the spirit's aid. The spirit advised them of the presence of Buddha near the pool, and said they should offer him food. They gave him barley mixed with honey. The four kings of the Devas (who are seen in the front hall of Buddhist temples) took from the mountain stones four sweet-smelling bowls, which they found there by a happy chance. In these they offered the food. Buddha took all the bowls, for fear of giving offence to any of the kings. He then piled them up on his left hand, and, with his right (by magical manipulation), formed them into one, holding it so that all present might see it. Then, after uttering a charm, he ate the food, and proceeded at once to administer the vows to the two merchants, who, with their companions, all attained high grades in Buddhist knowledge.

Buddha, in this instance, imposed on the neophytes the ordinary five prohibitions suited for men and Devas. This must be regarded, therefore, as exoteric teaching. But as the grade attained was high in proportion to the amount of training, it belongs so far to the unfixed or arbitrary division of the exoteric doctrine Hien-lu-chi-pu-ting-kiau, "manifested, and not fixed teaching."

It is at this point in Shakya's biography that a new section begins.

Mankind were not at this time in a state to receive the doctrine of the Greater development, and Buddha must be content to leave the brilliantly-illuminated regions of the great Bodhisattwas and shine upon the retired valleys, where he will, by a gradual process of teaching, reform and make happy such groups as he may meet of ordinary mortals in their wretchedness and desolation. He will, for the time, postpone his more elevated discourses, and proceed to Benares to teach the rudiments of his system. The shining robes of the recognised Buddha must be exchanged for the tattered garb of the ascetic. This is to him a temporary disguise.

The Northern school, with all the looseness of its chronology, professes great exactness in dates.

Month.

Day.

Event.

2

8

Shakyamuni becomes Buddha.

"

29

Teaches the Hwa-yen doctrine.

3

6

In reverie by the pool.

"

7

Receives food from the merchants.

"

8

In the garden at Benares.

In these dates, says the biographer, intervals of three, four, and five weeks may be observed.

Footnotes

^12:1 A-send-gi-kap. The Sanscrit word Asankhya means "innumerable." Kalpa is applied to periods of time varying from a few hundreds to many thousand years.

^12:2 Tushita now pronounced Tushito.

^12:3 See Klaproth's Life of Buddha, and Turnour's Examination of the Pali Buddhistical Annals.