The tree beside which the Blessed Buddha into parinirvana in Kusinagara, in the Malla
country, was the well known sal tree (Vatica Robusta].
Also, some say that the tree which the mother held with her hand when giving birth,
and the tree at the occasion of passing into nirvana are the same, known as sal.
Nevertheless, it is stated in the AbhiniskramanaSutra: "The mother Mahamaya
descended from a jeweled palanquin in the Lumbini Garden,and saw an asoka tree in full
bloom, With a joyful and contented mind she went there, and held to a limb bent with
the weight of flowers and leaves."
Therefore, if the sal has flowers, it is possible to accept it as being the same,
but if the sal has no flowers, it cannot be accepted as the same. It appears certain
that the birth tree was one with flowers.
A brief explanation of those especiallz marvelous transformations which occurred on the occasion of the birth of the Buddha, the Blessed One.
The following is an abbreviated version of the section concerning Lumbini Garden which is found in "Adorning the Wooded Grove Iv i th Trees," Chapter One hundred and Six of the Buddhavatamsaka-Sutra.2
2 Buddhavatamsaka, Derge edition, vol.
Ah, beginning on f: 208.
The merchant's son Manibhadra relied upon as many as fifty-three spiritual friends. When he had mastered the essential precepts of the thirty-ninth one, who was the Goddess of Night, Light of Energy in Prayer for the Protection of all Living Beings, he finally went to where the Wooded Grove of Lumbini was, and while searching and searching, performp~ clockwise circumambulations around the Wooded Grove of Lumbini. The fortieth spiritual friend, Splendor which Delights in the Excellent Ma~gala of Grandeur, who was the Goddess of the Wooded Grove of Lumbini, was seated in the heart of a lotus upon a lion throne which was within a ma~~ala palace formed by all the limbs of the jeweled trees in the Wooded Grove of Lumbini. With a retinue of one hundred billion, twenty thousand Goddesses of the Wooded Grove in front and surrounding her, she was teaching the Dharma.
When [Manibhadral saw her completely teaching the set of Sutras known as the Thorough Presentation of the Ocean of Lifetimes of all Bodhisat tvas, .he offered prostrations by bowing his head at the feet of the Noble Lady, sat in' front of her, and said this: "Noble Lady, I have awakened the thought of supreme
enlightenment, but I still do not know how Bodhisattvas appear in the lineage of the Tathagatas. I still do not know how Bodhisattvas engage in conduct, and perform the illumination of sentient beings."
The Noble merch51nt's explanation Tathagata:
"I know about the births of Bodhisattvas in this great universe composed of one billion world systems. Because of previous prayers, I was born for the purpose of witnessing the appearance of the Bodhisattva in the Wooded Grove of Lumbini, on the fourth continent, the fortunate continent of Jambudvipa. As such, I closely examined this, and cultivate the memory of the appearance of the Bodhisattva here in Lumbini. I have lived here for a long time. Furthermore, a hundred years ago was the time known as the descent of the Blessed One from the divine palace of Tu~ita, at which time ten preceding omens appeared here in the Wooded Grove of Lumbini."
What were these ten? They were as follows:
The first preceding omen was that the ground became level; all of this Wooded Grove of Lumbini became free of non-level ground, and free of any precipices or ravines.
The second preceding omen was that this Wooded Grove of Lumbini became free of gravel and shards, and free of stumps and thorns. The land became made of vajras, and then completely filled with many jewels.
The third preceding omen was that all this Wooded Grove of Lumbini became fully adorned ... (CONTINUA)
