Still distant thus they sat, with crowding thoughts rushing through the mind, their eyes full met, but no responding joy; each looking at the other, seemed as one thinking of a distant friend who gazes by accident upon his pictured form.  “That you,” the king reflected, “who of right might rule the world, even as that Mandhatri raga, should now go begging here and there your food! what joy or charm has such a life as this?  Composed and firm as Sumeru, with marks of beauty bright as the sunlight, with dignity of step like the ox king, fearless as any lion, and yet receiving not the tribute of the world, but begging food sufficient for your body’s nourishment!”

Buddha, knowing his father’s mind, still kept to his own filial purpose.  And then to open out his mind, and moved with pity for the multitude of people, by his miraculous power he rose in mid-air and with his hands appeared to grasp the sun and moon.  Then he walked to and fro in space, and underwent all kinds of transformation, dividing his body into many parts, then joining all in one again.  Treading firm on water as on dry land, entering the earth as in the water, passing through walls of stone without impediment, from the right side and the left water and fire produced!  The king, his father, filled with joy, now dismissed all thought of son and father; then upon a lotus throne, seated in space, he (Buddha) for his father’s sake declared the law:—­

“I know that the king’s heart is full of love and recollection, and that for his son’s sake he adds grief to grief; but now let the bands of love that bind him, thinking of his son, be instantly unloosed and utterly destroyed.  Ceasing from thoughts of love, let your calmed mind receive from me, your son, religious nourishment such as no son has offered yet to father:  such do I present to you the king, my father.  And what no father yet has from a son received, now from your son you may accept, a gift miraculous for any mortal king to enjoy, and seldom had by any heavenly king!  The way superlative of life immortal I offer now the Maharaga; from accumulated deeds comes birth, and as the result of deeds comes recompense.  Knowing then that deeds bring fruit, how diligent should you be to rid yourself of worldly deeds! how careful that in the world your deeds should be only good and gentle!  Fondly affected by relationship or firmly bound by mutual ties of love, at end of life the soul goes forth alone—­then, only our good deeds befriend us.  Whirled in the five ways of the wheel of life, three kinds of deeds produce three kinds of birth, and these are caused by lustful hankering, each kind different in its character.  Deprive these of their power by the practice now of proper deeds of body and of word; by such right preparation, day and night strive to get rid of all confusion of the mind and practise silent contemplation; only this brings profit in the end, besides this there is no reality; for be sure! the three worlds are but as the