Some Chinese texts record: in the evening Ānanda sees the earth quake again and asks the cause. The Buddha says there are four (or three) causes of earthquakes, one of which is that the Tathāgata will soon pass away; he then says that the Buddha has appeared in transformed form among various kinds of audience to teach.
Different Accounts
The number of causes: the Chinese Fo bannihuan jing has four; the Chinese Bannihuan jing, the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, the Tibetan Vinaya and the Sanskrit Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra have three.
More differences between accounts (2)
The Pali canon of the Southern tradition, the Chinese Youxing jing and the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra translated by Faxian have no second earthquake.
The Sanskrit Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra attaches the passage on the Buddha appearing in transformed form among the eight assemblies to this earthquake, not to the Cāpāla shrine.
Dating
Year 45 after the Awakening, the Buddha aged seventy-nine to eighty, after the , within the three months after the announcement of the passing; inferred from the sequence of events, known only to fall within these three months.
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Research Notes: Reliability, Dating and Sources
- How Reliability Is Assessed
Recorded by two schools, the Sanskrit Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra and the Chinese Fo bannihuan jing and Bannihuan jing. Recorded by two schools.
- Dating Evidence and Precision
Inferred from the sequence of events (neither the canonical texts nor the commentaries give the time; the year is worked out from the order of this event and those around it). Time precision: month only.
Sources
- 藏譯（德格版）德格版 D6 da 252a7–252b6
- 梵文原典梵文《大般涅槃經》（Waldschmidt）§22.1–22.13
- 梵文原典梵文《大般涅槃經》（Waldschmidt）§23.1–23.8
- 大正藏大正藏 T01 no.5 p.166b–167a
- 大正藏大正藏 T01 no.6 p.182a
- 大正藏大正藏 T24 no.1451 p.389a–b
- 大正藏大正藏 T01 no.5 p.166b
- 大正藏大正藏 T24 no.1451 p.389a