by the combination of eight qualifications: being a man, and of the male sex, and capable of attaining arahatship, association with the Teachers, renunciation of the world, perfection in virtue, acts of self-sacrifice, and earnest determination,"
he combined in himself these eight qualifications. And exerting himself according to the resolve he had made at the feet of Dīpaŋkara, in the words,
"Come, I will search for the Buddha-making
conditions, this way and that;"[1]
and beholding the Perfections of Almsgiving and the rest to be the qualities necessary for the making of a Buddha, according to the words,
"Then, as I made my search, I beheld the first
Perfection of Almsgiving;"[2]
he came down through many births, fulfilling these Perfections, even up to his last appearance as Vessantara. And the rewards which fell to him on his way, as they fall to all the Bodisats who have resolved to become Buddhas, are lauded thus:
252. So the men, perfect in every part, and destined to Buddhahood,
Traverse the long road through thousands of millions of ages.
253. They are not born in hell, nor in the space between the worlds; They do not become ghosts consumed by hunger, thirst, and want. And they do not become small animals, even though born to sorrow.
254. When born among men they are not blind by birth,
1 See verse 125, above p. 19.
2 See verse 126, above p. 19.
