Miraculous Manifestations of the Buddha and Bodhisattva

The writer of the present paper interprets early Mahayana Buddhist doctrines as arising from miraculous manifestations (vikurvita) performed by a Buddha, usually Sakyamuni, and Bodhisattvas of high rank. The paper deals with the miracles described in Mahayana sutras such as Vimalakirtinirdesa, Suramgamasamadhi, Pancavimsatisahasrika, Saddharmapundarika, and Buddhavatamsaka including Dasabhumika and Gandavyuha. Miraculous manifestations by the Buddha and by the Bodhisattvas of the tenth stage are classified into two kinds: 1) miracles demonstrated by Sakyamuni Buddha, 2) major salvific scenes of the Budda's life exhibited by Bodhisattvas of the tenth stage. 1) Having come out of deep meditation, Sakyamuni, identified with the supreme truth of the cosmos, issues infinite rays of light, which reach the ends of the ten directions of the whole universe. All living beings in the universe who are touched by the rays are established in the state of being certain to attain full and perfect enlightenment. Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and living beings in all worlds in the ten directions and people in Sakyamuni's world on this earth are enabled to see each other. The whole universe is contained in a pore of Sakyamuni's skin, and Sakyamuni's image is reflected throughout the worlds of the universe. 2) In Mahayana, a Bodhisattva, having attained the tenth or the highest stage of his career, is regarded as equal to a Buddha. In order to benefit sentient beings, he manifests: his stay in the TU9ita Heaven; descending to Jambudvipa on the earth; entering the womb of a mother; birth; renouncing home-life; attaining enlightenment; turning the wheel of teaching; and passing into Nirval)a. In the Buddhavatamsaka-sutra, the Bodhisattva does not become a Buddha, but prefers to remain a Bodhisattva until the end of the world in order to save innumerable beings. All early Mahayana sutras are compiled on the basis of the thought of sunyata that every thing, material and spiritual, is empty of a substance just as magical appearances and dreams are. The Buddhavatamsaka develops the philosophy of mind-only i. e., all external things are nothing but representations of one's mind. When these two trends of thought - those of emptiness and mind-only - are combined together, mental representations come to have the same value as phenomenal entities which are empty. The Prajnaparamita-sutra identifies interdependent origination of all phenomena with the truth of emptioness. The Buddhavatamsaka- sutra asserts that the most important factor among various causes and conditions which bring about all phenomena is the miraculous powers of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Thus miracles caused by the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas come to be considered the foremost cause of the manifestations of the supreme truth of the cosmos, which is at the same time the absolute salvific power of the Buddha and Bodhisattva