salvation by the wisdom arising from good deeds and earnest thought, and have gained too the power of showing to others the knowledge of that salvation; who are full of truth, and compassion, and mercy, and long-suffering; and whose hearts reach out in equal love to all beings that have life. To me, too, the Truth is one, there seems to be but one eternal and true Faith. It behoves me, therefore — meditating on the Buddhas of the past and on the attributes that they have gained, and relying on the one true faith there is in me — to perform an Act of Truth; and thus to drive back the fire, and procure safety both for myself, and for the other birds."
Therefore it is said (in the Scriptures) —
"There's power in virtue in the world —
In truth, and purity, and love!
In that truth's name I'll now perform
A mystic Act of Truth sublime.
Then thinking on the power of the Faith, And on the Conquerors in ages past, Relying on the power of the Truth, I then performed the Miracle!"
Then the Bodisat called to mind the attributes of the Buddhas who had long since passed away; and, making a solemn asseveration of the true faith existing in himself, he performed the Act of Truth, uttering the verse —
"Wings I have that will not fly,
Feet I have that will not walk;
My parents, too, are fled away!
O All-embracing Fire — go back!"[1]
- ↑ It is difficult to convey the impression of the mystic epithet here used of fire. Jātaveda must mean "he who possesses (or perhaps possesses the
