They, and their disciples too, blazed up like flames of fire and went out.
Thus our Bodisat has come down to us through four asaŋkheyyas plus one hundred thousand kalpas, making resolve in the presence of the twenty-four Buddhas, beginning with Dīpaŋkara. Now after Kassapa there is no other Buddha beside the present supreme Buddha. So the Bodisat received a prophecy from each of the twenty-four Buddhas, beginning at Dīpaŋkara.
And furthermore in accordance with the saying,
“The resolve (to become a Buddha) only succeeds 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;”[166]
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;”[167]
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,