So said Buddha to the Yaksha: "Those lines which you have just recited are beautiful but incomplete. Let me have the remaining two, which will complete the gatha. For this is not only for my own benefit, but for the benefit of all mankind. Pray be good enough to disclose what is yet kept behind."

Said the monster: "I will gladly comply with your request, but at this very moment I suffer from a bodily need and have not strength enough to recite the remaining two lines for you. My empty stomach must be fed and I live on human flesh. Would you first satisfy my appetite? I should then be able to let you have what you desire."

Buddha said: "I am ready at any moment to sacrifice myself, O Yaksha, but when I exist no more, who in this world will transmit these

lines all complete to posterity? The truth will then be eternally lost to mankind. I, therefore, beseech you to recite those two remaining lines before I die, and I will engrave the whole stanza on this rock standing near by. After this is done, you can dispose of my body as you please. The stanza thus left on the stone will be noticed some day by a passer-by and brought out to the world for the enlightenment of my fellow-beings."

The Yaksha said: "As you are so earnest and sincere, I grant your wish. Listen to my recitation:

"Transcending birth and death,
How blissful is the Absolute!"

When the Yaksha finished, Buddha made one of his fingers bleed, and with the dripping blood inscribed the whole stanza on the rock. This being done, Buddha threw himself over the precipice in order to fulfill his promise. But behold! at this crisis the hideous vampire suddenly changed his features, he became Sakrendra, a reigning god of the heavens and a most powerful guardian angel of Buddhism. Buddha, falling into the abyss, was miraculously received in the arms of this god, who now honored and revered him. The heavens showered flowers and the universe resounded with divine music.

Footnotes

^189:1 From the Mahanirvana Sutra (Nanjo's Catalogue, No. 1113). This story was told to explain the miraculous origin of the famous stanza beginning with "Anicca vata sankhara." See the sermon "The Phenomenal and the Supra-phenomenal." (See <page 111>.)