SUTTA 123

[^1160]: This ability is exemplified by DN 14, which provides detailed information about the six Buddhas preceding Gotama.

[^1161]: This refers to the Bodhisatta's rebirth in the Tusita heaven, which followed his preceding human existence as Vessantara and preceded his birth in the human world as Siddhattha Gotama.

[^1162]: MA: Between every three world systems there is an interspace measuring 8,000 yojanas; it is like the space between three cartwheels or almsbowls touching one another. The beings who live there have taken rebirth there because of committing some heavy, terrible offence against their parents or righteous recluses and brahmins, or because of some habitual evil deed like killing animals, etc.

[^1163]: MA: The four deities were the Four Great Kings (the presiding deities of the heaven of the Four Great Kings).

[^1164]: MA: This happened, not through a defect in the birth, but through the expiration of her lifespan; for the place (in the womb) occupied by the Bodhisatta, like the inner chamber of a cetiya, is not to be used by others.

[^1165]: MA explains each aspect of this event as a foretoken of the Buddha's later attainments. Thus, his standing with his feet ( $p \bar{a} d a$ ) firmly on the ground was a foretoken of his attaining the four bases for spiritual power (iddhipāda); his facing the north, of his going above and beyond the multitude; his seven steps, of his acquiring the seven enlightenment factors; the white parasol, of his acquiring the parasol of deliverance; his surveying the quarters, of his acquiring the unobstructed knowledge of omniscience; his uttering the words of the Leader of the Herd, of his setting in motion the irreversible Wheel of the Dhamma; his statement "This is my last birth," of his passing away into the Nibbāna element with no residue remaining (of the factors of existence).

[^1166]: This statement seems to be the Buddha's way of calling attention to the quality he regarded as the true wonder and marvel.