Elders Who Attained the Path, Part 1
This page carries Ru-Yi's complete translation of fascicle 35 of the Jīng Lǜ Yì Xiàng (經律異相): "Elders Who Attained the Path, Part 1" (得道長者部上) — the compendium's turn from royalty to the householders. Fifteen entries, most of them short, drawn from thirteen different sources. Among them: the young man of Vārāṇasī who wakes at midnight to find his entertainers looking like corpses and walks out through doors that open by themselves; Śroṇa, so sheltered that hair grew on the soles of his feet, who walks his meditation path until it is smeared with blood and receives the lute-string simile in return; a hundred-year-old man refused ordination by Śāriputra and five hundred arhats, overruled by the Buddha, bullied into attempting suicide, and carried instead on a tour of an island where six ordinary lives are working out their consequences; Anāthapiṇḍada in the first flush of his conversion and again at his poorest; an elder who prepares a covered fire pit and poisoned food to test whether the Buddha really is omniscient; and two beggars at the same almsgiving whose opposite wishes are both granted on the same day in the same field of grass.
Translation Method
Fascicle 35 opens the section on elders — 長者, the wealthy householder heads of families, the class that supported the early saṅgha. After three fascicles of princes and one of princesses, the change of register is marked. These are stories about property: storehouses, treasure hoards, iron caltrops, a sandalwood scoop found in a dung heap, a bolt of cloth an elder cannot bring himself to hand over, a wife pawned to pay for a meal. Two entries end with storehouses refilling themselves overnight after having been emptied.
Entry 5 is the best short illustration anywhere in this compendium of what the work is for. In seven sentences its compiler inserts six bracketed notes recording where his sources disagree — on Sudatta's rank, his errand, his host's name, the Buddha's whereabouts, who opened the city gate, and the name of the spirit who spoke to him — and then lists five sources and calls them all largely the same. We have kept every note inside the sentence where the Chinese puts it.
On names: Śāriputra, Maudgalyāyana, Mahākāśyapa, Upāli, Aṅgulimāla, Ānanda, Anāthapiṇḍada, Sudatta, Dharmaruci, Dīpaṃkara, Siddhārtha, Gautama, Vaiśravaṇa, Māra Pāpīyas, Śroṇa, Sāgata, Elāpattra, Campā, Rājagṛha, Śrāvastī, Vārāṇasī, Kapilavastu, Gṛdhrakūṭa, the Bamboo Grove of Kalandaka, the Śītavana, and Gandhāra are given in their standard forms. Where a transliteration has no confident correspondence — Ājùlì, Shétuó, Fùnòu, Xūtuó, Shīlìbìtí, Tuósàijī, Nítí, Làilìzhà, Tánmóbìtí, Hùmí, Shēnrì, Zhānluófǎ, Xiūluótuó, Píluótuó, Shīlìzhì, Póshìzhì, Chāoshù — we keep the Chinese in pinyin. Names that are transparently descriptive in Chinese (Most Victorious, Hard to Subdue, Merit-Increase, Jewel-Renown, Discerning-Mind) are translated, with the Chinese kept in the contents list.
Two doublets run through the fascicle and are flagged in the reading notes: the makara fish that swallows a merchant ship, which appears in entries 4 and 10 from different sources and is identified as two different people; and the two Sudatta entries, 5 and 6, which come from different strands of the tradition and give irreconcilable pictures of his wealth.
Entry 4 contains an extended catalogue of bodily torments — a woman boiling and eating her own flesh, a man shot continuously with burning arrows, a man impaled repeatedly on a mountain of blades. These are translated in full. Entry 12 preserves a striking Sinicization, discussed in its reading note.
Fascicle Contents
- 1. The Elder Jewel-Renown Goes Forth, Sees the Buddha, and Awakens 寶稱出家見佛悟道一
- 2. Śroṇa, with Hair on the Soles of His Feet, Attains the Path Through Austerity 守籠那足下生毛苦行得道二
- 3. Most Victorious and Hard to Subdue Are Won Over and Attain the Path 最勝難降染化成道三
- 4. Merit-Increase Goes Forth at a Hundred, Sees His Own Former Bones, and Understands 福增百歲出家見其本骸心曉見道四
- 5. Sudatta Travels a Rough Road to See the Buddha and Awakens at Once 須達多崎嶇見佛時獲悟道五
- 6. Sudatta, Poor Seven Times, Gives Away All the Food He Has and His Storehouses Fill of Themselves 須達七貧後得食併奉佛僧倉庫自滿六
- 7. Most Victorious Is Harassed by Māra and Does Not Move 最勝魔嬈不移七
- 8. Shēnrì Prepares Poisoned Food and a Fire Pit for the Buddha, and Both Are Undone 申日為佛作毒飯火坑自皆變滅八
- 9. Discerning-Mind Invites the Buddha and the Saṅgha, and of Two Beggars One Dies and One Becomes King 辯意請佛僧有二乞兒一死一為王九
- 10. Dharmaruci Was in a Former Body a Great Fish 曇摩留支先身為大魚十
- 11. A Miserly Elder Goes to Sea; His Wife Gives Silk to the Buddha; All the Merchants Die and He Alone Survives 慳長者入海婦施佛絹眾商皆死唯己獨存十一
- 12. Píluótuó Feeds the Buddha and the Saṅgha and His Storehouses Fill of Themselves 毘羅陀請佛僧食而庫藏自滿十二
- 13. Póshìzhì, Endangered by Lust, Is Saved by Maudgalyāyana 婆世躓染欲危身為目連所救十三
- 14. An Elder's Newborn Son Remembers His Former Life, Asks for His Mother, Invites the Buddha, and Sweet Food Descends 長者新生一子即識本緣求母請佛甘味自下十四
- 15. Anāthapiṇḍada's Seven Sons Take the Precepts for Money, Hear the Dharma, and Are Freed of Stain 阿那邠邸七子為財受戒聞法離垢十五
1. The Elder Jewel-Renown Goes Forth, Sees the Buddha, and Awakens
A young man of Vārāṇasī who has worn lapis slippers since birth wakes at midnight to find his entertainers looking like corpses and his house like a graveyard. He walks out through doors that open by themselves toward a light in the Deer Park.
波羅奈城有長者。名阿具利子。字曰蛇陀(梁言寶稱出曜經云夜輸)年二十四。有琉璃屐生而著足。父母貴異。字曰蛇陀。別作屋宅。寒暑易處伎女娛樂不去左右。寶稱中夜欻見諸伎女皆如死狀。膿血流溢肢節斷壞屋宅眾具皆似塚墓。戶輒自開天地大冥。唯覩小光趣東城門。門復自開明照鹿園。尋光見佛瞻覩相好。怖止迷解舉聲歎曰。久在愛獄著名色械。今趣神尊寧得脫不。佛言。童子善來覺矣。斯處無憂眾行畢竟。前禮佛足。佛為說法逮無垢法眼。即起白佛。願為弟子。佛言。善來比丘便成沙門。明旦眾女周慞遍求。大家驚怖不知所在。長者遣馬四出推索。父乘子車東行尋求。道遇一水。水名波羅奈。度水見子寶屐脫置岸邊。即尋足跡徑趣鹿園。佛以方便令其父子兩不相見。長者問佛言。我子寶稱足跡趣此。瞿曇見不。佛告長者。若子在斯何憂不見。佛為說法入須陀洹。寶稱心解便得羅漢。父子相見恩愛微薄。長者白佛。今日心悅情有二喜。一遇佛解喜。二離愛快喜。於時寶稱親支四人。一名富耨。二名維摩羅。三名橋炎鉢。四名須陀。聞寶稱已作沙門。驚喜毛竪曰。吾共詣佛并省寶稱。即便俱行。見佛影則乘本願行。作禮白佛。飢渴道化虛心日久。不以鄙陋願為弟子。佛言。善來比丘皆成沙門。為說心本淨聞義心了。便得羅漢。如有聞者發足尋覓。皆得道果(出中本起經上又出出曜經第十九卷)。
In the city of Vārāṇasī there was an elder, the son of Ājùlì, named Shétuó (which in the language of Liang is “Jewel-Renown”; the Chūyào jīng calls him Yaśas). At twenty-four he had slippers of lapis that had been on his feet from birth. His parents prized him as extraordinary, named him Shétuó, and built him a separate house, where he moved with the cold and the heat, with entertaining women who never left his side for his diversion.
In the middle of the night Jewel-Renown suddenly saw all the entertaining women as though dead, pus and blood streaming from them, their limbs and joints broken apart, and the house and all its furnishings looking like a graveyard. The door then opened of itself, heaven and earth went utterly dark, and he saw only a small light going toward the eastern gate of the city. The gate too opened of itself, and the brightness lit the Deer Park.
Following the light he saw the Buddha and beheld his marks. His terror stopped and his confusion dissolved, and he cried aloud: long have I been in the prison of love, shackled by name and form. Coming now to the divine and honored one, may I get free? The Buddha said: come, young man, and awaken. In this place there is no sorrow, and all practices come to their end.
He came forward and bowed at the Buddha’s feet, and the Buddha taught the Dharma for him, and he reached the stainless Dharma-eye. Rising, he said to the Buddha: I wish to be your disciple. The Buddha said: come, monk — and at once he became a śramaṇa.
In the morning the women, in confusion, searched everywhere; the household, alarmed, did not know where he was. The elder sent horsemen out in the four directions to search, and the father rode his son’s carriage eastward looking for him. On the road he came to a river named Vārāṇasī, and, crossing it, saw his son’s jeweled slippers left off on the bank. Following the footprints he went straight to the Deer Park.
The Buddha, by expedient means, kept the father and the son from seeing each other. The elder asked the Buddha: my son Jewel-Renown’s footprints come here. Has Gautama seen him? The Buddha told the elder: if your son is here, why worry that you do not see him? The Buddha taught the Dharma for him and he entered the stream; Jewel-Renown’s mind opened and he attained arhatship. Father and son saw one another again, and their love and attachment had grown thin. The elder said to the Buddha: today my heart is glad, and my feeling holds two joys: first, the joy of meeting the Buddha and understanding; second, the joy of being rid of love.
At that time four of Jewel-Renown’s kinsmen — the first named Fùnòu, the second Vimala, the third Gavāṃpati, the fourth Xūtuó — heard that Jewel-Renown had become a śramaṇa, and were so startled and glad that their hair stood on end, and said: let us go together to the Buddha and look in on Jewel-Renown. And they went together.
Seeing the Buddha’s shadow, they proceeded on the strength of their original vow, made obeisance, and said to the Buddha: we have hungered and thirsted for the transforming teaching, our hearts empty for many days. Do not hold our meanness against us — we wish to be your disciples. The Buddha said: come, monks — and all became śramaṇas. He taught them that the mind is originally pure; hearing the meaning, their minds understood, and they attained arhatship. Others who heard of it likewise set out to seek him, and all attained the fruit of the path (Source: Sūtra of the Intermediate Origins, first part; also the Chūyào jīng, fascicle 19).
This is the story of Yaśas, the sixth person to be ordained and the first lay convert after the group of five, and the compendium's own note identifies him: the Chūyào jīng calls him Yaśas, while the name used here, Shétuó, is glossed "Jewel-Renown." His four kinsmen who follow him correspond to the four friends of Yasa in the Pali account — Vimala and Gavāṃpati are recognizable in the transliteration and we give them so; the other two we leave in pinyin rather than force a match.
Note how the vision works. Nothing is said to Jewel-Renown and nothing is shown to him from outside; the women he is enjoying simply appear as corpses, the furniture as grave-goods, and the doors of a house designed to keep him in comfortable seclusion open of their own accord. The whole conversion happens before he has heard a word of teaching. The father's closing line — that he has two joys today, meeting the Buddha and being rid of love — is the compendium's dry summary of a man who has just lost his only son to the order.
2. Śroṇa, with Hair on the Soles of His Feet, Attains the Path Through Austerity
The son of an elder of Campā, so sheltered that hair grew on the soles of his feet, ordains and walks his meditation path until the ground is smeared with his blood — and gets, in return, the most famous piece of practical advice in the canon.
瞻婆城有大長者子。字守籠那。其父母唯有此子。心甚念之。生來習樂未曾躡地足下生毛。時摩竭國王聞瞻婆城中大長者子遲欲見之。即勅城主。使諸長者各將兒來。時瞻婆城主奉勅。詣摩竭王。在一面住。王聽以衣敷地。詣王所。王見足毛。心甚歡喜。即語言。可往見佛禮拜問訊。當與汝後世利益。時瞻婆城主及諸長者。共詣耆闍崛山。時有長老婆竭陀。為佛給使在磐石上坐。時瞻婆城主。詣長老婆竭陀所言。我等欲見如來。時婆竭陀即沒石上涌出佛前。白言。瞻婆長者欲見世尊。佛言。汝往屋蔭中敷座。我當往坐。時婆竭陀即敷座已還到佛所。白世尊言。敷座已竟。世尊坐已。告婆竭陀言。語長者來。時婆竭陀沒於佛前踊出石上。時諸長者歎未曾有世尊弟子神足猶爾。況復如來。婆竭陀言。長者宜知。是時瞻婆城主來詣佛所。世尊爾時。即為諸長者子及瞻婆城主說法勸化。即於坐上得法眼淨。白世尊言。大德。從今已去歸依三寶。為優婆塞。時守籠那後遂出家。往溫水河邊尸陀林中。懃行精進。經行之處血流污地。猶如血塗。時守籠那在靜處思惟。佛弟子中懃行精進無勝我者。我今何故不得無漏。我當捨戒還家自恣五欲布施作福。佛知其心。到守籠那所。我今問汝。隨意答我。汝在家時彈琴。琴絃若緩若急音聲好不。若不緩不急乃得好聲。佛言。比丘亦如是。不緩不急心乃會道。依教修行逮成羅漢焉(出四分律三分第二卷)。
In the city of Campā there was the son of a great elder, named Śroṇa. His parents had this son only and were very fond of him. From birth he had been raised in comfort and had never trodden the ground, and hair grew on the soles of his feet.
At that time the king of Magadha heard of the great elder’s son in the city of Campā and was eager to see him, and ordered the city governor to have the elders each bring their sons. The governor of Campā obeyed the order and went to the king of Magadha and stood to one side. The king permitted cloth to be spread on the ground, and so he came to where the king was. The king, seeing the hair on his feet, was greatly delighted, and said to him: you should go and see the Buddha, and bow and pay your respects to him, and it will bring you benefit in a later life.
So the governor of Campā and the elders went together to Mount Gṛdhrakūṭa. At that time the venerable Sāgata, who served the Buddha, was sitting on a great flat rock. The governor of Campā came to the venerable Sāgata and said: we wish to see the Tathāgata. Sāgata then sank down into the rock and rose up again before the Buddha, and said: the elders of Campā wish to see the World-Honored One. The Buddha said: go and spread a seat in the shade of the building, and I shall go and sit there.
Sāgata spread the seat and returned to the Buddha and told him: the seat is spread. When the World-Honored One had sat down, he told Sāgata: tell the elders to come. Then Sāgata sank down before the Buddha and rose up out of the rock. The elders exclaimed at the marvel: if the World-Honored One’s disciple has such powers, how much more the Tathāgata himself. Sāgata said: elders, you should know it.
Then the governor of Campā came to where the Buddha was, and the World-Honored One taught the Dharma for the elders’ sons and the governor of Campā and exhorted them; and on their seats they obtained the pure Dharma-eye, and said to the World-Honored One: great one, from this day forth we take refuge in the Three Jewels and become lay followers.
Śroṇa afterward went forth, and went to the Śītavana grove by the warm-water river and practiced with diligence and vigor, until where he walked was fouled with blood, as though smeared with it.
Then Śroṇa, in a quiet place, reflected: among the Buddha’s disciples there is none who practices with more diligence and vigor than I. Why then have I not attained the state without outflows? I shall give up the precepts and go home, indulge the five desires as I please, and give alms and make merit instead.
The Buddha, knowing his mind, came to where Śroṇa was: I shall now ask you something, and you may answer as you like. When you were a householder you played the lute. If the lute-strings were slack, or if they were taut, was the sound good? Only when neither slack nor taut do you get a good sound. The Buddha said: a monk is just the same. Neither slack nor taut, the mind then meets the path. Practicing according to this instruction, he attained arhatship (Source: Dharmaguptaka Vinaya, third division, fascicle 2).
3. Most Victorious and Hard to Subdue Are Won Over and Attain the Path
Two of the greediest men in Śrāvastī, whose houses have seven-fold gates, iron cages over the courtyards to keep birds out and iron walls to stop rats. One of them tries to choose a cloth to give the Buddha and cannot stop upgrading it.
昔舍衛城內。有一長者。名曰最勝。更有長者。名曰難降。二人慳貪國中第一。饒財多寶不可稱計。二人門戶各有七重勅守門者。無令乞兒得入我家庭室中。鐵籠遍覆庭內以斷飛鳥。四面鐵牆防鼠穿鑿嚙壞器物。是時五大聲聞各以次第詣彼教化。從地踊出教以法施。長者二人聞之各不受化。後佛自往坐臥虛空放大光明。佛與長者說微妙法。長者雖聞心猶不達。內自思惟。佛來至不可虛爾使還精舍。宜入藏裏取一白㲲布施如來。即起入藏。選一惡者反更得好。捨而更取倍得好者。心意共諍不能自決。當於其日阿須倫與忉利天共鬪。或天得勝阿須倫不如。或阿須倫得勝諸天不如。爾時世尊以天眼觀見長者心。或時慳心得勝施心不如。或時施心得勝慳心不如。爾時世尊便說斯偈。施與戰同處 此得智不譽施時亦戰時 此事二俱等長者遙聞內懷慚愧。如來所說正謂我身。即出好㲲持用為施。難降長者。出五百兩金持用惠施。心開意解各見道跡(出出曜經第十七卷)。
Long ago in the city of Śrāvastī there was an elder named Most Victorious, and another elder named Hard to Subdue. The two of them were the greediest men in the kingdom, rich in goods and treasure beyond reckoning. Each of the two had a gate of seven doors, and they ordered their gatekeepers to let no beggar enter their houses; the courtyards were covered over with iron cages to keep out flying birds, and iron walls on all four sides to keep rats from boring in and gnawing their goods to pieces.
At that time the five great disciples went in turn to convert them, rising up out of the ground and teaching them the gift of the Dharma; but neither of the two elders accepted the teaching. Afterward the Buddha himself went, sat and reclined in the open air, and gave off a great light, and taught the elder the subtle Dharma. Although the elder heard it, his mind still did not penetrate it.
He thought to himself: the Buddha has come here, and it will not do to send him back to the monastery empty-handed. I should go into the storeroom and take one white cotton cloth and give it to the Tathāgata. So he rose and went into the storeroom; he picked out a poor one, then took a better one instead; then set it down and took one better still. His mind was at war with itself and he could not decide.
On that very day the asuras were fighting with the gods of the Trāyastriṃśa heaven: now the gods would win and the asuras be worsted, now the asuras would win and the gods be worsted. At that time the World-Honored One, with the divine eye, looked into the elder’s mind: now the miserly mind would win and the giving mind be worsted, now the giving mind would win and the miserly mind be worsted. And the World-Honored One spoke this verse:
“Giving and battle occupy one place; / to gain this is not what the wise praise. / The time of giving is also the time of battle — / in this the two are the same.”
The elder heard it from a distance and was inwardly ashamed: what the Tathāgata says refers exactly to me. And he brought out the fine cloth and gave it as a gift; and the elder Hard to Subdue brought out five hundred taels of gold and gave that. Their minds opened and their thoughts were freed, and each saw the traces of the path (Source: Chūyào jīng, fascicle 17).
4. Merit-Increase Goes Forth at a Hundred, Sees His Own Former Bones, and Understands
A hundred-year-old man turned away from ordination by Śāriputra and all five hundred arhats. The Buddha overrules them; the young monks then bully him until he goes to drown himself, and Maudgalyāyana carries him instead on a tour of a sea island where the consequences of six ordinary lives are on display.
若放男女若放奴婢。若聽人民若自己身。出家入道功德無量。布施之報六天人中往反十世。出家之福無邊無量。勝起七寶塔上至三十三天。以貪人能壞。出家之德無有可毀。乃高須彌。深於大海廣於虛空。若為出家作留難者。其罪甚重。入深地獄黑闇無目。有一長者。名尸利苾提(梁言福增)其年百歲求欲出家。家人大小無從用者。尸利苾提往趣迦蘭陀竹林。從舍利弗求欲出家。老不得出家。遍問五百羅漢皆同。舍利弗出竹園門。舉聲大哭。優波離是剃髮賤人。泥提下穢除糞之人。殃掘魔羅殺無量人。及陀塞䩭大賊惡人。如是等人尚得出家。我有何罪而獨不得。佛即踊現。問福增言。汝何故哭。聞佛梵音心喜作禮。白佛言。諸罪惡人皆得出家。我何罪不聽我出家。大小不復用。我於佛法中復不得出家。設我還家必不見前。我當何趣。今日定當於此捨命。佛慰喻言。汝莫憂惱。聽汝出家。告大目連。聽與出家。即得出家。受具足戒。晝夜精勤修集讀誦廣通經藏。以年老故不能隨時恭敬迎送禮問上座。諸少比丘皆為上座常苦言激切。又作是念。我今寧死。往大河岸邊脫去袈裟置樹枝上。泣而誓言。我不捨佛法眾僧。唯欲捨命。我此身上布施持戒精進誦經。設有報者。願我捨身生富樂家。眷屬調從。於我善法不作留難。常遇三寶遭值善師。示悟涅槃畢投[泳-永+迴]澓中。未至水頃目連接置岸上。令捉衣角上衝虛空。猶如猛鷹銜一小鳥。屈申臂頃至大海島。海邊有新死人。女相具足。見有一虫從口出還從鼻入復從眼出更從耳入。苾提問。此何女人。答曰。時到當說。前行復見一女。自負銅鑊燃火吹之既沸。脫衣自入鑊中。髮爪先脫肉熟離骨沸吹骨出。在外風吹尋還成人。自取其肉而噉食之。次復前行見一大樹。多虫圍唼其身乃至枝葉。無有空處如針頭許。大叫震動如地獄聲。復次見一男子。周匝獸頭諸惡鬼神。手執弓弩三放毒箭鏃皆火燃。競共射之。身皆燋然。又見一大山。下安刀劍見有一人。從上投下刀戟劍矟壞刺其身。即自收拔還竪本處。往還不息。前見骨山。高七百由旬。目連於山為說。舍衛城中大薩薄婦。夫甚愛念。欲入大海戀婦不捨。即將入海。婦擎鏡照面。自覩端正。便起憍慢深心愛著。時遇大龜蹋船沒海。一切皆死。五百賈客一切皆死。海不受屍。夜叉羅剎出置岸上。隨所愛念死還生為虫。捨此虫身墮大地獄。舍衛國優婆夷婢優婆夷請一比丘。夏九十日奉給供養。使婢送食。婢至屏處選好自食。餘與比丘。大家覺問。婢答。我若先食使我世世自食身肉。今先受花報後墮地獄。大樹諸虫唼食發大惡聲。是瀨利吒營事比丘。用僧祇物華果飯食。送與白衣。受此花報。後墮地獄。唼樹諸虫。即是得物之人。舉聲大哭眾箭射身者。此人前身為大獵師。多害禽獸以是罪故受斯苦毒。於此命終墮大地獄。大山上自投刀劍者。是王舍城大健鬪將。以猛勇故身處前鋒。或以刀劍矛楯傷剋物命故受此報。有一國王名曇摩苾提。布施持戒慈悲不傷物命。政法治國滿二十年。共人博戲。時有一人殺人。諸臣白王。答言。隨國法治。即案律殺。王戲已畢問。罪人何在。臣曰已殺。王聞泣曰。七珍皆住我獨入地獄。即捨王位入山自守。命終作摩竭魚。身長七百由旬。王臣恃勢抂刻百姓。命終亦作摩竭大魚。身虫瘙癢揩頗梨山。碎殺虫血流百里皆赤。應墮大地獄。時魚一眠百歲乃覺。覺大飢渴。即便張口海水流入如注大河。有五百估客入海採寶。值之船趣魚口。賈人稱南無佛。魚聞閉口。賈客得活。魚飢命終生王舍城。夜叉出身置此海邊。時王者汝身是。殺人為魚。苾提口解無常厭世。盡結得羅漢果(出賢愚經第七卷)。
Whether one releases a son or a daughter, releases a manservant or a maidservant, gives leave to the people or goes oneself — to go forth and enter the path is merit without measure. The reward of giving passes back and forth ten lifetimes among the six heavens and among humans; the merit of going forth is boundless and measureless. It surpasses raising a stūpa of the seven treasures reaching to the Trāyastriṃśa heaven, for that a greedy man can destroy, whereas the virtue of going forth cannot be spoiled: it is higher than Sumeru, deeper than the great sea, broader than empty space. And whoever obstructs another’s going forth, his offense is very heavy: he enters the deep hells, black and dark and without eyes.
There was an elder named Shīlìbìtí (which in the language of Liang is “Merit-Increase”). At a hundred years of age he sought to go forth, and no one in his household, great or small, had any use for him.
Merit-Increase went to the Bamboo Grove of Kalandaka and asked Śāriputra to let him go forth; but being old he was not allowed to go forth. He asked all five hundred arhats in turn, and they said the same. He went out of the gate of the Bamboo Grove and cried aloud: Upāli was a barber, of low birth; Nítí was a filthy man who carried away dung; Aṅgulimāla killed countless people; and Tuósàijī was a great bandit and an evil man. Such men as these were allowed to go forth. What offense have I committed, that I alone am not?
The Buddha then rose up before him and asked Merit-Increase: why do you weep? Hearing the Buddha’s pure voice he was glad at heart, made obeisance, and said to the Buddha: every kind of evil-doer has been allowed to go forth. What is my offense, that I am not permitted? My household has no more use for me, and within the Buddha’s Dharma I may not go forth either. If I go home they will surely not see me as before. Where am I to go? Today I shall certainly lay down my life here.
The Buddha consoled him: do not be distressed; I permit you to go forth. And he told Mahāmaudgalyāyana: let him go forth. So he went forth and received the full precepts, and day and night applied himself diligently, gathering, reciting, and coming to know the sūtra collection broadly. But being old he could not keep up with rising in time to greet, see off, bow to, and inquire after the senior monks, and all the young monks, being his seniors, harried him constantly with bitter words.
And he thought: I had rather die now. He went to the bank of a great river, took off his kāṣāya and hung it on a branch, and wept and made this vow: I do not renounce the Buddha, the Dharma, or the saṅgha; I wish only to lay down my life. If there is any reward for the giving, precept-keeping, vigor, and recitation of this body of mine, may I lay down this body and be born into a wealthy and happy household with an obedient family who will put no obstacle in the way of my good practice, that I may always meet the Three Jewels and encounter a good teacher who will show me nirvāṇa. And he threw himself at last into the whirling current.
Before he reached the water, Maudgalyāyana caught him and set him on the bank, then had him take hold of the corner of his robe and shot up into the open sky — like a fierce hawk carrying a small bird — and in the time it takes to bend and stretch an arm they came to an island in the great sea.
By the shore was the newly dead body of a woman, complete in every feature. He saw a worm come out of her mouth and go back in at her nose, and come out at her eye and go in again at her ear. Merit-Increase asked: what woman is this? He answered: I shall tell you when the time comes.
Going on further, he saw a woman carrying a bronze cauldron on her back, lighting a fire and blowing on it; and when it boiled she took off her clothes and got into the cauldron herself. Her hair and nails came away first, then the flesh cooked and came off the bones, and the bones were blown out by the boiling. Outside, the wind blew and she became a person again, and took her own flesh and ate it.
Going on further, he saw a great tree with many worms crowded around gnawing at it, from the trunk up to the branches and leaves, with no space left the size of a needle’s point; and there was a great shrieking that shook the ground, like the sound of hell.
Next he saw a man surrounded by beast-headed evil ghosts and spirits, who held bows and crossbows and shot three poisoned arrows at a time, the arrowheads all aflame, vying with one another to shoot him, so that his whole body was scorched and burning.
He also saw a great mountain with knives and swords set below it, and a man who threw himself down from the top, and the knives, halberds, swords, and lances broke and pierced his body; and he pulled them out himself and set them upright again where they had been, and went back and forth without cease.
Then he saw a mountain of bones seven hundred yojanas high. On that mountain Maudgalyāyana explained for him.
In the city of Śrāvastī there was the wife of a great caravan merchant, whom her husband loved dearly. He wished to go to the great sea, but could not bear to be parted from his wife, and so took her with him. The wife held up a mirror to look at her face and, seeing her own beauty, gave rise to arrogance and to a deep attachment to herself. Then they met a great turtle, which trod the ship down and it sank in the sea, and all died — the whole five hundred merchants died. The sea would not keep the corpses, and yakṣas and rākṣasas put them out on the shore. What she had loved, she was born as after death — a worm; and giving up that worm’s body she will fall into the great hells.
[As to the boiling woman:] there was in the kingdom of Śrāvastī a lay-woman’s maidservant. The lay-woman invited a monk and provided for him through the ninety days of the summer, sending the maidservant to bring his food. The maid, coming to a private place, would pick out the good things and eat them herself and give the rest to the monk. Her mistress found out and questioned her, and the maid answered: if I ate first, may I in life after life eat my own flesh. She now receives the flower of that reward first, and afterward will fall into hell.
The worms on the great tree, gnawing it and making that great and evil sound: this was a monk named Làilìzhà who was a business manager, and who used the saṅgha’s common property — flowers, fruit, food, and drink — to send to laypeople. He receives this flower of the reward, and afterward will fall into hell. And the worms gnawing the tree are the people who received those goods.
The man crying aloud with the arrows shooting into his body: in a former life this man was a great hunter, who killed many birds and beasts, and it is for that offense that he receives this bitter torment. When his life here ends he will fall into the great hells.
The man throwing himself onto the knives and swords on the mountain: he was a great fighting general of Rājagṛha who, being brave and fierce, placed himself in the vanguard, and with sword, spear, lance, and shield injured and destroyed the lives of others, and so receives this reward.
There was a king named Tánmóbìtí, who gave alms and kept the precepts and, out of compassion, harmed no living thing, and governed the country by just law for a full twenty years. Once, while playing at a game with others, a man committed a murder, and the ministers put it to the king, who answered: deal with him according to the law of the land. So they judged by the code and executed him. When the king’s game was over he asked: where is the offender? The ministers said: he has been executed. The king, hearing it, wept and said: the seven treasures all remain, and I alone enter hell. And he gave up the throne and went into the mountains to keep to himself.
When his life ended he became a makara fish seven hundred yojanas long; and the ministers, who had relied on their power to oppress the common people, likewise became great makara fish when they died. The worms on his body itched, and he scraped himself against a crystal mountain, crushing and killing the worms, so that the blood flowed red for a hundred li; and for this he should fall into the great hells. This fish slept a hundred years at a stretch before waking, and on waking was greatly hungry and thirsty, and would open its mouth so that the sea water flowed in like a great river pouring down.
There were five hundred merchants who had gone into the sea to gather treasure, and, meeting this creature, their ship was carried toward the fish’s mouth. The merchants called out: homage to the Buddha. The fish, hearing the Buddha’s name, closed its mouth, and the merchants lived. Being hungry, the fish died, and was reborn in Rājagṛha, and yakṣas put its body out on this seashore. The king of that time is yourself.
[Hearing that] he had killed a man and become a fish, Merit-Increase’s understanding opened to impermanence; he grew weary of the world, exhausted the fetters, and attained the fruit of arhatship (Source: Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish, fascicle 7).
This is the longest and strangest entry in the fascicle, and it begins with a passage of straight polemic rather than narrative: whoever obstructs another's going forth incurs a very heavy offense. The story that follows is that polemic's illustration, and the people it is aimed at are Śāriputra and five hundred arhats, who turn away a hundred-year-old man on grounds of age until the Buddha overrules them.
What the old monk shouts at the gate is worth attending to, because it is an argument from precedent: Upāli was a barber, Nítí carried away dung, Aṅgulimāla killed uncountable people, Tuósàijī was a notorious bandit — all admitted. The implied premise is that a moral disqualification can be waived and a physical one cannot, and the story exists to deny it.
The island tour that follows is a catalogue of six ordinary lives and their consequences, and the ordinariness is the point: a wife who admired herself in a mirror at sea; a maidservant who ate the best of a monk's food before delivering it and swore a rash oath about it; a monastery business manager who gave the community's produce away to laypeople; a hunter; a front-rank soldier; and — the longest of them — a king who was scrupulously non-violent for twenty years and let one lawful execution proceed while he was distracted by a game. That king is Merit-Increase himself, and the makara fish is his own former body. The bones he is standing on are his.
5. Sudatta Travels a Rough Road to See the Buddha and Awakens at Once
Anāthapiṇḍada hears the word "Buddha" for the first time in a friend's house in Rājagṛha, gets up in the dark, and walks out through a gate that opens for him. The compendium annotates almost every sentence of it with variants from five other sources.
舍衛國有大長者。名須達多(賢愚經始云。大臣四部律並呼居士)常給施孤獨乞兒。人以為號。先有田業在王舍城。年年履行(大涅槃賢愚二經云為兒聘婦詣王舍城)寄止長者護彌家(中本起經云。迦蘭陀。大涅槃經云珊檀那)。夜起掃治宅舍辦餚饍。須達問之。答曰。迦毘羅城有釋種子。名悉達多。姓瞿曇氏。其生未久相師占之。定當作轉輪王。心不願樂。捨之出家。無師自覺得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。於諸眾生其心平等故號為佛。明受我請。又問。今在何處。答曰。在迦蘭陀竹林精舍(十誦律云寒林)須達多一心念佛所有功德。忽然大明。尋光而出至尸呵城門。佛神力故自然而開(四分律云神即開門)出門路有天祠。須達致敬尋還黑闇。心生惶怖。復欲還反城門。有大天神。告須達言。仁者見佛當獲善利。盡閻浮提所得功德。不如發心一步詣如來所。須達問曰。汝是誰耶。答曰。我是信相婆羅門子(四分律云我是私訶神)是汝往昔善知識。我因往昔見舍利弗大目揵連禮拜歡喜。捨身得作北方天王毘沙門子。專知守護此城(十誦律大同)況見如來禮拜供養。須達禮佛。佛如應說法。得須陀洹道(出大涅槃第二十七卷又出雜阿含第二十卷中本起四部律皆大同小異)。
In the kingdom of Śrāvastī there was a great elder named Sudatta (the Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish begins by calling him a great minister; the vinayas of the four schools all call him a householder), who was constantly giving to orphans, the solitary, and beggars, and people therefore called him by that name.
He had property in Rājagṛha, and every year he went to see to it (the Mahāparinirvāṇa and Wise and Foolish sūtras say he went to Rājagṛha to arrange a marriage for his son), and lodged at the house of an elder named Hùmí (the Sūtra of the Intermediate Origins says Kalandaka; the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra says Śāṇḍana).
In the night his host rose to sweep and set the house in order and prepare fine dishes. Sudatta asked him about it. He answered: in the city of Kapilavastu there is a son of the Śākya clan named Siddhārtha, of the Gautama family. Not long after his birth a physiognomist divined that he would certainly become a wheel-turning king; his heart did not delight in it, and he cast it aside and went forth. Without a teacher he awakened of himself and attained unsurpassed, perfect, complete enlightenment; and because his mind is even toward all beings he is called Buddha. Tomorrow he accepts my invitation.
He asked again: where is he now? The answer was: at the Bamboo Grove monastery of Kalandaka (the Sarvāstivāda Vinaya says the Cold Grove).
Sudatta, with one mind, thought of all the Buddha’s merits, and suddenly there was a great brightness. Following the light he went out and came to the gate of the city of Shīhē, and by the Buddha’s divine power it opened of itself (the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya says a spirit opened the gate). Outside the gate there was a shrine of the gods on the road, and when Sudatta paid his respects there the darkness closed in again, and fear arose in his heart, and he wished to turn back.
At the city gate a great spirit said to Sudatta: sir, in seeing the Buddha you will obtain what is truly good. All the merit to be had in the whole of Jambudvīpa does not equal the resolve to take one step toward where the Tathāgata is. Sudatta asked: who are you? He answered: I am the son of the brahmin Faith-Marks (the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya says: I am the spirit Sīhé), and I was a good friend of yours in the past. Because in a former life I saw Śāriputra and Mahāmaudgalyāyana and bowed to them in gladness, I gave up that body and became a son of Vaiśravaṇa, king of the north, charged with guarding this city (the Sarvāstivāda Vinaya is largely the same). How much more, then, to see the Tathāgata and bow to him and make offerings.
Sudatta bowed to the Buddha, and the Buddha taught the Dharma as was fitting, and he attained the fruit of stream-entry (Source: Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, fascicle 27; also Saṃyukta Āgama, fascicle 20, the Sūtra of the Intermediate Origins, and the vinayas of the four schools, all largely the same with minor differences).
This entry is the clearest demonstration in the whole compendium of how its compiler worked. In seven sentences of narrative he inserts six bracketed notes recording where his sources disagree: whether Sudatta was a minister or a householder, whether he went to Rājagṛha on business or to arrange his son's marriage, what his host's name was, whether the Buddha was at the Bamboo Grove or the Cold Grove, whether the gate opened by itself or a spirit opened it, and what the spirit at the gate was called. Then he lists five sources at the end and says they are all largely the same with minor differences.
This is not indecision. The compendium's title means "differences in the sūtras and vinayas," and cataloguing exactly this kind of divergence is its stated purpose. We have kept every one of the notes where the Chinese puts them, inside the sentence, rather than move them to footnotes.
6. Sudatta, Poor Seven Times, Gives Away All the Food He Has and His Storehouses Fill of Themselves
Sudatta at his poorest, with four pecks of rice bought with a sandalwood scoop found in a dung heap. Four visitors come in succession while it is cooking, and his wife gives away all four pecks before he gets home.
長者須達七貧後貧最劇。於糞壤中得一木斗。其實栴檀。出市賣之。得米四斗。語婦曰並炊一斗。吾當索菜。時佛念曰。當度須達令福更生。炊米方熟。舍利弗往。婦見歡喜。一斗米飯悉投著鉢中。更炊一斗。目連復往。亦歡喜與之。復炊一斗。迦葉復往。亦復與之。適有一斗。尋復炊熟。如來自往。婦自念言。間日之糧。莫有降者。今有是米。如來躬顧。得無罪畢福生者哉。一斗米飯盡施如來。佛口呪願。罪滅福生從今日始。須達尋歸。婦恐其恚。便問曰。如今佛來及舍利弗目連。迦葉盡來求食。當與不耶。答曰當與。福田難遭。若來求者是為值遇。婦言。向四斗米吾盡用施矣。夫大歡喜。餘有飯汁公姥共飲之。須臾仿佯。諸室珍寶倉庫穀帛。自然實滿。如往時富也。須達踊躍。知佛愍念。更請佛及僧供養盡空。佛為說法皆得道迹(出雜譬喻經下卷)。
The elder Sudatta was impoverished seven times, and the last time was the worst of all. In a dung heap he found a wooden measuring-scoop which was in fact of sandalwood. He took it out to the market and sold it, and got four pecks of rice, and said to his wife: cook one peck; I shall go and look for vegetables.
At that time the Buddha thought: I should deliver Sudatta and make his merit grow again. The rice was just cooked when Śāriputra came, and the wife, seeing him, was glad, and put the whole peck of cooked rice into his bowl. She cooked another peck, and Maudgalyāyana came, and gladly she gave him that too. She cooked another, and Kāśyapa came, and again she gave it.
There was just one peck left. As soon as it was cooked, the Tathāgata himself came, and the wife thought: this is our food for the days between, and no one has come who is less than these. Now we have this rice and the Tathāgata himself calls on us — could this not be the end of our guilt and the birth of our merit? And she gave the whole peck of cooked rice to the Tathāgata. The Buddha pronounced a blessing over it: from this day guilt is extinguished and merit is born.
Sudatta came home, and his wife, fearing his anger, put it to him as a question: if the Buddha were to come now, and Śāriputra, Maudgalyāyana, and Kāśyapa were all to come asking for food, would you give it or not? He answered: I would. A field of merit is hard to come upon; if they come asking, that is an encounter indeed. His wife said: I have given away all four pecks of rice. And her husband was greatly delighted.
There was some rice-water left, and the old couple drank it together. In a little while, as they moved about, all the rooms were full — treasures, storehouses, grain and silk — spontaneously as full as they had been in his wealthy days. Sudatta leapt for joy, knowing the Buddha had had pity on him, and he invited the Buddha and the saṅgha again and gave until it was all gone. The Buddha taught the Dharma for them and they all attained the traces of the path (Source: Miscellaneous Parables Sūtra, lower fascicle).
Entries 5 and 6 are both about Sudatta and sit adjacent, but they are drawn from different texts and are not continuous: entry 5 is his first meeting with the Buddha, from the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra and the vinayas; entry 6 is a parable of his poverty from a collection of miscellaneous parables. Traditionally Anāthapiṇḍada is remembered as the richest layman in Śrāvastī and the buyer of the Jeta Grove, and this story of him selling a scoop out of a dung heap belongs to a different strand of the tradition. The compendium prints both without reconciling them.
The mechanism of the story is worth noting: the wife gives away all four pecks in four separate acts, each time not knowing another visitor is coming, and each time the decision is harder because less is left. The husband's reaction on being told is the test the story is actually interested in, and he passes it before he learns that the storehouses have refilled.
7. Most Victorious Is Harassed by Māra and Does Not Move
Māra arrives at the newly converted elder's house wearing the Buddha's own form and marks, and tells him the four truths were a mistake. The elder's reply is a string of three images.
最勝長者聞說妙法。即於坐上諸塵垢盡得法眼淨。受三自歸為優婆塞。盡形壽不殺。佛去不久。弊魔波旬化作佛像及相好。來至長者家。長者念曰。如來向出還其何速。偽佛告曰。吾謂長者高才博智分別譏趣。諦念長者。愚惑無智。吾向所說四諦者實非真諦。斯是顛倒。外道所習。長者即自覺知。即報之曰。止止勿語。吾得慧眼住牢固地。正使汝化作億千萬身。吾不退轉。何以螢火之光與日競明。佃家灰埠欲比須彌。鵄鷲烏鵲金翅並飛。波旬慚愧復身而去(出最勝長者受呪願經)。
The elder Most Victorious heard the subtle Dharma taught and, on his seat, all his dusts and stains were exhausted and he obtained the pure Dharma-eye; and he took the three refuges and became a lay follower, and to the end of his life would not kill.
Not long after the Buddha had gone, the evil Māra Pāpīyas transformed himself into the image of the Buddha, with his marks and features, and came to the elder’s house. The elder thought: the Tathāgata went out just now — how has he come back so soon?
The false Buddha told him: I had thought the elder a man of high talent and broad wisdom, able to discern where things tend. Considering carefully, the elder is foolish and deluded and without wisdom. The four truths I taught just now are not truly the truths; they are upside-down, and are what the heterodox schools practice.
The elder understood of himself at once, and answered him: stop, stop, say no more. I have obtained the eye of wisdom and stand on firm ground. Even if you conjured up a hundred million bodies I would not turn back. Why should a firefly’s glow contend in brightness with the sun? Or a farmer’s ash-heap compare itself with Sumeru? Or an owl, a crow, or a magpie fly alongside a garuḍa? Pāpīyas, ashamed, resumed his own body and went away (Source: Sūtra of the Blessing Received by the Elder Most Victorious).
8. Shēnrì Prepares Poisoned Food and a Fire Pit for the Buddha, and Both Are Undone
An elder is talked by rival teachers into testing the Buddha's omniscience with a covered fire pit at his gate and poison in the dinner. His sixteen-year-old son tells him it will not work.
是時王舍國。有一四姓長者。字為申日。財產甚富。金銀珍寶無有央數。申日事餘道人。唯不事佛。諸異道人皆共嫉妬。申日共議言。佛今為王及傍臣長者吏民所敬。而我等獨不為所重。佛常自說言。知去來現在之事。知他所念。今寧可試。為審爾不。申日言。當何試之。異道人言。請佛持毒藥置飯中。掘門裏深五丈。以火置中薄覆其上。令佛從上來。若知當不受請。受請則不知。申日言諾。即行請佛。佛言大善。異道人言。已無所知。但當穿地。申日有子。字旃羅法。年十六。通達宿命善學佛道能知去來現在之事。啟其父言。佛已知之。莫用惡人言自投湯火。申日不信。掘坑燃火飯置毒藥。告諸比丘。隨我後行。佛適向道。便放光影令申日舍中悉作金色。時旃羅法即語父言。今佛已起向道。十方皆明如日。佛到城門。足蹈門限。舉大城中即為大動。病者即愈。箜篌樂器不鼓自鳴。佛到申日門。五丈火坑化作浴池。中生蓮華。一華千葉。諸弟子所蹈蓮華。華生百葉。皆蹈華而行。申日見火以作水池中生蓮華。便大懼怖。頭面著地以誠自說。今為佛作飯皆以毒藥置中。願乞更炊。佛言。不須更炊。持毒藥飯來食之。勅諸比丘。且勿食。須我教乃食。佛即呪曰。天下凡有三毒。一者貪婬。二者瞋恚。三者愚癡。佛無是三毒為不行。至誠有經法者。毒亦不行。飯食中毒皆自消去。佛言皆飯。申日頭面禮佛足言。我大無狀。用惡人之言。願從世尊求哀悔過。佛為說經。得須陀洹道(出申日兜本經)。
At that time in the kingdom of Rājagṛha there was an elder of the four castes named Shēnrì, whose wealth was very great, his gold, silver, and treasure beyond number. Shēnrì served other religious teachers and served the Buddha alone not at all.
The teachers of the other schools were all jealous, and conferred with Shēnrì, saying: the Buddha is now honored by the king, the ministers, the elders, the officials, and the people, while we alone are not esteemed. The Buddha always says of himself that he knows past, future, and present, and knows what others think. Might we test now whether it is really so? Shēnrì said: how should we test him?
The teachers of the other schools said: invite the Buddha, put poison in the food, and dig a pit five fathoms deep inside the gate; put fire in it and cover it thinly over, and make the Buddha come across the top. If he knows, he will not accept the invitation; if he accepts the invitation, then he does not know. Shēnrì said: agreed. And he went at once and invited the Buddha. The Buddha said: very good. The teachers of the other schools said: he knows nothing already. Now we need only dig the ground.
Shēnrì had a son named Zhānluófǎ, sixteen years old, who was versed in past lives, had studied the buddha-path well, and could know past, future, and present. He said to his father: the Buddha knows it already. Do not, on the word of evil men, throw yourself into boiling water and fire. Shēnrì did not believe him, and dug the pit and lit the fire and put poison in the food.
He told the monks: come along behind me. And as soon as the Buddha set out on the road he sent out a light and a shadow so that Shēnrì’s whole house turned golden. Zhānluófǎ then said to his father: the Buddha has now set out on the road, and the ten directions are as bright as the sun.
When the Buddha reached the city gate, his foot touched the threshold, and the whole great city shook at once; the sick were healed; and the harps and instruments sounded of themselves without being played.
When the Buddha reached Shēnrì’s gate, the fire pit five fathoms deep turned into a bathing pool, and in it lotus flowers grew, each flower with a thousand petals; and the lotuses the disciples trod on grew a hundred petals, and they all walked treading on the flowers.
Shēnrì, seeing that the fire had become a pool of water with lotuses growing in it, was greatly terrified, and put his head and face to the ground and confessed in earnest: today, in making food for the Buddha, I have put poison in it all. I ask leave to cook it again.
The Buddha said: there is no need to cook again. Bring the poisoned food and I shall eat it. And he told the monks: do not eat yet — wait until I tell you, and then eat. The Buddha then pronounced this incantation: in the world there are three poisons — the first, greed and lust; the second, anger; the third, delusion. The Buddha has not these three poisons and they do not operate in him; and where the teaching of the sūtras is held in sincerity, poison too does not operate. And the poison in the food all dissolved away of itself. The Buddha said: eat, all of you.
Shēnrì put his head and face to the Buddha’s feet and said: I have been utterly without decency and acted on the word of evil men. I ask the World-Honored One to accept my plea and let me repent. The Buddha taught him the sūtra, and he attained the fruit of stream-entry (Source: Shēnrì Dōuběn Sūtra).
9. Discerning-Mind Invites the Buddha and the Saṅgha, and of Two Beggars One Dies and One Becomes King
Two beggars at the same almsgiving: one arrives before the blessing and gets nothing, one after and gets plenty. Each forms a wish about what he will do when he is king, and both wishes are granted on the same day in the same field of grass.
舍衛國有一長者子。名曰辯意。聞佛說五十事要。逮得法忍。五百長者子得法眼淨。辯意言。唯願世尊及大眾。明日中自屈於我舍食。佛與大眾往其家食。未呪願。有一乞兒。歷座行乞。無敢與者遍無所得。瞋恚而出。便生惡念。此諸沙門。放恣愚惑。有何道哉。貧者從乞無心見與。吾得為王。以鐵輞車轢斷其頭。言已便去。佛呪願竟。復一乞兒來。從眾乞食。各各與之。大得飯食歡喜而去。即生念言。此諸沙門有慈悲心。我得為王供養佛僧。乃至七日。不報今者飢渴之恩。言已便去。二乞兒展轉求匃。到他國中臥於道邊深草之中。時彼國主忽然崩亡無有繼嗣。相師判言。書記當有賤人為王。諸臣百官千乘萬騎按行國界。望見草上有雲霞蓋。相師曰。中有神人。即得乞兒。諸臣拜謁。乞兒驚愕自云。下賤非是王種。皆言。應相沐浴香湯。著王之服。光相莊嚴導從入國。惡念乞兒。在深草內臥寐不覺。車轢斷其頭(出辯意經)。
In the kingdom of Śrāvastī there was the son of an elder named Discerning-Mind. Hearing the Buddha teach the fifty essential matters, he reached the acceptance of the Dharma, and five hundred sons of elders obtained the pure Dharma-eye.
Discerning-Mind said: I ask the World-Honored One and the great assembly to condescend to eat at my house tomorrow at noon. The Buddha went with the great assembly to eat at his house.
Before the blessing was pronounced, a beggar came going along the seats begging, and no one dared give to him, and he got nothing anywhere. He went out in a rage and gave rise to an evil thought: these śramaṇas are licentious and deluded — what path is there in them? A poor man begs of them and they have no mind to give. When I become a king, I shall have their heads cut off with the iron rim of a chariot wheel. Having said it, he left.
When the Buddha had pronounced the blessing, another beggar came and begged food from the assembly, and each of them gave to him; and he got a great deal of food and went away glad. And he gave rise to this thought: these śramaṇas have compassionate hearts. When I become a king I shall make offerings to the Buddha and the saṅgha for seven days on end, and even that will not repay the kindness shown me today in my hunger and thirst. Having said it, he left.
The two beggars wandered on begging and came into another country, and lay down in deep grass by the roadside. Just then the ruler of that country suddenly died leaving no heir; and the physiognomists judged, and it was written down, that a lowly man should be king. The ministers and officials with a thousand carriages and ten thousand horsemen went patrolling the borders of the country, and saw from a distance a canopy of cloud and mist above the grass. The physiognomist said: there is a divine person within. And they found the beggar.
The ministers bowed to him, and the beggar, startled, said of himself: I am low-born and not of royal stock. They all said: the signs correspond. And they bathed him in fragrant water, dressed him in a king’s robes, adorned him in radiance, and led him with a procession into the kingdom.
The beggar of the evil thought was lying asleep inside the deep grass and did not wake; and the chariot wheels ran over him and cut off his head (Source: Sūtra of the Elder’s Son Discerning-Mind).
The two beggars' wishes are formed at the same house on the same day, and the only difference between their circumstances is arrival time — before or after the formal blessing, which appears to be what governs whether alms may be handed out. The story does not comment on this. It also does not let the good beggar carry out his wish; the entry ends with the kingship conferred and the other man's head under the wheel, and no scene of the promised seven days of offerings.
Note that the fatal chariot is the one the new king is riding in procession, and the vow it fulfils is the first beggar's own — he had said he would have their heads cut off with an iron chariot rim when he became king.
10. Dharmaruci Was in a Former Body a Great Fish
The Buddha greets an elder by saying it has been a very long time, and then explains how long: back to the mud beneath Dīpaṃkara's feet, and one contemptuous remark about the young man who spread his hair on it.
昔有長者。字曇摩留支問訊。佛言。曇摩留支。別來大久乃得相見。有人問。佛答曰。昔阿僧祇劫時。世有佛。名曰定光。我時為梵志。字曰超述。時定光佛。方欲入城。我即中路相逢。解髮布泥上令佛蹈過。佛即記曰。汝勇猛乃爾。却後阿僧祇劫當得作佛。汝于時起恚心曰。此人與畜生無異。乃蹈他頭髮上過去。從起以來阿僧祇劫。常墮畜生中。復在大海中。為摩竭魚。身長七千由延。時有五百賈客。乘船入海採寶。值此大魚噏船垂欲入口。時五百人各稱所行事。時賈客主語眾人言。今世有佛名釋迦文。濟人危厄無復是過。我等稱名冀蒙得脫。即便齊聲稱喚。魚聞佛名本識由存。即自惟曰。釋迦文佛已出世間。我身云何故在魚中。即還沒水。五百賈客安隱而歸。時魚即撲身出沙壇上。不飲不食經二七日命終。生長者家作子。字曇摩留支。今來與吾相見。所以稱久遠耳。留支聞此本末。即向海邊求其故屍。見大魚骨皮肉已盡行脇骨上。思惟言。此是我故屍。即以華散故屍上。尋惟即往。忽然道成(出分別功德經第四卷)。
Long ago there was an elder named Dharmaruci who came to pay his respects. The Buddha said: Dharmaruci, it is a very long time since we parted, and only now do we meet again.
Someone asked about it, and the Buddha answered: long ago, in the asaṃkhya kalpa, there was in the world a buddha named Dīpaṃkara. I was then a brahmin named Chāoshù. That Dīpaṃkara Buddha was about to enter a city, and I met him in the middle of the road, and undid my hair and spread it over the mud so that the Buddha might tread across it. The Buddha then prophesied: your courage being such, after an asaṃkhya kalpa you shall become a buddha.
You, at that time, gave rise to an angry thought and said: this man is no different from an animal, to walk across the top of another’s hair. And from the time that thought arose, for an asaṃkhya kalpa you have constantly fallen among the animals; and you were in the great sea as a makara fish seven thousand yojanas long.
At that time five hundred merchants took a ship into the sea to gather treasure and met this great fish, which drew the ship in and was about to take it into its mouth. Each of the five hundred men called upon whatever he practiced, and the caravan leader said to them: in the world now there is a buddha named Śākyamuni, who saves people from peril and distress and nothing surpasses him. Let us call upon his name and hope by it to be delivered. And with one voice they called out.
The fish, hearing the Buddha’s name, still had its original consciousness in it, and thought to itself: the Buddha Śākyamuni has already appeared in the world. How is it that my own body is still in a fish? And it sank back down into the water, and the five hundred merchants got home in peace.
The fish then threw its body up onto a sandbank, and neither drank nor ate for twice seven days, and its life ended; and it was born in an elder’s house as a son, named Dharmaruci, who now comes and sees me — and that is why I said it was so long ago.
Dharmaruci, hearing this account of his origins, went to the seashore to look for his former corpse, and saw the great fish’s bones, the skin and flesh already gone. Walking along the ribs, he reflected: this is my former corpse. And he scattered flowers over the former corpse; and in the course of that reflection the path was suddenly accomplished (Source: Sūtra Discriminating Merit, fascicle 4).
This is a variant of the Dīpaṃkara prophecy — the scene in which the future Śākyamuni spreads his hair over the mud for a previous buddha and is prophesied to buddhahood — told from the point of view of a bystander who thought the gesture undignified and said so. The compendium places it here among elders rather than among jātakas, and the Buddha's opening line, that it has been a very long time since they met, is the whole story in miniature.
The makara-fish episode here is a doublet of one inside entry 4 of this same fascicle: five hundred merchants in a ship, a fish long enough to swallow it, the merchants calling on the Buddha's name, and the fish closing its mouth and dying of hunger. The two come from different sources — the Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish and the Sūtra Discriminating Merit — and identify the fish as two different people. The compendium prints both.
11. A Miserly Elder Goes to Sea; His Wife Gives Silk to the Buddha; All the Merchants Die and He Alone Survives
A miserly husband rings his house with three courses of iron caltrops before sailing. His wife thinks of the Buddha and the iron turns to swan's down.
昔人大富而慳。其婦好法欲施不敢。婿臨入海。先以鐵蒺䔧三重繞舍。婦礙之不能得出。一心念佛。諸鐵關閡變成鵠毛。取絹一匹寄人施佛。佛受呪願。夫與五百伴共在海中。為鬼所噉。唯留其夫。諸鬼相語。是人婦事佛。不可近也。伴侶死盡獨得寶還。問婦何事。婦具告之。二人歡喜。即請佛僧設會得道(出雜譬喻經第一卷)。
Long ago there was a man very rich and very miserly. His wife loved the Dharma and wished to give but did not dare. When her husband was about to go to sea, he first surrounded the house with three rings of iron caltrops, and his wife, blocked by them, could not get out.
With one mind she thought of the Buddha, and all the iron barriers turned into swan’s down. She took one bolt of silk and entrusted it to someone to give to the Buddha, and the Buddha received it and pronounced a blessing.
Her husband and five hundred companions were out in the sea and were eaten by demons, and only her husband was left. The demons said to one another: this man’s wife serves the Buddha; he must not be approached. All his companions died and he alone came back with the treasure. He asked his wife what she had done, and she told him everything, and the two of them rejoiced, and at once invited the Buddha and the saṅgha, held a feast, and attained the path (Source: Miscellaneous Parables Sūtra, fascicle 1).
12. Píluótuó Feeds the Buddha and the Saṅgha and His Storehouses Fill of Themselves
An elder's vow to feed the Buddha every year on a fixed date, inherited by a son who has since gone broke and pawns his wife to keep it.
昔佛在世有大長者。名修羅陀財富無數信向道德。自誓。常以臘月八日請佛及僧。終身子孫奉行不輟。長者亡時。囑兒勿廢。兒名毘羅陀。後日漸貧。至時無以供辦愁慼不樂。佛遣目連往問云。汝父供月欲至當設何計。答言。唯願世尊。勿見忽棄。八日臨眄。將妻至外家。質百兩金。還辦供具。佛與千二百五十眾僧往舍而坐。行水下食清淨竟而還。其日夜半諸故藏中寶物自滿。夫婦見之。且喜且懼。恐官顧問。即往白佛。佛言。安意快用勿有疑難。汝之履信不違父教。聞施慧道七財滿足(出法句經第三卷)。
Long ago, when the Buddha was in the world, there was a great elder named Xiūluótuó, of wealth beyond number, who had faith in the path and its virtue. He made a vow of his own always to invite the Buddha and the saṅgha on the eighth day of the twelfth month, and that his sons and grandsons should carry it out to the end of their lives without break. When the elder died he charged his son not to let it lapse.
His son was named Píluótuó, and afterward he grew poor by degrees, so that when the time came he had nothing to prepare the offering with, and he was grieved and unhappy. The Buddha sent Maudgalyāyana to ask him: your father’s monthly offering is nearly due — what do you plan to do? He answered: I ask only that the World-Honored One not neglect and cast me off; on the eighth day, look in on me.
He took his wife to her family’s house and pawned her for a hundred taels of gold, and came back and prepared the offering. The Buddha and twelve hundred and fifty monks went to his house and sat down; water was passed, the food was set out, and when it was finished in purity they returned.
In the middle of that night, in his old storehouses, treasures filled up of themselves. Husband and wife, seeing it, were both glad and afraid, fearing the officials would question them, and they went at once and told the Buddha. The Buddha said: set your mind at ease and use it freely; there is no difficulty. Because you walked in faith and did not go against your father’s instruction, you have heard of giving and of the wisdom of the path, and the seven riches are complete in you (Source: Dharmapada Sūtra, fascicle 3).
One detail here is a genuine Sinicization and should not be passed over: the elder's standing vow is to feed the Buddha and the saṅgha on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. That is the Chinese làbā date, later fixed as the anniversary of the Buddha's enlightenment in East Asian practice; it is not an Indian calendar date, and an Indian elder in the Buddha's lifetime could not have kept it. The source given is the Chinese Dharmapada.
The son's solution — pawning his wife at her own family's house for a hundred taels to fund the offering — is reported without comment, and the Buddha's closing praise is for his not going against his father's instruction.
13. Póshìzhì, Endangered by Lust, Is Saved by Maudgalyāyana
An elder's son marries into a troupe of acrobats and learns their trade. Halfway up the pole, in front of the king, his strength gives out — and Maudgalyāyana appears in mid-air to put a question to him.
佛在羅閱祇國。有豪長者。名尸利躓。大富盈溢。婦生一男形容嚴妙。請師占候歎子福德。問言。從懷此兒有何瑞應。長者曰。其母訥口鈍辭。既懷此子談語巧妙。字婆世躓。及年長大遊行觀看。見那羅伎家有一女子。心便染著欲得娉娶。還啟父母願為求索。父母告言。高卑非匹如何為婚。子重啟言。莫問門戶但論其身。幸為我求若不如志便自殞命。父母從之。共作婚姻。兒惑其色不恥鄙事。即詣彼家。學習戲藝皆已成就。是時國王集諸那羅眾多戲事。時長者子次應現伎上索而走。王脫不見。復勅更上。氣力漸羸中道欲墮。心中惶懅無所歸依。目連陵虛告之曰。如卿今日寧全身命出家學道。為寧墮地娶彼女耶。答言。願自存濟不用女也。目連即時化作平地得全身首。喜不自勝。隨逐目連。往詣世尊禮拜供養。佛於是時廣說妙論。心意開解便得初果。因求出家世尊聽之。鬚髮自落法衣在身。專精禪思成阿羅漢。佛言。過世波羅奈國。有大長者。初生一子端正無比。有人從海中來齎一鳥卵用奉長者。長者納受。經少時間。其卵便剖出一鳥雛。毛羽光潤。長者受與子使弄。子騎鳥脊飛遊觀看。聞他國王作那羅戲。乘鳥至彼。鳥住樹上。偶見王女情便染愛。遣信騰情。女便與交。為王所知。推捕縛來而當斬戮。長者子言。諸君何為勞力殺我。聽我上樹自投而死。諸人聽許。便相上樹乘騎其鳥翔虛而去。得延壽命。時長者子今婆世躓是。王女者今伎家女是。爾時鳥者則目連是。過去世惑色致困由鳥得濟。今垂當死。由於目連故得安隱(出賢愚經第十三卷)。
The Buddha was in the kingdom of Rājagṛha. There was a great elder named Shīlìzhì, of overflowing wealth. His wife bore a son of fine and handsome form, and he invited a diviner to observe him, who praised the child’s merit and asked: since you conceived this child, what auspicious signs have there been? The elder said: his mother was slow of speech and dull of tongue, but once she had conceived this child her talk became clever and fine. And he was named Póshìzhì.
When he had grown up he went out walking to look about, and saw in the household of a naṭa troupe of performers a girl, and his heart was at once seized with attachment to her and he wanted to marry her. He went home and told his parents and asked them to seek her for him. His parents told him: high and low are not a match — how can there be a marriage? Their son urged them again: do not ask about the household, but consider only the person herself. Please seek her for me; if I do not have my wish I shall put an end to my life. His parents gave way and the marriage was made.
The son, infatuated with her looks, was not ashamed of low occupations, and went to their house and studied the performing arts until he had mastered them all.
At that time the king gathered the naṭa troupes for a great many performances. When the elder’s son’s turn came to perform, he climbed the pole and ran along it, and the king happened not to be watching, and ordered him to go up again. His strength gradually failed and halfway up he was about to fall; his heart was in a panic and he had nothing to turn to.
Maudgalyāyana, riding through the air, said to him: which would you rather have today — to keep your body and your life whole, and go forth and study the path; or to fall to the ground and marry that girl? He answered: I want to save myself and have no use for the girl. Maudgalyāyana at once conjured up level ground, and he kept his body and head whole, and, unable to contain his joy, followed Maudgalyāyana to the World-Honored One and made obeisance and offering.
The Buddha then taught the subtle discourse at length, and his mind opened in understanding and he obtained the first fruit; and he asked to go forth, and the World-Honored One permitted it. His hair and beard fell away of themselves and the Dharma robe was on his body, and he applied himself with concentration to meditative thought and became an arhat.
The Buddha said: in a past age, in the kingdom of Vārāṇasī, there was a great elder whose firstborn son was handsome beyond compare. A man came from the sea bringing a bird’s egg as a gift for the elder, and the elder accepted it. After a little while the egg cracked open and a fledgling came out with glossy plumage, and the elder gave it to his son to play with; and the son rode on the bird’s back and flew about sightseeing.
He heard that the king of another country was holding naṭa performances, and rode the bird there, and the bird perched in a tree. He happened to see the king’s daughter and his feelings were seized with love; he sent word of his passion, and the girl consented and they came together. The king learned of it and had him hunted down and bound and brought in, and he was to be executed.
The elder’s son said: gentlemen, why trouble yourselves to kill me? Let me climb the tree and throw myself down and die. They allowed it. So he helped himself up the tree, mounted and rode his bird, and soared away through the air, and so his life was prolonged.
The elder’s son of that time is Póshìzhì now; the king’s daughter is the performer’s girl now; and the bird of that time is Maudgalyāyana. In a past life he was deluded by beauty and brought into difficulty, and was saved by the bird; and now, on the point of death, it was through Maudgalyāyana that he came safely through (Source: Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish, fascicle 13).
The Buddha's explanation at the end sets up an exact correspondence between the two lives — the elder's son is the same man, the king's daughter is the acrobat girl, and the bird that carried him out of the execution ground is Maudgalyāyana — but the correspondence quietly reverses the moral. In the past life the rescue lets him escape the consequences of an affair; in this life the same rescuer offers escape only on condition that he give the woman up. He is asked to choose in mid-air, halfway up a pole, with his arms failing.
Note also what is not said. The performer girl is never consulted, never named, and disappears from the story the moment he agrees to renounce her.
14. An Elder's Newborn Son Remembers His Former Life, Asks for His Mother, Invites the Buddha, and Sweet Food Descends
A newborn who speaks, asks whether the Buddha and Ānanda are still alive, arranges his own family's almsgiving, and requests that the mother of his previous life be fetched from another kingdom.
舍衛國中有大長者。生一男兒。面目端正生而能言。問其父母。世尊及舍利弗阿難等皆在世不。父母答在。見其能言乃謂非人。即往問佛。佛言。此兒有相。父母歡喜。兒又啟曰。唯垂請佛及僧。答曰。卒無供養。兒又啟曰。但掃灑堂舍莊嚴床席。施三高座。百味飯食自然滿堂。又先身之母今猶存在。居波羅奈國。願為仰報。父母遣使馳象迎接。以三高座。一擬如來。一為父。一為前世所生母。佛與眾僧既入其舍。甘味飯食自然而下種種豐饒。佛為說法。合家大小盡得初果(出賢愚經第一卷)。
In the kingdom of Śrāvastī there was a great elder whose wife bore a boy of upright face and eyes, who could speak from birth, and who asked his parents: are the World-Honored One and Śāriputra and Ānanda and the rest all in the world?
His parents answered that they were, and, seeing that he could speak, took him for something other than human, and went at once to ask the Buddha. The Buddha said: this child has the marks. And his parents rejoiced.
The child said further: I ask you to invite the Buddha and the saṅgha. They answered: we have nothing at hand to offer. The child said further: only sweep and sprinkle the hall, adorn the couches and mats, and set out three high seats, and food of a hundred flavors will fill the hall of itself. Also, my mother of a former life is still living, in the kingdom of Vārāṇasī; I ask you to send her word for me.
His parents sent messengers with elephants at speed to fetch her. Of the three high seats, one was for the Tathāgata, one for his father, and one for the mother who had borne him in a former life. When the Buddha and the assembly of monks had come into the house, sweet food came down of itself, abundant and of every kind. The Buddha taught the Dharma for them, and the whole household, great and small, attained the first fruit (Source: Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish, fascicle 1).
15. Anāthapiṇḍada's Seven Sons Take the Precepts for Money, Hear the Dharma, and Are Freed of Stain
Anāthapiṇḍada bribes his seven unbelieving sons with a thousand taels of gold each to take refuge and the precepts, then asks the Buddha whether merit bought that way counts.
舍衛城中阿那邠邸。有七子心無篤信。於佛法眾不持五戒。阿那邠邸長者言。我當賜汝千兩金。汝等可歸命三寶受於五戒。七子聞之。便欲歸三寶受持五戒。父各賜千兩金。俱至世尊所。具以白佛。云何世尊。彼七子頗有福善諸功德不。佛言。善哉長者。饒益眾生安隱天人。彼七子者緣是諸善功德具足。所獲果報我今當說。北方有國。城名石室。國土豐熟人民熾盛。彼有伊羅波多羅藏。無數百千金銀珍寶。於彼健陀賴國人七藏之中。隨其所欲皆悉費用。無所減少及此伊羅鉢多羅大寶藏。彼七千兩金百倍千倍無數倍。皆悉不及汝七子所獲功德。世尊與阿那邠邸說微妙法。即從坐起白世尊言。願受我請。及比丘僧。欲設甘露飲食。為七子故。世尊默然受。世尊知時。與比丘僧前後圍遶入舍衛城。詣阿那邠邸家皆即就坐。長者及子禮敬世尊。世尊說法便逮等見。告言如是。長者七子甘饌飲食。飯佛比丘。食竟除鉢。佛與七子說法。各於坐上諸塵垢盡。無有瑕穢得法眼生。彼已見法。無有狐疑亦無猶豫(出阿那邠邸化七子經)。
In the city of Śrāvastī, Anāthapiṇḍada had seven sons whose minds held no firm faith, who did not keep the five precepts with regard to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the saṅgha. The elder Anāthapiṇḍada said: I shall give you a thousand taels of gold each; you may take refuge in the Three Jewels and receive the five precepts. The seven sons, hearing this, then wished to take refuge in the Three Jewels and receive and keep the five precepts, and their father gave each of them a thousand taels of gold.
Together they went to the World-Honored One and told him all of it: how is it, World-Honored One — do those seven sons have any merit, any good, any store of virtue at all?
The Buddha said: excellent, elder. You benefit living beings and give peace to gods and men. Those seven sons, by these good deeds, are complete in merit; and the fruit they obtain I shall now tell you.
In the north there is a country with a city named Stone Chamber, its land fertile and its people flourishing, where there is the treasure-hoard of Elāpattra, with numberless hundreds of thousands of pieces of gold, silver, and precious things. Of the seven hoards of the people of Gandhāra there, whatever anyone wishes to spend, they spend, and it is not diminished. And yet the great treasure-hoard of Elāpattra, a hundredfold, a thousandfold, numberless times over, does not come near the merit your seven sons have obtained by that seven thousand taels of gold.
The World-Honored One taught the subtle Dharma to Anāthapiṇḍada, who rose from his seat and said to him: I ask you to accept my invitation, together with the community of monks; I wish to set out sweet food and drink for the sake of my seven sons. The World-Honored One accepted in silence.
When the World-Honored One knew the time had come, he went with the community of monks, surrounded before and behind, into the city of Śrāvastī, and came to Anāthapiṇḍada’s house, and they all took their seats. The elder and his sons made obeisance to the World-Honored One, and the World-Honored One taught the Dharma and they came to see rightly, and he told them so.
The elder’s seven sons fed the Buddha and the monks with sweet dishes of food and drink; and when the eating was over and the bowls put away, the Buddha taught the Dharma for the seven sons, and on their seats all their dusts and stains were exhausted; and being without flaw or blemish, the Dharma-eye arose in them. Having seen the Dharma, they had no more doubt and no more hesitation (Source: Sūtra on Anāthapiṇḍada Converting His Seven Sons).
The premise is unusually frank: a father pays his sons a thousand taels of gold each to take refuge and the precepts, and then asks the Buddha, in effect, whether merit bought that way is worth anything. The Buddha's answer does not address motive at all. He simply measures the resulting merit against the largest treasure-hoard he can name — Elāpattra's, in the north, which the people of Gandhāra draw on without diminishing it — and says the seven thousand taels of gold bought something a hundred, a thousand, numberless times greater.
This closes fascicle 35, the first half of the section on elders. The fascicle's fifteen entries cover conversion by vision, by argument, by humiliation, by rescue in mid-air, and — twice, in entries 6 and 12 — by storehouses that refill themselves overnight after everything in them has been given away.