Praise be to the Possessor of the Six Glories, the Holy, the All-Wise!
Now of the bodily presence of the Blessed One will I say this.
When age came upon him it came with beauty, so that all hearts fell at his feet and embraced them because he was as one to whom all evil things must fly for refuge that being delivered from the self they might be made one with him and the Truth. And none could see him without this desire. Nor in his presence was virtue remembered for he was virtue’s self made manifest in love, and in the ocean of love were all submerged who saw him.
His face was worn and calm as in an image of royal ivory, his nose prominent and delicate, bespeaking his Aryan birth, his eyes of a blue darkness, and he carried himself as one of the princes. But all this might be said of another, and there was none like him—none! For Wisdom walked on his left hand and Love on his right, and light as of the sun surrounded him. Wise and piercing were his words, delighting even those who would have scoffed.
And once the Holy One approached with his begging bowl the ploughed fields of a rich man and stood apart, waiting, and the man saw this saying:
“Having ploughed and sown I eat. You also should plough and sow, for the idle shall not eat.”
“I also, Brahman, plough and sow.” Thus said the Perfected One.
“Yet we do not see the plough of the Venerable Gotama!” so said the other, mocking. And the World-Honoured answered:
“Faith is the seed, understanding the yoke and plough, tenderness the deliverance. So is my ploughing done. And the fruit is immortality, and having thus ploughed a man is freed of all ill.”
And the Brahman poured rice-milk into a bowl and offered it, saying: