cishi. If one of us gives up his life first and so fulfills the wish he has long held, let him send word to the others, that they may know where he has come to." Afterward Shizijue gave up his life first, and for three years there was no word. The bodhisattva Shiqin then also gave up his life, and six months passed with no word from him either. At that time the followers of the other schools all mocked them, holding that the bodhisattva Shiqin and Shizijue had fallen away into the evil paths and so had no spirit sight at all. Afterward, in the first watch of the night, the bodhisattva Wuzhu was teaching the Law of meditation to his disciples when the lamplight suddenly dimmed and a great brightness filled the air. A god of heaven came down riding the void, went at once to the steps of the courtyard, and bowed to Wuzhu. Wuzhu said, "Why have you come so late? What have you come now to tell?" He answered, "When I gave up my life here, I was born from a lotus flower among the inner host of Cishi in the Dushiduo heaven. The lotus had scarcely opened when Cishi praised me, saying, 'Welcome, wide wisdom. Welcome, wide wisdom.' I had gone round him in reverence but once, and I came at once to bring word." The bodhisattva Wuzhu said, "Where is Shizijue now?" He said, "As I was going round him, I saw Shizijue among the outer host. He was sunk in the pleasures he desired and had no leisure to look about him. How could he come to bring word?" The bodhisattva Wuzhu said, "Let that matter be. What form has Cishi, and what Law does he set forth?" He said, "The form and the marks of Cishi cannot be told in words. The wondrous Law he sets forth is no different in meaning from this, yet the wondrous voice of the bodhisattva is clear and flowing, mild and stately, so that those who hear him forget their weariness and those who receive it never tire."

More than forty li northwest of the old foundation of Wuzhu's lecture hall there is an old monastery that looks north over the Qingqie river. Within it is a brick stupa more than a hundred feet high. It is the place where the bodhisattva Shiqin first raised the mind of the Greater Vehicle. When the bodhisattva Shiqin came here from North India, the bodhisattva Wuzhu ordered his disciples to go and meet him, and they came to this monastery and saw him there. Wuzhu's disciple stopped outside the window, and after the night had deepened he recited the Shidi jing. Shiqin heard it, was moved to understanding, and repented, saying, "This Law is deep and wondrous, and I had never heard it before. The fault of my slander rose from my tongue. The tongue is the root of the offense, and now I ought to cut it away." He took up a sharp knife at once and was about to cut off his own tongue. Then he saw Wuzhu standing there, who said to him, "The teaching of the Greater Vehicle is the truest of all reasoning. The Buddhas praise it and the host of sages hold it as their source. I meant to teach you, and now you have awakened of yourself. You have met the time of awakening. What good is there like this? In the holy teaching of the Buddhas, cutting off the tongue is not repentance. Long ago you slandered the Greater Vehicle with your tongue; now praise the Greater Vehicle with your tongue, make good your fault and renew yourself. That is the better thing. If you close your mouth and end your speech, where is the profit in it?" When he had said this he suddenly was seen no more. Shiqin obeyed and in the end did not cut off his tongue. In the morning he went to Wuzhu and asked to receive the Greater Vehicle. Then he ground his thoughts fine and pondered deeply, and he composed more than a hundred treatises of the Greater Vehicle, and all of them were widely spread abroad.

Going east from here more than three hundred li, crossing the Qingqie river and going north, one comes to the country of Ayemuqu.