Lay Women
This page carries Ru-Yi's complete translation of fascicle 38 of the Jīng Lǜ Yì Xiàng (經律異相): "Lay Women" (優婆夷部) — nine entries, and among the most substantial short fascicles in the collection. Among them: the lay-woman who, unable to buy meat on a day when the law forbids killing, cuts flesh from her own thigh to make broth for a sick monk — the incident from which the Buddha's prohibition on eating human flesh is derived; Āmrapālī of Vaiśālī, who will yield her invitation to five hundred noblemen only on four conditions they admit they cannot meet, and who sends a parrot over the wall when they bar the city gate; Anāthapiṇḍada's youngest daughter arguing her sons out of hunting; the mother sent to beg fire from a household where no one has died, and what the Buddha does when she comes back empty-handed; a woman who loses husband, three children, parents, and parents-in-law inside a day and a night; a brahmin widow talked off her own funeral pyre by a passing monk in the longest sustained argument in the fascicle; the poor woman Nandā's lamp, which Maudgalyāyana cannot put out with the water of five Ganges; and a fifteen-year-old who reasons her way out of her own future while sitting still.
Translation Method
Fascicle 38 collects the lay women, and it is a considerably weightier fascicle than its length suggests. Five of the nine entries are canonical narratives found across the tradition — Suppiyā, Āmrapālī, Sumanā, Kisā Gotamī, and Paṭācārā — and in three of those five the Chinese differs from the familiar Pali version in ways worth noticing. We set the differences out in the reading notes rather than silently harmonising them.
Two of the entries are, in their different ways, arguments rather than narratives: entry 6, a monk's point-by-point case against religious suicide delivered to a woman standing beside her own pyre, and entry 9, a girl's reasoning about her own betrothal, conducted alone and before any divine intervention. Both are translated closely.
On names: Prasenajit, Śāriputra, Maudgalyāyana, Ānanda, Śakra, Vaiśravaṇa, Virūḍhaka, Vipaśyin, Śuddhodana, Amitābha, Nārāyaṇa, Anāthapiṇḍada, Śrāvastī, Vaiśālī, Takṣaśilā, Kapilavastu, the Jetavana, the Ganges, and Avīci are given in their standard forms. Three identifications rest on the narrative as much as the transliteration and are argued in the reading notes: Upasenā/Suppiyā in entry 1, Āmrapālī in entry 2, and Sumanā in entry 3. Where no confident correspondence exists — Pínniǔqián, Píqiánchí, Péishànshé, Tíwéi, Bōdǐpó, Sānmàntuó Yōuhē, and the bīnpóluò fruit — we keep the Chinese in pinyin, with the compendium's own bracketed glosses preserved.
Entry 1 carries three interlinear notes recording where the Mahāsāṃghika and Mahīśāsaka Vinayas disagree with the main text, on the woman's name and on two points of detail. We keep them inside the sentences where the Chinese puts them.
Two entries end with a woman becoming a man — as a future reward in entry 8, and as something the woman herself does in entry 9. Both are translated as they stand and noted where they occur.
Fascicle Contents
- 1. Upasenā Cuts Her Own Flesh to Save a Sick Monk 優波斯那割肉救病比丘一
- 2. Āmrapālī Invites the Buddha with a Sincere Heart and Her Storehouses Fill of Themselves 阿凡和利至心請佛庫中自然皆備二
- 3. Sumanā Bears Ten Eggs Which Become Ten Sons, and Their Former Causes 蘇曼女產十卵卵成十男并其往緣三
- 4. A Widowed Mother Who Lost Her Son Meets the Buddha's Kind Guidance, Wearies of Love, and Attains the Path 孤母喪子遇佛慈誘厭愛得道四
- 5. A Woman Who Loses Her Whole Family Goes Mad 婦人喪失眷屬心發狂癡五
- 6. Tíwéi, a Brahmin Woman Without a Son, Is About to Burn Herself and Meets the Śramaṇa Eloquence 提韋婆羅門女無子自焚遇辯才沙門聞法悟解六
- 7. A Pregnant Woman Vows Her Child Shall Go Forth, and After His Birth Her Earlier Intention Is Not Carried Out 女人懷妊願欲出家生子之後前心不遂七
- 8. Nandā's Lamp, Which the Hearers' Combined Powers Cannot Put Out 難陀燃燈聲聞神力共不能滅八
- 9. Shànxìn, Awake to Impermanence at Fifteen, Holds to Purity and Is Tested by Śakra 善信女少悟無常秉志清白為天帝所試九
1. Upasenā Cuts Her Own Flesh to Save a Sick Monk
A sick monk needs fresh meat broth; it is the fifteenth, when the law forbids killing. The lay-woman bathes alone, cuts flesh from her own thigh, and cooks it — and the Buddha's rule against eating human flesh is laid down as a result.
毘紐乾國。多信邪見。無佛法僧。有一女人。名優波斯那(僧祇律云。名畢㖦夫亦名㖦卑。彌沙塞律云。須卑。)時有事緣至舍衛國。波斯匿王所緣事畢。從諸篤信優婆塞邊聞佛功德。欲得見佛。即往祇洹。值佛為諸大眾說五戒法。優波斯那求從佛受。即得五戒。佛復以法句經與令諷誦。是時中夜誦法句經。有毘沙門天王。從數千夜叉欲至南方毘婁勒叉所。聞誦經聲尋皆住聽。讚言。善哉姊妹善說法要。優波斯那即便問言。汝為是誰。但聞空聲不見有形。答言。我是鬼王毘沙門天。為聽法故住於空中。又問。汝天我人。云何故稱我為姊妹耶。答曰。佛是法王亦人天父。同一法味故言姊妹。時優波斯那心大歡喜。常使人入林採薪。後旦上樹。遙見舍利弗目連及五百比丘在此林中精懃禪誦。使人還白大家。優波斯那歡喜無量脫二金環以賞使者。使者復言。世尊有好言寄與大家。具說五施。復解瓔珞重以賜之。使者曰。時起洗手辦具飲食。我向輒持大家言。請二尊者及五百弟子。今日來食。即放使者及與珍寶。告諸家屬及諸隣比。設於供具。尊者與諸比丘著衣持鉢就座而坐。作禮訖手自行水下種種食。香味具足。謂舍利弗言。此舍有神與我親厚。我有施時語我。此阿羅漢。此聖此凡。此持戒此破戒。此智此愚。告舍利弗言。我有四子及夫。皆惡邪見。我若供養三寶給施貧窮。便生嫉恚。而我修善布施終不退縮成須陀洹。舍利弗言。甚為希有。世尊是暮。當來毘乾持林。今還所住。僧去已後。即辦所用往至佛所。觀諸眾僧所止宿處。見一病僧臥草窟中。問其所患何所須欲。答曰。四大不調極大困苦。醫令服新肉汁(僧祇律云比丘是常供養服下藥須肉)斯那言。莫復他求。我明當送。明十五日國法不殺。遍求不得。便使却人。靜室自浴割股裏肉。以㲲纏裹合諸草藥。煮以為羹送病比丘。比丘食已病即除愈。其夫尋還見婦色變。即便問言。汝何憔悴。對曰。我病。即喚請醫不能識。逼問家人婢具言之。夫到街巷大呌呼言。沙門釋子食噉人肉如駮足王。佛因制。諸比丘。諸不淨肉甚不應食。優婆夷言。緣我斷肉。即語夫言。若能為我請佛及僧來此設供甚善。若其不能我當捨命。夫為妻故入林請佛。明日舍食。佛與眾僧就坐而坐。問斯那何在。答曰病。佛言喚來。夫言。汝師喚汝。答曰。病苦不任起。佛告阿難。汝往告令起。阿難即往稱佛呼之。并床輿之來到佛所。遇佛光明苦病即除平復如故(僧祇律云比丘入慈心三昧瘡即平復)即起禮佛。佛為說法得阿那含道。夫及眷屬捨離邪見法。受五戒為佛弟子(出優波斯那經又出賢愚經)。
In the kingdom of Pínniǔqián, where most believed wrong views and there was no Buddha, Dharma, or Saṅgha, there was a woman named Upasenā (the Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya calls her Bìtuōfū, also Tuōbēi; the Mahīśāsaka Vinaya calls her Suppiyā). She had business that brought her to the kingdom of Śrāvastī, to King Prasenajit; and when the business was done, she heard of the Buddha’s merits from devout lay followers and wished to see him, and went to the Jetavana.
She found the Buddha teaching the five precepts to a great assembly, and Upasenā asked to receive them from the Buddha and received the five precepts; and the Buddha further gave her the Dharmapada and had her recite it.
Then, in the middle of the night, she was reciting the Dharmapada. Vaiśravaṇa, the heavenly king, was going with several thousand yakṣas to the south, to Virūḍhaka, and, hearing the sound of the recitation, they all stopped to listen, and praised her: excellent, sister — well have you set out the essentials of the Dharma.
Upasenā then asked: who are you? — for she heard only a voice in the air and saw no form. He answered: I am the ghost-king Vaiśravaṇa, and I am standing in the air to hear the Dharma. She asked again: you are a god and I am human; why then do you call me sister? He answered: the Buddha is the Dharma-king and also the father of gods and men, and we share one taste of the Dharma; and so I say sister. Then Upasenā’s heart was greatly glad.
She used to send a man into the forest to gather firewood. One morning he went up a tree and saw from a distance Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana and five hundred monks in that forest, diligently sitting and reciting. The man came back and told his mistress; and Upasenā, glad beyond measure, took off two gold rings and gave them to the messenger as a reward.
The messenger said further: the World-Honored One has sent good words to my mistress — and set out the five gifts in full; and she took off her necklace and gave him that as well. The messenger said: it is time to rise and wash your hands and prepare the food; I have already taken it upon myself to speak in my mistress’s name and invite the two venerable ones and their five hundred disciples to eat here today.
She released the messenger and gave him treasures besides, and told her household and her neighbours to set out the offerings. The venerable ones and the monks put on their robes, took their bowls, went to their seats and sat down. When the obeisance was made she poured the water with her own hands and set out food of every kind, perfect in scent and flavor.
She said to Śāriputra: there is a spirit in this house who is intimate with me; when I make an offering it tells me — this one is an arhat, this one is a sage, this one an ordinary person; this one keeps the precepts, this one has broken them; this one is wise, this one a fool. And she said to Śāriputra: I have four sons and a husband, all of them evil and holding wrong views. Whenever I make offerings to the Three Jewels or give to the poor, they grow jealous and angry; and yet I cultivate good and give and have never drawn back, and have become a stream-enterer.
Śāriputra said: this is very rare. The World-Honored One will come this evening to the Píqiánchí grove. And they returned to their lodging.
After the saṅgha had gone she prepared what she needed and went to where the Buddha was, and looked over the places where the monks were lodging, and saw a sick monk lying in a grass hut, and asked what he suffered from and what he needed. He answered: my four elements are out of balance and I am in extreme distress; the physician has told me to take fresh meat broth (the Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya says the monk was one she regularly provided for, and that having taken a purgative he needed meat).
Upasenā said: seek no further; I shall send it tomorrow. But the next day was the fifteenth, when by the law of the land no killing is done, and she searched everywhere and could not get any. So she sent her people away, bathed alone in a private room, cut flesh from her own thigh, wrapped it in cotton cloth, mixed it with medicinal herbs, boiled it into a broth, and sent it to the sick monk; and when the monk had eaten it his illness was cured at once.
Her husband soon came back and saw that his wife’s color had changed, and asked: why are you so worn? She answered: I am ill. He called a physician at once, who could not identify it; and he pressed the household servants, who told him everything.
Her husband went out into the streets and lanes crying aloud: the śramaṇas, sons of the Śākya, eat human flesh like King Spotted-Foot. The Buddha thereupon laid down for the monks that impure meats of every kind are absolutely not to be eaten.
The lay-woman said: it is on my account that meat has been forbidden. And she said to her husband: if you can invite the Buddha and the saṅgha here and set out an offering, it would be very good; and if you cannot, I shall give up my life.
For his wife’s sake her husband went into the forest and invited the Buddha to eat at the house the next day. The Buddha and the community of monks came to their seats and sat down, and he asked where Upasenā was. He answered: she is ill. The Buddha said: call her. Her husband said: your teacher calls you. She answered: I am too ill to rise. The Buddha told Ānanda: go and tell her to rise. Ānanda went and called her in the Buddha’s name, and she was carried in on her bed to where the Buddha was; and meeting the Buddha’s light her pain and sickness were removed at once and she was restored as before (the Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya says the monk entered the samādhi of loving-kindness and the wound closed).
She rose and bowed to the Buddha, and the Buddha taught her the Dharma and she attained the fruit of a non-returner; and her husband and household gave up their wrong views and the teachings that went with them, and received the five precepts and became disciples of the Buddha (Source: Sūtra of Upasenā; also the Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish).
This is the story of Suppiyā, the lay-woman of the Pali Vinaya who cut flesh from her thigh to make broth for a sick monk, and the compendium's own interlinear notes record the disagreement over her name: Upasenā here, Bìtuōfū or Tuōbēi in the Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya, Suppiyā in the Mahīśāsaka. We keep all three where the Chinese puts them.
The consequence is the point of the entry, and it is a piece of vinaya history: the husband runs into the street shouting that the śramaṇas eat human flesh like King Spotted-Foot, and the Buddha thereupon lays down the prohibition on eating human and other impure flesh. The woman's response to the scandal is not shame but a demand — invite the Buddha here, or I shall give up my life.
Two other details are worth pausing on. The heavenly king Vaiśravaṇa, stopping in mid-flight to listen to her recite the Dharmapada, calls her sister, and when she objects that he is a god and she a human, his answer is that the Buddha is the father of gods and men alike and they share one taste of the Dharma. And the household spirit she describes to Śāriputra, which tells her which of her guests is an arhat, which a sage, which merely ordinary, which keeps the precepts and which has broken them, is mentioned once and never explained.
2. Āmrapālī Invites the Buddha with a Sincere Heart and Her Storehouses Fill of Themselves
The courtesan of Vaiśālī invites the Buddha before five hundred sons of elders do, and refuses to give way except on four conditions they cannot meet. They shut the markets and the city gate against her, so she sends a parrot.
維耶離城。有一女子。名阿凡和利。聞佛來遊歡喜無量。與五百女俱詣佛所。聞佛說法心生開悟。請佛飲食。時城中復有五百長者子。亦請世尊。世尊言。已受阿凡和利明日請。時諸長者子。語和利言。佛之至尊來化我國。我應先飯。汝且停供。女言。勿以豪強加於女弱。若能見惠四願當相讓也。一者令我心保善不移。二者令我命保在不亡。三者令我財物無減。四者令佛長住此國。長者曰善。汝今乃能悟於無常。諸所希願非我能辦。聽先飯佛。中有年少恥在其後。固執不已。便勅市司罷不貨易。和利遣人求索諸物。都無所得。庫中眾膳自然滿足。唯乏薪炭。油灌白疊以充代之。又內城門令不得出。啟請於佛。即遣鸚鵡往白食辦。長者射之。以佛神德箭化為花。得至佛所。飛鳴白佛眾祐及僧。足蹈城門天地震動。五百長者。阿凡和利及諸女人。見聞此事逮得法眼受持五戒(出中本起經下卷)。
In the city of Vaiśālī there was a woman named Āmrapālī. Hearing that the Buddha had come there she was glad beyond measure, and went with five hundred women to where the Buddha was; and hearing the Buddha teach the Dharma her mind opened in understanding, and she invited the Buddha to eat.
At that time there were also five hundred sons of elders in the city who invited the World-Honored One; and the World-Honored One said: I have already accepted Āmrapālī’s invitation for tomorrow.
Then the elders’ sons said to Āmrapālī: the Buddha, most honored, has come to transform our country, and we should feed him first. Set your offering aside. The woman said: do not use your power and rank against a weak woman. If you will grant me four wishes, I shall give way to you. First, let my mind hold to the good and not shift. Second, let my life be preserved and not perish. Third, let my goods not be diminished. Fourth, let the Buddha remain long in this country.
The elders said: good — you are able now to awaken to impermanence. But the things you hope for are not in our power to bring about. Let her feed the Buddha first.
Among them were some young men who were ashamed to come second and stubbornly would not give way; and they ordered the market officials to stop all trading. Āmrapālī sent people to seek for goods and they could get nothing at all — and the storehouses filled with dishes of every kind of themselves. Only firewood and charcoal were lacking, and she used oil and white cotton in their place. They also shut the city gate so that no one could get out; and she made her petition to the Buddha, sending a parrot to announce that the food was ready. The elders shot at it, and by the Buddha’s divine power the arrow turned into a flower, and it reached the Buddha, and flew crying to tell the Blessed One and the saṅgha; and when his foot touched the city gate heaven and earth shook.
The five hundred elders, Āmrapālī, and the women all saw and heard this and attained the Dharma-eye and received and kept the five precepts (Source: Sūtra of the Intermediate Origins, lower fascicle).
This is Āmrapālī, the courtesan of Vaiśālī, and this entry should be read against fascicle 31's closing entry, where the same woman appears under a different Chinese name — 柰女, the Mango Girl — with a very different story attached. There the emphasis is on her extraordinary birth from a mango tree and on her son the physician Jīvaka; here it is on the incident the Pali canon also records, her invitation of the Buddha in preference to the Licchavi nobles. The compendium prints the two accounts seven fascicles apart without connecting them.
The four conditions she offers as the price of giving way are worth setting out, because they are the argument: let my mind hold to the good and not shift; let my life be preserved; let my goods not be diminished; let the Buddha remain long in this country. The elders concede immediately that they cannot deliver any of them. It is the young men who cannot accept coming second, and who respond by closing the markets and barring the city gate — at which point the storehouses fill by themselves and she sends a parrot over the wall. They shoot at the parrot; the arrow turns into a flower.
3. Sumanā Bears Ten Eggs Which Become Ten Sons, and Their Former Causes
Anāthapiṇḍada's youngest daughter, who grinds incense for the Buddha's room every day, marries into Takṣaśilā and bears ten eggs. Her argument with her sons about hunting is the heart of the entry.
舍衛國須達長者。末生小女。字曰蘇曼。面首最妙。其父憐愛。將至佛所。其女見佛情倍欣踊。願得好香塗佛住室。斯女手中有賓婆落。佛從女索。便以與佛。於上書香還以與之。女共其父還城推買。如佛所須持詣祇洹。躬自擣磨。日日如是。於時特叉尸利國王。遣其一兒使到舍衛廣行觀看。復至精舍見蘇曼女。便取為婦。後遂懷妊生十卵。卵後開敷有十男兒。形貌姝好勇健非凡。然喜畋獵。母教莫爾。諸子白母。射獵最樂。母令相遮將為見憎。母復告言。吾因愛汝等是以相制。若當憎汝時終無此言。殺生之罪當入地獄。無央數劫解脫何由。諸子白母。為自出心從他邊聞。母復告言。吾從佛聞。兒復問母。佛者何人。幸願具宣。母告諸子。迦維羅越國淨飯王子。厭老病死出家學道得無上果。巨身丈六三明六通遐鑒無外。諸子啟母求往覲佛。母即聽之。往至祇洹奉覲如來。佛為說法。十人俱時得法眼淨。便求出家。佛聽為道。鬚髮自墮法衣在身。精懃大業。盡得羅漢盡於苦際。過去九十一劫有毘婆尸佛。般涅槃後分布舍利起無量塔。時有一塔朽故崩壞。有一老母而修治之。有年少十人偶行覩見。歡喜相助所作已竟。誓為母子。從是已來九十一劫。天上人中恒與俱生受福快樂。時老母者今蘇曼女是。爾時十年少者今十羅漢是(出賢愚經第十三卷)。
In the kingdom of Śrāvastī the elder Sudatta had a youngest daughter named Sumanā, whose face was the finest of all, and her father was very fond of her and took her to where the Buddha was. Seeing the Buddha, the girl’s feelings leapt up doubly, and she wished to obtain fine incense to smear the room the Buddha lived in.
In this girl’s hand there was a bīnpóluò fruit, and the Buddha asked her for it and she gave it to him; and he wrote “incense” on it and gave it back to her. The girl and her father went back to the city to look for some to buy, and, when she had what the Buddha needed, she took it to the Jetavana and pounded and ground it herself; and so she did day after day.
At that time the king of the country of Takṣaśilā sent one of his sons on an errand to Śrāvastī to look about widely; and coming to the monastery he saw Sumanā, and took her as his wife.
Afterward she conceived and bore ten eggs, and the eggs opened and there were ten boys, of fine appearance and uncommonly brave and strong. But they were fond of hunting, and their mother taught them not to do it. Her sons said to their mother: shooting and hunting is the greatest pleasure. Their mother had them restrained and they took it for hatred of them; and their mother said again: it is because I love you that I restrain you. If I hated you I would never say such things. The offense of killing living beings brings one into hell, and for countless kalpas there is no way of release.
Her sons said to their mother: is this out of your own mind, or heard from another? Their mother said: I heard it from the Buddha. Her sons asked: and who is the Buddha? Please tell us fully.
Their mother told her sons: he is the son of King Śuddhodana of the country of Kapilavastu, who wearied of old age, sickness, and death, went forth to study the path, and attained the unsurpassed fruit. His great body is sixteen feet tall; with the three knowledges and the six penetrations he sees far and there is nothing outside his view.
Her sons asked their mother’s leave to go and see the Buddha, and their mother permitted it. They went to the Jetavana and paid their respects to the Tathāgata, and the Buddha taught the Dharma, and all ten of them at the same moment obtained the pure Dharma-eye and asked to go forth. The Buddha permitted them to enter the path, and their hair and beards fell away of themselves and the Dharma robe was on their bodies; and applying themselves diligently to the great work they all attained arhatship and came to the end of suffering.
Ninety-one kalpas ago there was a Buddha Vipaśyin, and after his parinirvāṇa his relics were distributed and measureless stūpas raised. At that time one stūpa had decayed and fallen down, and an old woman repaired it; and ten young men happened to pass by and see it and gladly helped her, and when the work was done they vowed to be her sons. From then, for ninety-one kalpas, in heaven and among humans they have always been born together and received blessing and joy. The old woman of that time is Sumanā now, and the ten young men of that time are the ten arhats (Source: Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish, fascicle 13).
The exchange between Sumanā and her sons is the substance of this entry and it is a small masterpiece of parental argument. They tell her hunting is the greatest pleasure; she has them restrained; they take the restraint for hatred; and her reply is that it is because she loves them that she restrains them, and that if she hated them she would say nothing at all. Only then does she raise hell. And when they ask whether this is her own idea or something she heard, she says plainly that she heard it from the Buddha — and the request to go and meet him comes from them.
The ten eggs producing ten sons is a doublet of fascicle 36's entry 18, where Líqímí's daughter-in-law bears thirty eggs producing thirty sons of extraordinary strength, also from the Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish. The compendium gives both without cross-reference.
The closing explanation is characteristically modest in scale: one old woman repairing a collapsed stūpa, ten young men who happened to pass and helped her, and a vow made on the spot to be born as her sons. Ninety-one kalpas later they are ten arhats.
4. A Widowed Mother Who Lost Her Son Meets the Buddha's Kind Guidance, Wearies of Love, and Attains the Path
The Buddha's answer to a mother carrying her dead son is an errand: find a household where no one has ever died and beg fire there. What he does when she comes back empty-handed is harder.
佛在舍衛國給孤獨園。有一孤母而喪一子。憂惱愁憒抱屍啼走。譬如狂人。出至祇洹。聞佛大聖天人所宗。宣說經道忘憂除患。孤母見佛作禮長跪。願釋憂結。佛告孤母。汝速入城遍行街巷。有不死家者乞火持還。孤母求不能得。空手而反。佛告孤母。夫人處世有四因緣不可久保。一者常必無常。二者富貴必貧賤。三者合會必別離。四者強健必當死。汝今何為。不自憂慮。何不廣施持戒月持六齋任力堪能給施孤窮。孤母白佛。我今愛子入骨徹髓。豈惜身命。時佛欲化彼令其得悟。即化作四大火坑圍繞孤母。火氣逼身以兒自障。佛語孤母。汝向自陳愛子情重入骨徹髓。寧自喪身不使子亡。火氣逼已酸痛難堪。但當自受以子障乎。人間微火蓋不足言。地獄火燃疾痛無量。畜生懷癡苦。餓鬼飢渴苦。能自利者當修布施持戒忍辱。不生地獄及餓鬼等。受天人福漸近泥洹。時彼孤母內心自責厭患恩愛。即於佛前盡諸塵垢。成須陀洹(出曜經所明)。
The Buddha was in the kingdom of Śrāvastī, in Anāthapiṇḍada’s park. There was a widowed mother who had lost her only son, and in her grief and distraction she ran about clutching the corpse, like a madwoman. She came out to the Jetavana, having heard that the Buddha was a great sage honored by gods and men, who taught the way of the sūtras and made one forget sorrow and be rid of trouble.
The widowed mother saw the Buddha, made obeisance, and knelt, and asked him to release her from the knot of her grief. The Buddha told the widowed mother: go quickly into the city, go all through the streets and lanes, and where you find a household in which no one has died, beg fire there and bring it back. The widowed mother sought and could not find any, and came back empty-handed.
The Buddha told the widowed mother: while a person is in the world there are four conditions that cannot be kept for long. First, what is constant must become inconstant. Second, wealth and rank must become poverty and low estate. Third, what comes together must be parted. Fourth, the strong and healthy must certainly die. What are you doing now? Why not be anxious for yourself? Why not give widely, keep the precepts, observe the six fast days each month, and give to the orphaned and destitute as far as your strength allows?
The widowed mother said to the Buddha: my love for my son now goes into my bones and through my marrow. How should I begrudge my own life?
Then the Buddha, wishing to transform her and bring her to understanding, conjured four great pits of fire surrounding the widowed mother; and as the heat pressed on her body she shielded herself with her son. The Buddha said to the widowed mother: you said just now that your love for your son is heavy and goes into your bones and through your marrow, and that you would rather lose your own body than let your son perish. When the heat pressed you and the pain was hard to bear, should you have taken it on yourself, or shielded yourself with your son?
A small fire in the human world is not worth speaking of. The fires of hell burn with measureless swift pain; animals bear the suffering of delusion; hungry ghosts the suffering of hunger and thirst. Whoever would benefit themselves should cultivate giving, precepts, and patience, and not be born in hell or among hungry ghosts, but receive the blessings of gods and men and draw gradually near to nirvāṇa.
Then the widowed mother reproached herself within, and wearied of love and affection; and there before the Buddha all her dusts and stains were exhausted and she became a stream-enterer (Source: as set out in the Chūyào jīng).
This is the Kisā Gotamī story, and the Chinese version differs from the familiar Pali one in its object: not a mustard seed from a house where no one has died, but fire. The substance of the errand is the same and so is its result.
What follows the errand is not in the Pali version at all, and it is startling. The Buddha conjures four pits of fire around the mother, and as the heat closes in she holds her dead son up as a shield. Then he asks her the question the whole entry is built on: you said your love for him went into your bones and marrow, and that you would rather lose your own body than let him perish — so when the heat pressed you, did you take it on yourself, or shield yourself with your son?
5. A Woman Who Loses Her Whole Family Goes Mad
In a single day and night a woman loses her husband to a snake, one son to a wolf, one to the river, the child in her womb, both her parents to fire, and both her parents-in-law to bandits. She is running naked when she sees the Buddha.
天竺有一人。往詣舍衛國。婦生兩子。太子七歲。次子孩抱。母復懷妊。欲向在產。天竺國俗。婦人臨月歸父母家。時此夫婦共乘一車載其二子。詣舍衛城。中路放牛。時有毒蛇纏繞牛脚。牛遂離圈。其夫取牛蛇即捨牛殺夫。婦見怖懅啼哭。日已欲冥。去家不遠。隔一河水。冥懼抄賊。即棄其車携將二子。到於水畔。而留大兒水邊。抱小而度涉水始半。狼噉其子叫呼其母。母聞其聲轉顧見之。驚懼不覺抱兒墮河。隨流而逝。母益懊惱迷惑失志。頓躓水中墮所懷胎。遂便渡水問道行人。我家父母為安隱不。答曰。昨日失火皆燒死盡。又問行人。聞我夫家姑妐安隱不。答曰。遇賊傷害姑妐皆死。愁懅迷悶不識東西。裸形狂走。行人見者怪之。謂得邪病。馳走見佛。佛大會說法。時婦見佛意即得定。不復愁憂。自視裸形慚愧伏地。佛呼阿難取衣與之。婦著衣致敬。佛即說經為現罪福。即發無上道心。立不退轉地。愁憂除散如日無雲。發無上心(出婦人遇辜經賢愚經大同小異)。
In India there was a man who was travelling to the kingdom of Śrāvastī. His wife had borne two sons — the elder seven years old, the younger still in arms — and she was pregnant again and near her time. It is the custom of India that a woman in her last month goes home to her parents’ house.
So the husband and wife rode together in one cart with their two sons, going to the city of Śrāvastī. Halfway they let the ox graze, and a venomous snake coiled around the ox’s leg, and the ox got out of its enclosure. Her husband went to get the ox, and the snake left the ox and killed the husband. His wife, seeing it, was terrified and wept.
The day was already darkening, and they were not far from home, with one river between; and, afraid in the dark of bandits, she left the cart and took her two sons and came to the water’s edge. She left the elder boy by the water and carried the younger across; and when she was halfway over the water a wolf ate her son, who cried out to his mother. The mother, hearing his voice, turned and looked and saw it, and in her terror let the child in her arms fall into the river without knowing it, and he was carried away by the current.
The mother, more distressed still, grew confused and lost her wits, stumbled and fell in the water, and miscarried the child she was carrying. Then she crossed the water and asked a traveller on the road: are my father and mother safe? He answered: yesterday there was a fire and all were burned to death. She asked the traveller again: have you heard whether my husband’s parents are safe? He answered: they met with bandits who harmed them, and both are dead.
In grief and confusion and bewilderment she no longer knew east from west, and ran about naked and mad; and travellers who saw her wondered at her and thought she had an evil sickness.
Running, she saw the Buddha. The Buddha was teaching the Dharma to a great assembly; and when the woman saw the Buddha her mind at once became settled and she no longer grieved. Seeing that she was naked she was ashamed and lay flat on the ground. The Buddha called Ānanda to fetch clothing and give it to her, and the woman put on the clothing and paid her respects. The Buddha then taught the sūtra and showed her offense and merit, and she gave rise to the unsurpassed resolve for the path and stood on the ground of non-retrogression; and her grief was dispersed like the sun without a cloud, and she gave rise to the unsurpassed mind (Source: Sūtra of the Woman Who Met Misfortune; the Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish is largely the same with minor differences).
This is the story of Paṭācārā, one of the most severe in the canon, and the compendium tells it at speed, in a single unbroken chain: the ox strays, the snake kills the husband, the wolf takes the elder son from the far bank while the mother is midstream, she turns to look and drops the infant into the river, she stumbles in the water and miscarries, and two travellers on the road tell her, one after the other, that her parents burned and her husband's parents were murdered. All of it inside one day and night.
Note that the Buddha's first act is not to teach. He tells Ānanda to fetch clothing. The teaching comes after she is dressed.
6. Tíwéi, a Brahmin Woman Without a Son, Is About to Burn Herself and Meets the Śramaṇa Eloquence
A childless brahmin widow has already given away everything she owns and piled the firewood by the Ganges when a passing monk stops to ask what the fire is for. His argument against her is the longest sustained piece of reasoning in the fascicle.
裴扇闍國。有一女人。名曰提韋。婆羅門種。其家大富喪婿無兒。守寡孤窮無所恃怙。婆羅門法。若不如意便生自燒。諸婆羅門共往教化。令其願生那羅延天。請婆羅門足一百人。施設大會食畢。各襯牸牛。并從犢者家中。所有諸物。施五百婆羅門。於恒水邊積薪自燒。婆羅門為汝呪願。令汝輕重諸罪一時滅盡。後世生時六親眷屬壽命無量快樂無窮。提韋從之。即伐藮薪。欲擬自燒。國內沙門名鉢底婆(梁言辯才)。精進持戒多聞智惠。常以慈心教化天下。令改邪就正捨惡修善。往問提韋言何用薪火。答曰。自欲燒身滅除殃罪。辯才曰。夫先身罪業隨逐精神。不與身合。徒自焚燒安能滅罪禍隨心生。心念善法受報亦善。心念惡法受報亦惡。餘報亦然。云何於苦惱中。求欲滅罪望善報也。幸爾不須於理不通。如困病人為苦所逼。復遭惡人呵罵聳搏。時此病人寧有善心無忿惱不。提韋曰。但生忿惱。辯才曰。汝今如是。先身罪故今若燒身。猛炎起時身體燋爛氣息未絕。心未壞故。當爾之時身心被煮。識神未離故受苦毒煩悶心惱。從是命終生地獄中。苦惱尤劇千百萬倍。又如車牛厭患於車。欲使車壞前車若壞後車復枙。罪業未盡假令燒壞。百千萬身罪業因緣相續不絕。猶如阿鼻一日之中八萬過死八萬過生。終過一劫其罪方畢。況復如汝一過燒身欲求滅罪。問曰。願聞滅罪方法。辯才答曰。前心作惡如雲覆月。後心起善如炬消闇。起罪之源由身三口四意地業行。今當一心丹誠懺悔改邪就正。捨身受身至成佛道。辯才授十善禁。提韋歡喜。設種種飲食及諸珍寶。請留教化。辯才曰。汝受十善法即為法器。復以化人則為報効。汝已得度。我不宜留。復化餘處。物無所受。於是而去(出未曾有經下卷)。
In the kingdom of Péishànshé there was a woman named Tíwéi, of the brahmin caste. Her household was very rich; she had lost her husband and had no son, and, keeping her widowhood alone and destitute, she had nothing to rely on.
It is the brahmins’ law that if things do not go as one wishes one may burn oneself. The brahmins came together to instruct her and have her vow to be born in the heaven of Nārāyaṇa. She invited a full hundred brahmins and set out a great gathering, and when the meal was over gave each of them a milch cow with her calf; and everything in the house she gave to five hundred brahmins. Then, by the bank of the Ganges, she piled up firewood to burn herself, and the brahmins were to pronounce a blessing for her: may your offenses, heavy and light, all be extinguished at once, and in the life to come may your kin and relations be many, your lifespan measureless, and your joy without end.
Tíwéi followed them, and cut the brushwood and firewood and prepared to burn herself.
In that country there was a śramaṇa named Bōdǐpó (which in the language of Liang is “Eloquence”), diligent, precept-keeping, learned and wise, who constantly taught the world with a heart of loving-kindness, having people turn from the wrong to the right and give up evil and cultivate good. He went and asked Tíwéi: what is the firewood and fire for? She answered: I mean to burn my body to wipe out my offenses and misfortune.
Eloquence said: the offending deeds of a former body follow the spirit; they are not joined to the body. To burn yourself for nothing — how could that wipe out offenses? Misfortune arises according to the mind. If the mind thinks of good things, the recompense received is good; if the mind thinks of evil things, the recompense is evil; and the remaining recompense is likewise. How, then, in the midst of pain and distress, can you seek to wipe out offenses and hope for a good recompense? Fortunately it is not necessary, and it does not stand to reason.
It is like a person worn out with sickness, pressed by suffering, who then meets an evil man who curses and shoves him. Would that sick person, at that time, have a good mind, and no anger and distress? Tíwéi said: only anger and distress would arise.
Eloquence said: you are just so now, because of the offenses of a former body. If you now burn your body, when the fierce flames rise your body will be scorched and blistered and your breath not yet cut off; and because the mind is not yet destroyed, at that moment body and mind are being boiled together, and because the consciousness has not yet left it receives the poison of suffering and the anguish of a stifled heart. From that your life ends and you are born in hell, and the suffering there is more violent still, by a thousand, a hundred million times.
It is again like an ox harnessed to a cart that hates the cart and wishes to break it: if the cart in front breaks, another cart is yoked on behind. While the offending deeds are not exhausted, though you burn and destroy a hundred thousand ten thousand bodies, the causes and conditions of offending deeds continue unbroken — as in Avīci, where in one day one dies eighty thousand times and is born eighty thousand times, and only when a whole kalpa has passed is the offense finished. How much less can burning your body once, as you would do, wipe out offenses?
She asked: I should like to hear the method of wiping out offenses. Eloquence answered: an earlier mind doing evil is like clouds covering the moon; a later mind giving rise to good is like a torch dispelling darkness. The source of offenses arising is the deeds and practices of the three of the body, the four of speech, and the ground of the mind. Now, with one mind and sincere heart, repent, turn from the wrong to the right, and, giving up this body and receiving another, go on until you attain the buddha-path.
Eloquence conferred on her the ten wholesome precepts, and Tíwéi rejoiced and set out food and drink of every kind and treasures besides, and asked him to stay and teach.
Eloquence said: you have received the ten wholesome dharmas and are now a vessel of the Dharma; and if you teach others in turn, that is your repayment. You are already delivered, and I ought not to stay; I shall go and teach elsewhere. He accepted none of the goods, and with that he went away (Source: Sūtra of Unprecedented Causes and Conditions, lower fascicle).
This is the most sustained argument in the fascicle and one of the clearest statements anywhere in this compendium against religious suicide. Tíwéi has already done everything but light the fire: she has fed a hundred brahmins, given each a milch cow and calf, distributed her whole household among five hundred of them, and stacked the wood by the Ganges. Eloquence stops and asks what the fire is for.
His argument has four moves. First, the offending deeds follow the spirit and are not attached to the body, so destroying the body destroys nothing. Second — the psychological point, and the sharpest — the state of mind in which you die is the state of mind you carry: he asks her whether a sick man being cursed and shoved feels anything but anger, and she concedes it, and he tells her that burning alive, with the body blistering and the consciousness not yet gone, will produce exactly that mind and take her straight to hell. Third, the ox and the cart: break the cart in front and another is yoked on behind, and while the deeds remain unexhausted a hundred thousand destroyed bodies change nothing — in Avīci one dies eighty thousand times a day for a whole kalpa. Fourth, the method that does work, which is repentance and the ten wholesome precepts.
The ending is quietly pointed. She offers him food, treasures, and a standing invitation to stay and teach; he tells her that she is now a vessel of the Dharma and that teaching others is her repayment, takes nothing at all, and leaves.
7. A Pregnant Woman Vows Her Child Shall Go Forth, and After His Birth Her Earlier Intention Is Not Carried Out
A woman who forgot her vow because she loved the baby too much remembers it seven years later, and brings the child, two meals, and three robes to the Buddha.
有一女人。妊身數月。見佛及僧。願我生子以後出家為沙門。及生子後愛念既隆不遂宿心。子年七歲意忽還悟作二人食及三法衣。持瓶將子行詣佛所。白佛言。願哀我子使為沙門。令後得道身形如佛。佛即聽之。母以水灌前洗其兒。應時九龍從瓶中出。吐水灌兒。澡訖殘水散兒頭上。於頭上下變成花蓋。寶帳交絡。并師子座上有諸佛。佛時微笑。出五色光照十億剎。還繞佛身從兒頂入。母即前行以飯上佛并食其子。子發無上平等道意。十億佛剎六反震動。眾剎諸佛皆自然現。佛以母分飯飽爾所。佛及諸比丘皆等飽足。其飯如故。母即歡喜。及諸天人得阿惟越致。時兒髮墮成為沙門。立不退轉。我身是也(出過世佛分衛經)。
There was a woman several months pregnant who saw the Buddha and the saṅgha and vowed: when I bear this child, may he go forth afterward and become a śramaṇa. But after the child was born her love for him was so strong that she did not carry out her earlier intention.
When the boy was seven, her thought suddenly returned to her, and she made food for two people and three Dharma robes, and, carrying a water-jar and taking her son, went to where the Buddha was and said to him: I ask you, in pity, to let my son become a śramaṇa, that he may afterward attain the path and his body and form be as the Buddha’s. The Buddha permitted it.
The mother poured water from the jar and washed her son in front of him, and at that moment nine dragons came out of the jar and spat water to wash the child; and when the washing was done the remaining water was scattered over the child’s head, and above his head it turned into a canopy of flowers with jeweled curtains interlaced, and upon a lion throne within it there were buddhas.
The Buddha then smiled, and a light of five colors came out and illuminated a billion buddha-fields, and came back and circled the Buddha’s body and entered through the top of the child’s head.
The mother then came forward and offered rice to the Buddha and fed her son as well. The son gave rise to the resolve for the unsurpassed and even path, and a billion buddha-fields shook in six ways, and the buddhas of all those fields appeared of themselves.
With the mother’s portion of rice the Buddha satisfied all of them, and the Buddha and all the monks were equally filled, and the rice was as it had been. The mother rejoiced, and she and the gods and men attained non-retrogression. Then the boy’s hair fell away and he became a śramaṇa and stood in non-retrogression. That was myself (Source: Sūtra of the Buddha of a Past Age Going for Alms).
8. Nandā's Lamp, Which the Hearers' Combined Powers Cannot Put Out
King Prasenajit burns a thousand hu of oil across the Jetavana. A homeless woman begs enough rice to sell for one coin, and the oil-seller gives her a full lamp's worth. In the morning Maudgalyāyana cannot put it out.
佛遊在給孤獨精舍。波斯匿王供養於佛及諸大眾眷屬。祇洹縱廣百六十里。波斯匿王周遍燃燈民人競看。貧女難陀居無舍宅。問行路者知。波斯匿王以油千斛為佛燃燈。難陀自責。我以何故獨貧如此。即入街里。家家乞匃得少雜飯。心自念言。我當賣之以為燈直。賣得一錢齎詣油家。油家問女持一錢油作何福德。難陀答言。欲為佛燃燈。油主聞之。助其喜踴持一燈油。即施與之。貧女歡喜受到祇[垣-土+示]。佛告阿難言。有大長者興無上福。不能自到開門使前。波斯匿王聞佛此教。尋自思惟。吾於舍衛一國之尊。興起道供豈殊我者。佛何以故。不讚於我復稱長者。須臾貧女來到佛所。燃所齎燈當佛之前。今發大願。並為一切。求佛知見。令此光明徹於十方。幽冥惡道悉皆休息。如是便退至明晨朝。賢者目連歷撿諸燈。難陀所燈光獨如故。目連即吹。吹不能滅。便以神力持五恒水澆亦復不滅。吹以隨藍大風漂不能滅。盡其神力竟不能滅。心懷恐懼。佛告目連。燃此燈者有慇重心。以是之故燈為常明。設羅漢舍利弗等及辟支佛。神化功德共滅此燈不能滅也。令金翅王搏大海水。若師子王振吼犇騰共滅此燈。燈不可滅。難陀女人以日出時。自往案行昨所燃燈。燈亦不滅。光不缺減。即大歡喜稽首佛足。佛知女心求無上道。放五色光從口中出。佛每說法三乘之業授聲聞別。光從頂入。授辟支佛別。光從兩眉間入。授菩薩別光從口入。佛之洪光上至三十三天。皆悉通達。已便迴還。繞佛三匝從口入。時阿難起問。佛言。阿難。汝見昨夜燃燈女不。此女壽終因是功德。轉女人身當作男子。却後二十劫不墮惡道。即生諸天及金輪王。二十劫後。當得作佛。號三曼陀優訶(出賢愚經又云比丘出貧女難陀經)。
The Buddha was staying in Anāthapiṇḍada’s monastery, and King Prasenajit made offerings to the Buddha and to the great assembly and their retinues. The Jetavana was a hundred and sixty li across, and King Prasenajit lit lamps throughout it, and the people vied to come and see.
There was a poor woman named Nandā who had no house to live in. She asked a passer-by and learned that King Prasenajit was burning a thousand hu of oil in lamps for the Buddha. Nandā reproached herself: why am I alone as poor as this? And she went into the streets and begged from house to house and got a little mixed rice, and thought to herself: I shall sell it and make it the price of a lamp.
She sold it and got one coin, and took it to an oil-seller’s. The oil-seller asked: what merit are you making with one coin’s worth of oil? Nandā answered: I wish to light a lamp for the Buddha. The oil-seller, hearing this, leapt for joy at helping her and gave her a whole lamp’s worth of oil.
The poor woman received it with joy and came to the Jetavana. The Buddha told Ānanda: there is a great elder raising an unsurpassed merit who cannot get here herself; open the gate and let her come forward. King Prasenajit, hearing this instruction of the Buddha’s, thought to himself: I am the sovereign of the whole kingdom of Śrāvastī, and in raising this offering to the path who could surpass me? Why does the Buddha not praise me, and speak of an elder instead?
In a little while the poor woman came to where the Buddha was and lit the lamp she had brought in front of the Buddha, and made this great vow: for the sake of all beings I seek the Buddha’s knowledge and vision; let this light pierce through the ten directions, and let the dark and the evil destinies all be brought to rest. And with that she withdrew.
When morning came, the worthy Maudgalyāyana went over the lamps one by one, and Nandā’s lamp alone was burning as before. Maudgalyāyana blew on it and could not blow it out; then with his supernormal power he poured the water of five Ganges over it and it still would not go out; he raised the vairambha wind against it and it could not be swept out. He exhausted his supernormal power and could not put it out, and his heart was filled with fear.
The Buddha told Maudgalyāyana: the one who lit this lamp had an earnest and weighty mind, and for that reason the lamp burns constantly. Even if Śāriputra and the arhats and the pratyekabuddhas together brought their spiritual transformations and merits to put out this lamp, they could not put it out. Let the garuḍa king beat the water of the great sea, or the lion king roar and rush upon it, and together they could not put out this lamp — the lamp cannot be put out.
The woman Nandā came herself at sunrise to inspect the lamp she had lit the day before, and the lamp was still not out and its light was not diminished; and in great joy she bowed her head at the Buddha’s feet.
The Buddha, knowing that this woman’s mind sought the unsurpassed path, sent out a light of five colors from his mouth. Whenever the Buddha taught the Dharma of the three vehicles, in giving a prediction to a hearer the light re-entered at the crown of his head; for a pratyekabuddha it entered between his two eyebrows; for a bodhisattva the light entered at his mouth. The Buddha’s great light rose to the Trāyastriṃśa heaven and penetrated everywhere, and then returned, circled the Buddha three times, and entered his mouth.
Then Ānanda rose and asked, and the Buddha said: Ānanda, did you see the woman who lit the lamp last night? When this woman’s life ends, by that merit she will turn from a woman’s body and become a man; for twenty kalpas thereafter she will not fall into the evil destinies, but will be born among the gods and as a golden-wheel king; and after twenty kalpas she will attain buddhahood, named Sānmàntuó Yōuhē (Source: Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish; it is also said, from the monks’ Sūtra of the Poor Woman Nandā).
The mechanism of this famous story is set out with unusual care. Prasenajit's thousand hu of oil are not disparaged and his motive is not questioned; what the Buddha praises is the mind behind the single lamp, and the king is left standing there working out why. The Buddha's word for it is 慇重心 — an earnest and weighty mind — and the extent of the vow explains it: Nandā does not ask for merit for herself but for the light to pierce the ten directions and bring the dark destinies to rest.
Maudgalyāyana's attempts escalate in a fixed order — breath, the water of five Ganges, the vairambha wind — and the Buddha then extends the list past the point of any doubt: Śāriputra, the arhats, and the pratyekabuddhas together could not do it, nor the garuḍa king beating the sea, nor the lion king's roar.
The prediction at the end follows the convention of its genre, and it is worth noting exactly what it says: the merit turns her from a woman into a man, keeps her out of the evil destinies for twenty kalpas, and makes her a buddha after them. Entry 9 of this same fascicle ends with the same transformation, performed there by the woman herself in front of the Buddha.
9. Shànxìn, Awake to Impermanence at Fifteen, Holds to Purity and Is Tested by Śakra
A fifteen-year-old, already betrothed, reasons her way out of her own future while sitting still, is told by a voice to turn west, and is then tested by Śakra in the form of a handsome young man holding gold.
佛在舍衛國。時有長者女。名曰善信。年始十五。為人慈孝。智慧博達。少小常有大願。不樂世俗之事。坐自思念。萬物無常當歸於死。年壽萬歲亦皆當死。天地當壞敗何況人身。念我當受如是咎責。苦痛難言。死後魂神當入惡道。酷毒懃苦獨當受之。本從何出。忽有瞋恚恐怖愁憂。或時歡喜。有此無常之事。不見來時。去至何所。是輩往來無休無息。念我父母諸家兄弟中外五種親屬。不知罪福貪欲無厭。我年三五以許他男。諸家兄弟飯食酒肉受取匹帛。念我身當往受患難。拘質縛結不可得離。當如之何。為此生老不如及我。今日清淨當發上願。求覓安隱長樂宮殿可以自娛。不宜踊濁沒於三塗。不覩光明長與苦俱。便正一心自誓。持我身命自歸。有神有靈知我心誠。爾時天神現於虛空。語善信言若當自歸西方安隱清淨法國。且當先向十方禮拜。慈心敬意念必達也。已便不現。爾時善信踊躍歡喜。便自澡洗燒香散華向十方禮叉手。自思念。一切人即有天神於空中言。汝當正心向於西方。說此一頌。以是讚歎阿彌陀佛。善信即向西方。如神所勅。天地大動。諸有困厄皆得解脫。疾病即除毒痛安隱愁憂歡喜。盲聾得差瘖瘂能言。不善皆善不信皆信。人非人等各得所願。善信燒香散花而說頌言。正心閉目數息思惟身中之事。帝釋化作端正男子。年十八九。手把黃金住善信前。以頌調之。善信正心以正頌答。訶男女過。帝釋踴躍叉手勞之。欲何求索。普世無雙功德洋洋不可稱量。願相告語。於是善信聞釋讚歎。信心歡喜地為大動。即為說偈。願奉佛法。釋大歡喜。便爾化滅。善信燒香自歸諸佛。佛與大眾俱即飛行到善信家。父母兄弟見佛飛空。莫不歡喜。善信前禮繞佛百匝。佛便微笑無數光出。語以戒法。繞身百匝還從頂入。即授二十四戒。佛言。是為我優婆夷高行三八二十四戒。善信歡喜而得七住。便於佛前化身為男。父母兄弟皆受五戒(出善信磨祝經卷上)。
The Buddha was in the kingdom of Śrāvastī. There was an elder’s daughter named Shànxìn, just fifteen years old, kind and filial, wise and broadly accomplished, who from her childhood had always had a great aspiration and took no pleasure in worldly affairs.
Sitting, she thought to herself: the ten thousand things are impermanent and all come round to death. Even one who lives ten thousand years must die; heaven and earth will fall to ruin — how much more a human body. I think that I too must receive such a reckoning, in pain hard to describe; and after death my spirit will enter the evil destinies, and I alone must bear the harsh poison and bitter toil. Where does it all come from? Suddenly there is anger, terror, and grief; and sometimes there is joy. These impermanent things — one does not see them come, and where do they go when they leave? They come and go without rest and without ceasing.
I think of my father and mother, of my brothers in all our households and my relations of the five degrees within and without: they do not know offense and merit, and their greed is never satisfied. At fifteen I am already promised to a man; the brothers of the households eat and drink meat and wine and take bolts of silk; and I think that my own body must go and suffer difficulty, bound and tied and unable to get free. What am I to do? For this birth and this ageing, better that I today, being pure, should raise the highest vow, and seek out a peaceful and long-joyful palace where I may take my delight — and not sink turbid into the three evil destinies, not to see the light and to be forever together with suffering.
So she set her mind straight and vowed of herself: I take my body and life and turn for refuge; if there is a spirit, if there is a numinous power, let it know my heart’s sincerity.
Then a god appeared in the sky and said to Shànxìn: you should turn for refuge to the peaceful and pure Dharma-country of the west. But first you should bow to the ten directions, and with a loving heart and reverent intention it will surely reach. And with that he was gone.
Then Shànxìn leapt for joy, and bathed, burned incense, scattered flowers, bowed toward the ten directions with palms joined, and thought to herself of all people. And a god in the air said: you should set your mind straight toward the west, and speak this one verse, praising the Buddha Amitābha by it.
Shànxìn then faced the west as the god had directed, and heaven and earth shook greatly, and all who were in distress were released, sicknesses were removed, poisonous pains were eased, and grief turned to joy; the blind and deaf were cured, the mute could speak, the unwholesome all became wholesome, the unbelieving all believed, and humans and non-humans each obtained what they wished.
Shànxìn burned incense and scattered flowers and spoke the verse, and set her mind straight, closed her eyes, counted her breaths, and reflected on what was within her body.
Śakra transformed himself into a handsome man of eighteen or nineteen, holding yellow gold in his hand, and stood before Shànxìn and tried her with a verse. Shànxìn, with a straight mind, answered with a right verse, rebuking the faults of men and women.
Śakra leapt for joy and joined his palms and encouraged her: what do you seek? In all the world there is no second to it; your merit is vast and cannot be measured. I ask you to tell me. And Shànxìn, hearing Śakra praise her, was glad in faith, and the earth shook greatly, and she spoke a verse for him, vowing to serve the Buddha’s Dharma. Śakra was greatly delighted, and with that his transformation vanished.
Shànxìn burned incense and took refuge in the buddhas; and the Buddha and the great assembly together flew at once to Shànxìn’s house. Her father, mother, and brothers, seeing the Buddha flying in the air, were all glad. Shànxìn came forward and bowed and circled the Buddha a hundred times, and the Buddha then smiled and countless lights came out and told her the precepts, and circled her body a hundred times and returned in at the crown of his head; and he then conferred the twenty-four precepts.
The Buddha said: these are my lay-woman’s twenty-four precepts of high conduct, three eights. Shànxìn rejoiced and obtained the seventh abode, and there before the Buddha transformed her body into a man’s; and her father, mother, and brothers all received the five precepts (Source: Sūtra of Shànxìn Mózhù, first fascicle).
The most unusual entry in the fascicle, and one of the earliest appearances of Amitābha and of westward-facing devotion in this compendium. The instruction comes twice from a voice in the air: turn for refuge to the peaceful and pure Dharma-country of the west, but bow first to all ten directions; and then, set your mind straight toward the west and speak this verse in praise of Amitābha. What follows — the earth shaking, the sick healed, the blind and deaf cured, the mute speaking — is the standard register of the Pure Land material.
Note the reasoning that opens the entry, which is done sitting still and entirely by herself, before any god or Buddha appears. She is fifteen and already betrothed, and what she works out is that her relations do not know offense from merit and their greed is never satisfied; that the households have eaten and drunk and taken the silk on the strength of her; and that the body which must go and bear the consequences is hers. The vow follows from the arithmetic.
The entry closes with two things the compendium reports without comment: the conferring of twenty-four lay-woman's precepts, a set not found in the standard vinayas, and Shànxìn changing her body into a man's in front of the Buddha — here not as a future reward, as in entry 8, but as something she does. This closes fascicle 38.