Lalita Vistara is an amplified treatise on (Buddhist) religion, the noblest of sutras. It expounds the source of Bodhisattva blessings; discloses the light of Tushita; and dilates on the consultation, advent, career, birth-place, and the greatness of the birth-place of the Budhha; it narrates the special excellencies of his boyhood, of his proficiency in all worldly occupations, in writing and arithmetic, both plain and symbolic – in mechanical arts, – in the practice of the sword, bow and arrow, and in all sorts of gymnastics; it unfolds his conjugal enjoyments; recites the method of acquiring the final and immutable reward of all Bodhisattva discipline; displays the career of Tathagata triumphing over the Màra, and his might and majesty in all their eighteen declensions; points out the heresies of the Buddha religion; and in short, constitutes the whole of what was imparted by the former venerable and absolute Tathagata Buddhas. |
