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232
FO-SHO-HING-TSAN-KING.
IV, 20.
taken a seat on one side, with clasped hands he spake to Buddha thus: 1618
O that my unworthy and obscure kingdom should thus suddenly have met such fortune! For how can misfortunes or frequent calamities possibly affect it, (in the presence of) so great a man? 1619
And now that I have seen your sacred features, I may perhaps partake of the converting streams of your teaching. A town although it is composed of many sections, yet both ignoble and holy persons may enter the surpassing? stream; 1620
And so the wind which fans the perfumed grove causes the scents to unite and form one pleasant breeze; and as the birds which collect on Mount Sumeru (are many), and the various shades that blend in shining gold, 1621
'So an assembly may consist of persons of different capacities, individually insignificant, but a glorious body. The desert master by nourishing the Rishi, procured a birth as the san-tsuh (three leg or foot) star 3; 1622
Worldly profit is fleeting and perishable, religious (holy) profit is eternal and inexhaustible; a man though a king is full of trouble, a common man, who is holy, has everlasting rest.' 1623
I cannot be sure of this translation ; yet I can suggest no other. The line is 雖處凡品
The victorious stream ;' this may refer to the Rapti, on the banks of which Sravastî was situated. The object of the allusion is that as both rich and poor, noble and ignoble may enter the stream of the river, so all may seek the benefit of the stream of religious doctrine.
I am unable to explain the reference here; nor do I know what the three-footed star' can be.
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