Monastic Bodhisattva-Monks

Long ago, in the time of the Buddha Krakucchanda, there lived a monk named Vimala, "Stainless," dwelling in solitary retreat in a mountain cave within the kingdom's own borders. Not far away lived five seers with supernormal powers. One day a woman, caught on the road by a heavy rain, took shelter in the monk's own cave, and, once the rain cleared, went on her way. The five seers, seeing this, each declared that the monk must be guilty of some illicit affair.

Hearing this, Vimala rose bodily into the air, hovering four zhang nine chi above the ground — and the seers, seeing him fly, each reflected that, according to their own scriptures, one stained by desire could never fly, and so threw themselves to the ground, prostrate, confessing their own false accusation, for had the monk not displayed this very miracle, the five seer-kings would themselves have fallen into the great hells for their slander. That monk Vimala is now the bodhisattva Maitreya (Source: Sūtra of the Bodhisattva Wisdom-Superior, upper fascicle).

Long ago, under a buddha named Aparājita, "Unconquerable," there lived a monk named Prajñārāja, "King of Wisdom," who, begging at dawn, received a bowl of a hundred delicacies. Along the road, an elder's son named Vimalabāhu, "Stainless Arm," being carried by his own wet nurse, saw the monk from afar and had himself set down, following him to beg for food; the monk gave him a honeyed rice-ball, whose sweetness so delighted the child that he followed the monk for more even as the ball was nearly finished, the monk giving him another, until they reached the Buddha himself, before whom the child bowed.

Prajñārāja then had the child offer his own received food to the Buddha, that he might give rise to the resolve for the path — and the Buddha, accepting it, filled his own bowl entirely, the food never diminishing, feeding next eighty-four thousand śrāvakas and twelve hundred million bodhisattvas, the Buddha and the whole assembly satisfied, and this same offering continued for seven full days without the food ever running short.

The delighted child spoke verses in praise of the Buddha and gave rise at once to the resolve for unsurpassed, true awakening. When his parents came searching for him and found him before the Buddha, the child greeted them with a verse of his own, then converted both his parents and five hundred others besides, all of them resolving to seek the unsurpassed, true Dharma and going forth from their homes together to become monks, practicing the bodhisattva path until they themselves attained buddhahood. That monk Prajñārāja was none other than the youth Mañjuśrī himself; that child Vimalabāhu was myself (Source: Sūtra of Conduct in Ages Past).

There once lived a bodhisattva named Agrayāśas, "Foremost Renown," who, as a mendicant, entered a city to beg. A monk named Gaṅgā asked him where he had come from, and he answered: "From the truth itself." Asked what he meant by "the truth," he answered that the mark of quiescence itself is called truth. Gaṅgā asked where such true dharma might be sought, and was told: within the six perfections. Delighted, Gaṅgā bowed at Agrayāśas's own feet and asked what food he ought to offer this man. Agrayāśas answered: a taste of the immortal nectar itself.

Gaṅgā at once went to the marketplace and called out that he wished to sell himself — whoever wanted him. A householder named Vinīlaka asked what price he sought, and Gaṅgā answered he sought only five "ambrosia-coins." Asked how many, he said five would do, and the householder bought this ascetic for five coins to serve him. Gaṅgā told his new master that though his body now belonged to him, he asked leave of seven days to make an offering to the monk Agrayāśas. The householder agreed to show him his own household duties first, then release him to go.

Having seen the household, Gaṅgā set out on the road and found Agrayāśas still without alms, and, taking him along, went to the marketplace and bought a hundred delicacies, bringing them to a monastery named Four Kings, where he set out seats, burned incense, scattered flowers, and laid out food of every kind (Source: Vaipulya Dhāraṇī Sūtra, fascicle 1).

Sumatī, the Eight-Year-Old Who Became a Monk

Sumatī said to the Buddha: World-Honored One, the forty practices of a bodhisattva you have taught, I shall uphold without the slightest omission. The elder Maudgalyāyana asked: these forty practices are the great being's own conduct — how could you, a mere young girl, accomplish them? She answered that she truly could, and that, should he doubt it, she would cause the whole trichiliocosm to shake six ways, heavenly flowers to rain down, and every musical instrument to sound of itself without being played — and, as she spoke, it happened exactly so. She said further: "As proof of my own sincerity, if I shall indeed attain buddhahood without falsehood, let everyone in this assembly turn the color of gold" — and, as she spoke, the whole assembly turned golden at once.

Maudgalyāyana told the Buddha that he now bowed before anyone who had merely first given rise to the great resolve to become a bodhisattva, for if an eight-year-old girl could manifest such power, how much more a truly great being. Mañjuśrī then asked her why she did not simply transform her own female body — and Sumatī answered that there was nothing to be gained by it, since the Dharma itself knows neither male nor female, but that she would now resolve his own doubt regardless: "May I soon attain true awakening — I shall now become a man" — and, as she spoke these very words, her body transformed into a man's, her hair falling away of itself, a monastic robe appearing upon her body, and she became a novice monk at once.

She continued: "When I become a buddha, let my own land know none of three things — the workings of Māra, the hells, and the very trace of femininity; and, as proof of my own sincerity, let my body now appear as that of a thirty-year-old monk" — and, as she spoke, her own form and complexion became exactly that of a man of thirty. She said further to Mañjuśrī: "When I become a buddha, let my land's own people all turn the color of gold, its ground and cities lined with trees of the seven treasures, its jeweled ponds and lotuses neither too many nor too few, but perfectly ordered" — and, declaring that everyone present should likewise turn golden, the whole assembly turned to gold at once. At this the earth-holding spirit rose up from the ground, manifesting a heavenly form, and proclaimed aloud in praise of Sumatī's own threefold vow, declaring she would soon attain buddhahood (Source: Sūtra of the Bodhisattva Sumatī, spoken by the Buddha).

The monk Mahallaka was so honored by the king, on the belief that he recited the Mahāyāna sūtras extensively, that the king would let down his own hair for the monk to walk across in reverence. Another monk protested to the king that Mahallaka in fact recited very little, and asked why he received such honor. The king, wishing to see for himself, went day and night until he found Mahallaka in his own cave, reciting the Lotus Sūtra — and saw there a golden radiance, a figure riding a white elephant, palms joined in reverent offering. As the king drew closer, the vision vanished. He asked the venerable monk why the golden light and its rider had disappeared upon his own approach, and Mahallaka answered: "That was the bodhisattva Viśvabhadra" — known in the Lotus Sūtra as Samantabhadra — "who has been teaching and guiding me in reciting this very sūtra" (Source: Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra, fascicle 9).

The monk Sumedha said to the Tathāgata Samantaprabha, "Universal Light": "Long ago, deep in the mountains, I had five dreams — first, that I lay upon the great ocean; second, that I pillowed my head on Mount Sumeru; third, that every being in the great ocean entered into my own body; fourth, that I held the sun in my hand; and fifth, that I held the moon in my hand. I beg the World-Honored One to explain their meaning." The Buddha answered: to dream of lying upon the great ocean means that your own body now lies within the great ocean of birth and death; to dream of pillowing your head on Sumeru means you shall emerge from birth and death and attain the very mark of nirvāṇa; to dream of every being in the great ocean entering your own body means that, within that same great ocean of birth and death, you shall become a refuge for all beings; to dream of holding the sun means your own wisdom's light shall illuminate the whole Dharma-realm; and to dream of holding the moon means that, through skillful wisdom, you shall enter birth and death yourself, guiding beings with a cooling, refreshing teaching (Source: Sūtra of Past and Present Causes and Effects, fascicle 1).

Nāgadattā's Leap from the Tower

The elder Sudhana had a daughter named Nāgadattā, "Given by the Nāga," fourteen years old. Having just bathed, anointed herself with fragrant oil, and dressed in fine clothes, she saw the Buddha, together with his own retinue, emit light from the tuft between his brows, illuminating the sevenfold gate and the whole hall within. Seeing this light outshine even the sun and moon, and knowing it no ordinary thing, she ran up to the topmost of her house's seven stories and, facing east, saw the Buddha standing outside the gate. Overjoyed, she resolved at once to make offerings to the Buddha and his disciples, giving rise to the bodhisattva's own resolve and vowing to attain the very same awakening as the Buddha himself.

Māra, seeing the girl give rise to so great a resolve, was displeased, and descended, transforming into her own father, to tell Nāgadattā: "What you now intend is far too weighty a burden — the Buddha's own path is exceedingly hard to attain. Fortunate as we are to have a buddha in this age, it would be better to seek arhatship instead; both paths lead equally to nirvāṇa in the end." Nāgadattā answered: "Not so, father — the Buddha's own wisdom is vast and delivers beings without limit, while an arhat's wisdom is but a mote of dust by comparison; what noble person would settle for the lesser path?" Māra pressed further: "I have never heard of a woman becoming a wheel-turning king, let alone a buddha — better to seek arhatship and attain nirvāṇa quickly." Nāgadattā answered: "I too have heard that a woman cannot become a wheel-turning king or a buddha — which is exactly why I shall diligently transform this very female body into a man's, for I have heard that anyone who practices the bodhisattva's own teaching throughout the world, tirelessly across a hundred million kalpas, thereby attains buddhahood."

Seeing her resolve unshaken, Māra, ever more distressed, pressed his final, urgent instruction: "One who truly practices the bodhisattva path covets nothing of this world and cherishes not even his own life — if you are truly so diligent, throw yourself down from this very tower to the ground below, and you shall then attain buddhahood." Nāgadattā reflected: "I have now seen the Buddha and covet the bodhisattva path; my own father has just taught me diligence, that I might attain buddhahood through this very body — why then should I cling to this fragile, perishable life?" She went at once to the balcony's edge and, joining her palms toward the Buddha, declared: "I take refuge in the god of gods, whose all-knowing wisdom already knows what I seek; I now give up this body and life, unwilling to abandon the bodhisattva path, offering my own body to the Buddha as freely as a scattered flower" — and threw herself from the tower.

Before she reached the ground, she transformed into a man. The Buddha smiled, and five-colored light streamed from his mouth, illuminating an entire buddha-land before circling his own body three times and entering through the crown of his head. He said: "Did you see this woman throw herself into the air and transform into a man? In past lives she has already served ten thousand buddhas, and will go on to make offerings to buddhas of the future as numerous as the Ganges' own sands, until, seven hundred sixty million kalpas hence, she shall attain buddhahood herself, under the name Nāmottama, her own lifespan a full kalpa; after her nirvāṇa, her own teaching shall flourish for half a kalpa more before fading." Nāgadattā, now standing before the Buddha in male form, told her parents: "I wish now to be allowed to become a monk" — and her parents consented, while her entire extended household, within and without, gave rise to the resolve for the unsurpassed path (Source: Sūtra of the Girl Nāgadattā).

The Girl Who Heard the Dharma in the Womb

The Buddha dwelt in Rājagṛha, teaching the Dharma before a great assembly of bodhisattvas and the fourfold community. Among them sat a woman of the Kalandaka clan, pregnant, her unborn child within her joining its own hands in reverence to listen to the teaching. Wishing the assembly to see this, the Buddha emitted a great light illuminating the woman's own seated form, so that everyone present saw, as though through a mirror, the unborn girl within her womb, hands joined in reverent attention. The Buddha, in his own eightfold voice, asked the unborn girl why she listened with such reverence — and she, through the Buddha's own power, answered: "Because the people of this world all commit the ten evils, I wish to lead them instead to the ten good deeds; because the people of this world remain endlessly bound to birth and death; and because the people of this world fail to honor their own parents or support monks, brahmins, and seekers of the path — for these reasons I listen with joined hands."

The moment she finished speaking, she was born — as the crown prince himself was born from his mother's right side — and the earth shook six ways, heavenly music sounded of itself in the sky, and heavenly flowers rained down, among them a thousand-petaled lotus as large as a cart-wheel, its stem of jeweled lapis lazuli, upon which the girl sat at once. Śakra, bearing heavenly garments, came to clothe her — but she answered: "You are an arhat; I am a bodhisattva; you are not of my own kind, and I have my own garments already." Śāriputra asked the Buddha what country this girl had come from, that garments might be sent for her — and the Buddha answered that she had come from a pure buddha-land to the southeast, a hundred thousand buddha-lands distant, and that her own country's own garments would come of themselves. At once, garments arrived through the air with a soft, rustling sound; seeing them, she put them on, and, through them, attained the five supernormal powers, just as everyone in her own homeland already possessed them.

Once dressed, she descended from the lotus and walked before the Buddha; with each step the earth shook six ways, and, reaching him, she bowed her head to the ground in homage, uttering three times, "Homage to the Buddha," then knelt and said: "There are, in this present assembly, many women of the Kalandaka clan — I beg the World-Honored One to teach the Dharma, that they too might obtain male bodies." The Buddha answered: "I do not myself make you into a man, nor do I make you into a woman — this comes entirely from one's own conduct. There is, however, one thing that can swiftly bring about a male body: giving rise to the resolve for the bodhisattva path. A woman's own body, moreover, ought to be examined within — it is like a machine, bones and joints propped one against another, with only muscle and skin laid over them; and a woman is ever fearful of others, hiding like a lizard, a snake, or a toad, never daring to venture out in daylight."

Hearing this teaching, the seventy-five women of the Kalandaka clan then present rejoiced and leapt up, bowing their heads to the ground before the Buddha, and declared: "We vow to give rise to the bodhisattva's own resolve and become men — and if we do not attain male bodies, we shall not rise from this spot." At that moment seventy-five men of the Kalandaka clan, having come from Śrāvastī, arrived and, seeing their own wives all gathered before the Buddha, wondered aloud to Śāriputra what this meant, having thought they had lost their own wives — and Śāriputra told them these women now wished to become nuns, and asked if they consented. The husbands answered that they themselves wished first to become monks. Śāriputra reported to the Buddha that these seventy-five men all wished to become monks, and the Buddha called out, "Come, good men," whereupon they all became monks at once, their hair falling away of itself, monastic robes appearing on their bodies, alms bowls in their hands, and they bowed before the Buddha.

The seventy-five wives then removed their own pearl bracelets and scattered them over the Buddha, which transformed of themselves in the sky into seventy-five strings of dew-jeweled pearls forming a canopy, beneath which stood a jeweled couch of the seven treasures with a seat upon it, beside which countless bodhisattvas sat listening to the Dharma. Seeing this transformation, the seventy-five women rejoiced greatly and, through the Buddha's own power, rose into the sky, flowers raining down of themselves over the Buddha — and, descending from the sky, they obtained male bodies at once, coming before the Buddha to declare: "We wish to become monks." The Buddha told the bodhisattva Maitreya to take them and confer the precepts, which Maitreya did, and they became monks.

One of these transformed women had a canopy of flowers appear of itself, sevenfold, its stem shaped like a lotus, which she took and gave to her own mother, saying: "The Buddha is the teacher who delivers beings throughout heaven and earth" — and the mother offered this canopy to the Buddha, the teacher of heaven and earth, in turn — for, the daughter told her, her mother too would one day become a canopy sheltering the whole world, and should now give rise to the bodhisattva's own resolve. The mother answered her: "From the very moment I first conceived you, I constantly dreamed of the Buddha, the Dharma, and the monastic sangha, free of the three poisons, my body at peace throughout — and I knew then that the child in my womb was a great bodhisattva-mahāsattva, which is why I remained so at ease." Once the mother received the flower canopy and offered it to the Buddha, the earth shook six ways. The Buddha told Śāriputra: the very stars of the four continents can be counted, yet the parents this girl has delivered, in this life and lifetimes past and future, cannot be counted at all (Source: Sūtra of the Girl in the Womb Who Heard the Dharma).

Long ago, in a certain kingdom, grain grew scarce and expensive, and the people went hungry. A monk, entering the city to beg, received nothing at all until, reaching the gate of a wealthy elder's household, he was given only coarse, poor food. As he was about to leave the city, he met a hunter-butcher carrying home a puppy to kill, who, seeing the monk, joyfully bowed before him; the monk blessed him with a wish for long life, then, learning the man carried a puppy meant for slaughter, asked what he was bringing home. Told plainly, the monk said: "I have already seen the sin of killing, and know it to be a great evil — please let me trade my own food for this puppy's life, that it might be spared, and you shall gain immeasurable merit." The man refused at first, and the monk pleaded earnestly, but he would not agree — until the monk asked only to see the puppy, which the man then showed him.

The monk fed the puppy from his own bowl, stroking it and blessing it, weeping as he did: "Your own past sin has brought you to this dog's body, unable even to save yourself from being killed and eaten — may this very suffering, across all your future lives, exhaust that sin and give rise to merit instead, that you be freed from this canine body and reborn as a human, wherever the Dharma may be found." The puppy, eating, felt a wholesome joy arise within it, and the man, satisfied, took it home and killed and ate it as planned.

The puppy's life ended there, and it was reborn into a wealthy, eminent household — and, the moment it touched the ground at birth, a compassionate heart was already present within it. That same monk, begging again in his usual round, came once more to this elder's own gate — and the elder's son, recognizing him at once from that former karmic bond, came forward and bowed at the monk's feet, inviting him in and offering a hundred delicacies. He then told his own parents: "I wish now to follow this great teacher, receive his teaching and precepts, and become his disciple." His parents, cherishing their only son, refused to allow it, protesting that their whole family line depended on this one child to carry it forward — how could he abandon them so? The boy wept and refused to eat, declaring that if they would not permit him, he would simply starve himself to death. Seeing this, his parents relented and let him go, to study the path under this teacher.

He shaved his own head, donned the three monastic robes, recited the Buddha's own sūtras, and, deeply understanding their meaning, attained samādhi and reached the stage of non-retrogression, teaching and converting all he met, rousing in them the great resolve. The monk himself, recognizing this same former life, gave rise to the bodhisattva's own resolve and likewise attained non-retrogression. How much more, then, should any person who serves the Three Jewels and recites the Great Vehicle's own teachings attain the same (Source: Sūtra of the Rescued Puppy).