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復次，佛初生時，墮地行七步，口自發言，言竟便默，如諸嬰孩，不行不語，乳哺三年，諸母養育，漸次長大。然佛身無數，過諸世間，為眾生故，現如凡人。凡人生時，身分諸根及其意識未成就故，身四威儀：坐、臥、行、住，言談語默，種種人法，皆悉未了；日月歲過，漸漸習學，能具人法。
今佛云何生便能語能行，後更不能？此事可怪！當知，但以方便力故，現行人法，如人威儀，令諸眾生信於深法。若菩薩生時，便能行能語，世人當作是念：今見此人，世未曾有，必是天、龍、鬼、神，其所學法，必非我等所及。何以故？
我等生死肉身，為結使業所牽，不得自在，如此深法，誰能及之？以此自絕，不得成賢聖法器。為是人故，於嵐毗尼園中生。雖即能至菩提樹下成佛，以方便力故，而現作孩童、幼稚、少年、成人；於諸時中，次第而受嬉戲、術藝、服御、五欲，具足人法。漸見老、病、死苦，生厭患，心夜中半，踰城出家，到鬱特伽阿羅羅仙人所，現作弟子而不行其法。
雖以常用神通，自念宿命，迦葉佛時持戒行道，而今現修苦行六年求道。菩薩雖主三千大千世界，而現破魔軍，成無上道。隨順世法故，現是眾變。今於般若波羅蜜中，現大神通智慧力故。諸人當知佛身無數，過諸世間。
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Life of the Buddha
Furthermore, when the Buddha was first born, he dropped to
the ground, strode seven steps, and spontaneously uttered
words. After speaking, he then fell silent and, like other
infants, neither walked nor talked. He was nursed to the age
of three. His [step]mothers raised him and he gradually grew
to maturity. Now, although the bodies of the Buddha are
countless and exceed in number the sum of all the worlds,
for the sake of beings, he manifested like an ordinary
person. Because the faculties of the body as well as the
intellectual consciousness of ordinary people are not yet
completely developed when they are born, the four types of
deportment: sitting, lying down, walking and standing, as
well as speaking, silence, and all manner of other human
qualities--all of these are not yet perfected. As the days,
months and years pass, one gradually practices, studies and
then is able to refine the various aspects of being a
person.
Now how was the Buddha, upon birth, immediately able
to speak and walk whereas afterwards he was then not able to
do so? One finds this astonishing. One should know that it
is solely by dint of the power of skillful means that the
Buddha manifests involvement in human endeavors, and
comports himself as people do, thus influencing beings to
believe in the profound Dharma. If when the Bodhisattva was
born, he was then from that point on able to walk and was
able to talk, ordinary people of the world would think, "Now
we behold this man such as has never existed in the world
before. Certainly he is a god, a dragon, a ghost or a
spirit. That dharma which he studies is certainly not such
that people like us might accomplish it. Why is that?
Our
fleshly bodies, bound to birth and death, are dragged about
by the karma of the fetters. We are unable to gain Dharma as
this?" In this manner they would cut themselves off so that
they could not become receptacles for the Dharma of the
worthies and holy ones. For the sake of these people, he was
born in the Lumbini gardens. Although he was capable of
proceeding immediately to the bodhi tree and achieving
buddhahood, because of the power of skillful means he then
manifested as an infant, as a youth, as a young man, and as
a grown man, and in each phase sequentially took on [the
corresponding activities of] playing, becoming skilled in
the arts, utilizing the objects of the five desires, and
consummately perfecting human endeavors, afterwards
gradually perceiving the suffering of senescence, disease,
and death and [finally] generating thoughts of aversion and
distress [which led to his] traversing the city wall in the
middle of the night, leaving behind the homelife, and going
to the location of the hermits Udraka and Arada. He gave the
appearance of becoming a disciple, but did not practice
their dharmas.
Although on account of constant use of his superknowledges he recalled his previous lives wherein at
the time of Kaasyapa Buddha he upheld the prohibitions and
cultivated the way, still, he now manifested [in the role
of] cultivating ascetic practices for six years in search of
the way. Although the Bodhisattva was [already] the
sovereign of the great trichiliocosm, nonetheless he
demonstrated [the capacity of] demolishing the demon armies
and realizing the unsurpassed way. In order to go along with
the dharmas of the World, he displayed these various
transformations. Because in the Prajnaparamita he now
demonstrates the great power of superknowledges and wisdom,
people ought to know that the Buddha's bodies are
innumerable and surpass the sum of all the worlds.
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