Heterodox Teachers and Sages
This page carries Ru-Yi's complete translation of fascicle 39 of the Jīng Lǜ Yì Xiàng (經律異相): "Heterodox Teachers and Sages" (外道仙人部) — sixteen entries on the rivals, predecessors, and forest-dwelling ascetics who stand outside the Buddha's order. It opens with an extraordinary account of where the ninety-six heterodox schools came from: one robbed monk hung naked from a tree, and a succession of passers-by who each reasoned correctly from a false premise about what they saw him doing next. It goes on to the six teachers' scouts, each of whom comes back with a report the others explain away; the twin miracle at Śrāvastī told entirely from Pūraṇa Kāśyapa's side, including the old woman who scolds him on the road home and the lie that drowns his five hundred disciples; Kṣāntivādin, cut to pieces for the offense of having held the attention of a king's women; Udraka Rāmaputra, whose story is told twice from two sources, spending eighty thousand kalpas of heaven on the capacity to kill; a sage of the Snow Mountains who fathered twelve sons on a tigress; and the one-horned sage Ekaśṛṅga, conceived in a washing basin, born to a doe, and brought down by five hundred cartloads of drugged sweets and liquor the color of water.
Translation Method
Fascicle 39 gathers the outsiders, and it sorts into two halves that the compendium does not separate but that read very differently. The first nine entries are about rivalry — the origin of the heterodox schools, the six teachers, contests of power, and Pūraṇa Kāśyapa's defeat — and are largely comic or polemical. The last seven are about ascetics losing what they had gained, almost always to a woman's touch or voice, and are neither. Read together they make a single argument: that the attainments of the non-Buddhist sages are real, and that they are not enough.
Two entries in this fascicle tell the same story about the same man from different sources. Entries 10 and 12 are both about Udraka Rāmaputra — one of the Buddha's own two teachers before his awakening — and they differ in detail, at length, without either acknowledging the other. We print both and set out the divergence in the reading notes rather than choose between them.
On names: Mañjuśrī, Ānanda, Śāriputra, Yaśodharā, Śakra, Brahmā, Śacī, Pūraṇa Kāśyapa, Prasenajit, Udayana, Udraka Rāmaputra, Kṣāntivādin, King Kali, Bhāradvāja, Ekaśṛṅga, Śāntā, Vārāṇasī, Śrāvastī, Rājagṛha, the Jetavana, the Snow Mountains, and Avīci are given in their standard forms. Where a transliteration has no confident correspondence — Jūsūntuóbátuóluó, Bōzhēlí, Hēduō, Bānshī, Maṇi, Luówén, Líyí, Yùdúbōtuó, Típōyánnà, Bōjié, Bhārgava's sons Jiéjiā, Bápójiā, and Póluónú, and the Dápō grove — we keep the Chinese in pinyin. Names that are transparently descriptive in Chinese (Buddha-Wisdom, Much-Merit, Increasing-Merit, Wisdom-Illusion, and eight of the twelve tiger-born sons) are translated, with the Chinese kept in the contents list.
Four entries carry verse — the two verses framing entry 2, the god's and Ānanda's verses in entry 5, and the four-verse exchange between the king and the sage in entry 15. We set these off in italics with slashes for the line breaks of the Chinese; the Chinese column keeps them running on within the paragraph, as the source has them.
Several entries in this fascicle are graphic or sexually explicit — a monk's suicide by cliff, a dismemberment, the mutilation of five hundred sages, intercourse with a tigress, and the conception and seduction of the one-horned sage. All are translated in full and without abridgment, and where the narrative turns on them we say so in a reading note rather than soften the text.
Fascicle Contents
- 1. The Origin of the Heterodox Schools' Divergent Views 外道立異見原由一
- 2. The Six Teachers Swear a Compact to Wait for a Chance to Defeat the Buddha, and Every Scout They Send Is Converted 六師共誓伺欲降佛累遣覘觀皆從佛化二
- 3. The Six Teachers Contest the Power of the Path with a Disciple of the Buddha 六師與佛弟子捔道力三
- 4. Binding His Belly with Plates and Carrying Fire on His Head to Display His Prowess 以鐷鐷腹頭上戴火自顯雄異四
- 5. The People of Wisdom-Illusion Serve Crows, and Then a Peacock 智幻國人事烏與孔雀五
- 6. Pūraṇa Kāśyapa Contests the Path with the Buddha, Is Outmatched, and Destroys Himself 富蘭迦葉與佛捔道不如自盡六
- 7. The Sage Kṣāntivādin, Cultivating Patience and Practicing Loving-Kindness, Is Cut to Pieces by King Kali 羼提仙人修忍行慈為迦利王所割截七
- 8. The Sage Luówén's Writings, Which Wind and Rain Cannot Damage 螺文仙人造書風雨不能飄侵八
- 9. The Causes by Which Four Sages Attained the Path 四仙人得道緣九
- 10. A Sage Loses His Powers and Is Born in an Evil Destiny 仙人失通生惡道十
- 11. Sages Who See and Hear Women's Forms and Voices Lose Their Supernormal Powers 仙人見聞女人聲色失其神通十一
- 12. Set Down by a King's Daughter's Hands, He Conceives Love, Later Raises an Evil Thought, and Falls into Avīci 化足手著王女生愛後興惡念墮墜阿鼻十二
- 13. Típōyánnà Hears Śacī's Voice and Conceives Love 提波延那聞舍芝聲起愛十三
- 14. A Sage of the Snow Mountains Couples with a Tigress and Begets Twelve Sons 雪山仙人與虎行欲生十二子十四
- 15. The Sage Bōjié Sees a King's Daughter, Conceives Desire, and Loses His Powers 撥劫仙人見王女發欲失通十五
- 16. The One-Horned Sage, His Feelings Stained by Worldly Desire, Is Ridden by a Courtesan 獨角仙人情染世欲為婬女所騎十六
1. The Origin of the Heterodox Schools' Divergent Views
An account of where the ninety-six heterodox schools came from: one monk robbed and hung naked from a tree, and a sequence of passers-by who each drew a conclusion from what they saw him doing next.
佛告文殊。汝欲聞世間建立外道不。過去時世有佛。名拘孫陀跋陀羅。出興于世。時彼世界無諸沙礫。無外道名。唯一大乘。佛涅槃後法欲滅時。有一阿蘭若比丘。名曰佛慧。有一善人施無價衣。比丘受之。有諸獵師生劫盜心。夜將比丘至深山中。壞身裸形懸首繫樹。時有採花婆羅門至阿蘭若處。見虎恐怖向山馳走。見彼比丘。壞身裸形懸首繫樹。驚歎嗚呼。沙門先著袈裟。而今裸形。必知袈裟非解脫因。自懸苦行是真學道。彼人豈當捨離善法。正當分明知。此是解脫道因壞正法。即捨衣拔髮作裸形沙門。裸形外道從是而起也。時比丘自得解縛。即取樹皮。赤石塗染。以自障蔽。結草拂蚊。又有採花婆羅門見之。念言。是比丘捨先好衣。著如是衣。捉如是拂。豈當捨離善法。正當分明知。此是解脫道。即學是法。出家婆羅門從是而起也。時彼比丘暮入水浴。因洗頭瘡。即取水衣以覆瘡上。取牧牛人所棄弊衣以自覆身。時有樵者見已念言。是比丘先著袈裟。而今悉捨。必知袈裟非解脫因。故被髮弊衣日夜三浴修習苦行。豈當捨離善法。正當分明知。此是解脫道。即學彼法。苦行婆羅門復從是起也。比丘浴已身體多瘡蠅蜂唼食。即以白灰處處塗瘡。以水衣覆身。時有見者謂言。是道即學彼法。灰塗婆羅門從是而起也。比丘燃火炙瘡。瘡轉苦痛不能堪忍。投巖自害。時有見者言。是比丘先著好衣。今乃如是。豈當捨離善法。正知投巖是解脫道。投巖事火從是而起也。如是次第九十六種。皆因是比丘種種形類。起諸妄想。各自生見。譬如有國一一相視。而起麁想。麁想既生。各各相殺。外道生異亦復如是(出殃掘魔羅經第四卷)。
The Buddha told Mañjuśrī: do you wish to hear how the heterodox schools were established in the world? In a past age a buddha named Jūsūntuóbátuóluó appeared in the world. In that world there was no grit or gravel, and no name of any heterodox school; there was only the one great vehicle.
After that buddha’s nirvāṇa, when the Dharma was about to perish, there was a forest-dwelling monk named Buddha-Wisdom. A good man gave him a robe of priceless value and the monk accepted it; and some hunters conceived a mind to rob him, and by night took the monk into the deep mountains, stripped his body bare, and hung him head down, tied to a tree.
Then a brahmin gathering flowers came to that forest-dwelling place, and, seeing a tiger, ran in terror toward the mountain and saw that monk, his body ruined and naked, hanging head down from a tree. He exclaimed in astonishment: this śramaṇa formerly wore the kāṣāya, and now he is naked. It must be that the kāṣāya is not a cause of liberation, and that to hang oneself in austerity is the true way of practice. How could such a man abandon good dharmas? It is quite clear that this is the cause of the path of liberation. And, corrupting the true Dharma, he cast off his clothes, pulled out his hair, and became a naked śramaṇa. It is from this that the naked heterodox school arose.
Then the monk freed himself from his bonds, and took bark from the tree and dyed it with red stone to cover himself, and knotted grass into a fly-whisk. Another brahmin gathering flowers saw him and thought: this monk has given up his former good clothing and wears clothing like this and holds a whisk like this. How could he abandon good dharmas? It is quite clear that this is the path of liberation. And he studied that method. It is from this that the brahmins who go forth arose.
Then that monk bathed in water in the evening, and while washing the sores on his head he took water-weed and covered the sores with it, and took a worn garment discarded by a cowherd to cover his body. Then a woodcutter saw him and thought: this monk formerly wore the kāṣāya and has now given it all up. It must be that the kāṣāya is not a cause of liberation, and that is why he wears his hair loose and poor clothing and bathes three times a day and night and cultivates austerities. How could he abandon good dharmas? It is quite clear that this is the path of liberation. And he studied that method. It is from this that the austerity brahmins arose.
When the monk had bathed, his body was covered with sores, and flies and wasps fed on them, so he smeared white ash on the sores here and there and covered his body with water-weed. Then someone who saw it said: this is the path — and studied that method. It is from this that the ash-smearing brahmins arose.
The monk lit a fire and cauterized his sores, and the sores grew more painful until he could not bear it, and he threw himself from a cliff to kill himself. Then someone who saw it said: this monk formerly wore fine clothing and has now come to this. How could he abandon good dharmas? It is clear that throwing oneself from a cliff is the path of liberation. It is from this that cliff-throwing and fire-serving arose.
In this way, one after another, ninety-six kinds all arose from this one monk’s various appearances, and from the false conceptions raised over them, each producing its own view. It is as when in a country people look at one another and coarse thoughts arise; and coarse thoughts having arisen, they kill one another. The arising of the heterodox schools is just the same (Source: Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra, fascicle 4).
This is one of the most remarkable pieces in the compendium and deserves to be read carefully, because its argument is not the one a reader expects. It is not that the heterodox schools are wicked; it is that they are all misreadings of a single accident, and that each misreading was made in good faith by someone reasoning correctly from a false premise.
The premise every passer-by shares is that a monk would not abandon good dharmas — so whatever he is seen doing must be the path. What he is actually doing, in order: hanging naked because robbers left him there; wearing dyed bark because he has nothing else; bathing repeatedly because his head is infected; smearing himself with ash because flies are eating his sores; and finally throwing himself off a cliff because the pain of cauterizing them is unbearable. Out of these come, in order, the naked ascetics, the wandering brahmins, the austerity brahmins, the ash-smearers, and the cliff-throwers and fire-servers.
The closing comparison widens it further: it is as when in a country people look at one another and coarse thoughts arise, and having arisen they kill one another. The whole of religious difference is being traced to observation without inquiry.
2. The Six Teachers Swear a Compact to Wait for a Chance to Defeat the Buddha, and Every Scout They Send Is Converted
The six teachers agree to keep their story straight and send scouts to size up the Buddha. Each scout comes back with a report the others explain away, and the sixth comes back asking to be ordained.
昔六師在世。貪著利養自稱獨尊。聞佛出世神德過人。集共結誓。我等宜可齊心同議。語不相違乃得勝之。即遣一人往觀如來。為如人不。視無厭足。還白六師。瞿曇顏貌世之希有威神光明踰於日月。如我所見無可譬喻。六人復念。其人出於王種。理應端正。何足復怪。今且更遣一人往觀。為無為為躁疾。還告六師。瞿曇在眾如獸中王。無所畏難。六人復念。愚人希更事。貪彼光明。此是常儀。何足復怪。出自王宮六萬采女晝夜相娛未更師學。更遣往聽。頗有經理為如凡夫。即遣明達一人觀佛所說。還白六人。彼所道說達古知今。前知無極却覩無窮。判義析理事不煩重。六師復作是念。世多有人辯辭捷疾悅可人心。然理不在不可尋究。復遣往觀。眾人聞說為寂然聽受為憒亂耶。還白六師。瞿曇所顯味如甘露。眾人渴仰聽無厭足。六人復念。人集從初久必退散。更遣高勝一人往瞻。為義理深邃為淺薄耶。還白六師。瞿曇所顯如海無漄。我等所見如牛蹄水。今我一人。且欲就彼求為弟子。前後使人各共相將詣如來所。復有無數眾生相競而到。佛說偈曰。自得最正覺 不染一切法一切智無畏 自然無師保六師弟子聞佛說偈。心堅固者即求為道。心猶豫者還以白師言。三界獨尊典領十方。實無等倫。宜各馳散自求所安。我既無師保 亦獨無伴侶積一得作佛 自然通聖道(出六師結誓經)
Long ago the six teachers were in the world, greedy for gain and offerings and each calling himself the sole honored one. Hearing that a Buddha had appeared in the world whose divine virtue surpassed other men’s, they gathered and made a compact together: we should be of one mind and deliberate together, and our words not contradict one another, and then we can defeat him.
So they sent one man to go and observe the Tathāgata, and see whether he was like other people. He looked and could not look enough, and came back and told the six teachers: Gautama’s face and appearance are a rarity in the world, and his majestic light exceeds the sun and moon. What I saw cannot be compared to anything.
The six of them thought again: this man comes of a royal line and ought reasonably to be handsome; what is there to wonder at? Let us send another to observe whether he is composed or restless. He came back and told the six teachers: Gautama in the assembly is like the king among beasts; there is nothing he fears or finds difficult.
The six of them thought again: a fool hopes for novelty and covets that brilliance; this is the ordinary sort of thing, what is there to wonder at? He came out of a royal palace with sixty thousand palace women and diversions day and night, and has never studied under a teacher. Let us send someone to listen and see whether he has any grasp of doctrine or is like an ordinary man. So they sent a well-informed man to observe what the Buddha taught. He came back and told the six: what he says reaches into antiquity and knows the present; he sees ahead without limit and looks back without end; he judges the sense and analyses the principle, and there is nothing cumbersome in what he does.
The six teachers thought again: the world has many people whose words are quick and clever and please people’s hearts, but there is no principle in it and it will not bear examination. Let us send someone again to observe whether the crowd listens in silence to what he says or is in confusion. He came back and told the six teachers: what Gautama sets out tastes like sweet nectar; the crowd thirsts for it and listens without ever having enough.
The six of them thought again: people gather at first and after a while must certainly disperse. Let us send an eminent man to look and see whether the meaning is deep or shallow. He came back and told the six teachers: what Gautama sets out is like the sea without a shore, and what we see is like water in an ox’s hoofprint. I for one now wish to go to him and ask to be his disciple.
The messengers sent before and after all went together to where the Tathāgata was, and countless other beings came vying with one another too. The Buddha spoke this verse:
“Of himself he has attained the most right awakening, / undefiled by any dharma; / all-knowing and fearless, / naturally without teacher or protector.”
When the six teachers’ disciples heard the Buddha speak this verse, those firm of mind asked at once to enter the path; those still in doubt went back and told their teachers: he is the sole honored one of the three realms and governs the ten directions, and there is truly no equal to him. Each of you had better scatter and seek your own peace.
“Since I have no teacher or protector, / and am likewise alone without companions, / by accumulating the one I attain buddhahood, / and naturally penetrate the sagely path.” (Source: Sūtra of the Six Teachers’ Compact)
The structure is a joke with six beats and it is worth following. Each scout returns with a report that would settle the matter, and the other five find a way to discount it: he is handsome, but he is royal; he is fearless, but fools are impressed by brilliance; he is learned, but eloquence is common; the crowd listens raptly, but crowds always disperse. The rationalizations get thinner as the reports get stronger. The sixth scout does not offer a rationalization; he says that what Gautama sets out is like a shoreless sea and what they have is water in an ox's hoofprint, and that he means to ask to be a disciple.
Note the two verses at the beginning and end. Both make the same point from opposite directions: the Buddha has no teacher and no companion, which the six teachers had cited as evidence that he was untrained.
3. The Six Teachers Contest the Power of the Path with a Disciple of the Buddha
A contest of arts between five hundred brahmins and one layman. The brahmins bring five hundred deer each shot through the left eye; he brings a five-colored fawn and a moon-bright pearl.
有王名多福。太子字增福。王奉六師。子事佛道。所遵不同。時世無沙門。唯一白衣以為師首。其外道五百人嫉師名德。即白王言。國事兩法令人不專一。願與佛道師各現奇德。要不如者沒屬為奴。王即可之。外道與此師剋日。要結。王前各試功藝共相然可。梵志皆善射馭。即行入山。五百人各射射一鹿。皆貫左目來角伎術。賢者亦入山精思念佛求威神佐助以彰大道。即有五色鹿子忽從地出。歡喜持歸。外道知之。伺賢者出行。往詣其家。詭語其婦曰。卿夫欲捨家作道人。但坐此鹿當破汝家。婦聞恚怒。以鹿乞之。賢者來歸不見其鹿。問婦曰。不祥之物今已失之。夫甚愁憂。復還山中至誠懺悔。即有明月神珠忽從地出。便持此珠齎現梵志。往詣至門行賣奇物。梵志婦曰。吾家亦有異物可共相方。即出鹿子。賢者便白王。使吾掌此鹿子。汝今盜之其罪不測。婦懅還之。至其試曰。梵志各送死鹿皆傷左目既穢且臭。王甚惡之。賢者前牽神鹿。齎明珠來上王殿。二物飛騰嬉戲星流電曜。舉宮奇之。婆羅門五百人自知術藝不競。即沒為奴。婦皆為婢(出十卷譬喻經第八卷)。
There was a king named Much-Merit whose crown prince was called Increasing-Merit. The king served the six teachers and his son served the buddha-path, and what they honored was not the same. At that time there were no śramaṇas in the world, and only one layman served as their chief teacher.
Five hundred heterodox practitioners were jealous of that teacher’s reputation and virtue, and said to the king: two doctrines in the affairs of the state keep people from being single-minded. Let each of us and the teacher of the buddha-path display our marvellous powers, and let whichever is defeated be forfeit and become the other’s slave.
The king agreed. The heterodox practitioners and this teacher fixed a day and made the compact, and before the king each tried his skills and they approved one another. The brahmins were all good at archery and driving, and went into the mountains; and the five hundred men each shot a deer, and every one pierced the left eye, to show their technique.
The worthy man too went into the mountains, and in earnest thought kept the Buddha in mind and asked for the aid of his majestic power to make the great path manifest; and at once a five-colored fawn suddenly came up out of the ground, and he took it home in delight.
The heterodox practitioners learned of it, and, watching until the worthy man had gone out, went to his house and said deceitfully to his wife: your husband means to leave home and become a religious. It is entirely on account of this deer, and it will ruin your household. His wife, hearing this, was angry and gave them the deer.
The worthy man came home and did not see his deer, and asked his wife, who said: the ill-omened thing is gone now. Her husband was much distressed and went back into the mountains and repented in all sincerity; and at once a bright-moon divine pearl suddenly came up out of the ground.
So he took this pearl and showed it to the brahmins, going to their door to sell the marvellous thing. The brahmin’s wife said: our household too has an extraordinary thing; we may compare them. And she brought out the fawn. The worthy man then reported to the king: I was given this fawn to keep, and you have now stolen it; your offense is beyond reckoning. The wife in her alarm gave it back.
On the day of the trial the brahmins each brought a dead deer, all with the left eye wounded, foul and stinking, and the king was much disgusted at it. The worthy man came forward leading the divine deer and brought the bright pearl up into the king’s hall, and the two things flew and soared and sported like shooting stars and flashing lightning, and the whole palace marvelled at it. The five hundred brahmins knew that their arts could not compete, and forfeited themselves as slaves, and their wives all became maidservants (Source: Ten-Fascicle Parables Sūtra, fascicle 8).
4. Binding His Belly with Plates and Carrying Fire on His Head to Display His Prowess
A debater arrives in Śrāvastī with copper plates strapped round his belly to keep it from bursting with wisdom, and a fire on his head to light the dark. The monk sent to debate him reads the omens on the way and asks for a postponement.
南天竺有論議師。以銅鐷鐷腹。頭上燃火。來入舍衛國。時人問言。汝何因爾。答言。我智多恐腹裂。著火欲照闇。時人語言。癡婆羅門。日照天下何以言闇。答言。汝不知。闇有二種。一者無日月火燭。二者愚癡無智慧明。諸人又言。汝未見訶哆釋子比丘。何敢作是語答。若見共語者闇夜見日出。時城內人民即喚訶哆釋子比丘。欲令共論。時訶哆聞之。心愁入城。道中見二羝羊共鬪。即日取相。一羊是婆羅門。一羊是我。我者不如。轉更愁憂。前行又見二牛共鬪。復作是念。一牛是婆羅門。一牛是我。即復不如。又至前門。復見二人相撲。又作是念。亦復不如。欲入論處。見一人持滿瓶水。水瓶即破。復作是念。我見諸不吉相。不得已入舍。見是婆羅門。眼口相貌自知不如。就坐須臾。諸人便言。可共論議。答言。我今小不安隱。須待明日便還宿處(出十誦律二誦第三卷)。
In South India there was a debating master who bound his belly with copper plates and burned a fire on his head, and came into the kingdom of Śrāvastī. People at the time asked him: why do you do this? He answered: my wisdom is so great that I fear my belly will split; and I put on the fire because I wish to light up the darkness.
People said to him: foolish brahmin, the sun lights the whole world — why do you speak of darkness? He answered: you do not understand. There are two kinds of darkness. First, having no sun, moon, fire, or candle; second, the folly of having no light of wisdom.
The people said further: you have not yet met the monk Hēduō, son of the Śākyas. How dare you speak so? He answered: if I see him and talk with him, then in the dark night the sun will come out.
The people of the city then summoned the monk Hēduō, son of the Śākyas, wishing to have them debate. When Hēduō heard of it he was troubled at heart and came into the city. On the road he saw two rams butting each other and took the sign of it at once: one ram is the brahmin and one ram is me — and I am the one who loses. And he grew more troubled still. Going on he saw two oxen butting each other, and thought again: one ox is the brahmin and one ox is me — and again I lose. Coming to the gate ahead he saw two men wrestling, and thought again: again I lose. As he was about to enter the debating place he saw a man carrying a full water-jar, and the jar broke; and he thought again: I have seen all these inauspicious signs.
Having no choice, he went in, and saw this brahmin; and from his eyes and mouth and appearance he knew of himself that he was no match. He sat down, and after a moment the people said: you may debate together. He answered: I am a little unwell today; you must wait until tomorrow — and went back to his lodging (Source: Sarvāstivāda Vinaya, second recitation, fascicle 3).
5. The People of Wisdom-Illusion Serve Crows, and Then a Peacock
A country with no rare birds is given crows and worships them, until a merchant brings a peacock.
過去世時。有一大國。在于北方邊地。號曰智幻。智幻人齎持烏來。至波遮梨國。而其國界無有此烏。亦無異類奇妙之鳥。時人見烏。歡喜踊躍。供養奉事飲食果瓜。而消息之。遠方之烏皆來集會不可稱數。一國普事尊敬無量。於後異時有一賈人復從他國齎孔雀來。眾見羽翼殊傑行步弘雅所未曾有。聽其音聲心懷踊躍。皆捨烏而愛孔雀。前養烏之具皆供孔雀。尊敬自歸。諸烏皆沒不知處所。時有天頌曰。未見日光時 燭火獨為明本見事諸烏 水飲及果瓜美音既具足 如日出樹間諸烏失供養 見事見尊卑阿難頌曰。如佛不興出 梵志得供事今佛具足音 異學失供養孔雀者我身是也。烏者諸外異學是。天者阿難也(出孔雀經)。
In a past age there was a great country in the north borderlands named Wisdom-Illusion. People of Wisdom-Illusion brought crows with them to the kingdom of Bōzhēlí, and within that country’s borders there were no such crows, nor any other rare and marvellous birds. When people saw the crows they leapt for joy, made offerings and served them with food, drink, fruit, and melons, and made much of them; and crows from far off all came flocking beyond counting, and the whole country served and revered them without measure.
Later, at another time, a merchant brought a peacock from another country. The crowd saw its plumage outstanding, its gait broad and elegant, such as had never been seen; and hearing its voice their hearts leapt within them, and they all abandoned the crows and loved the peacock. All the equipment for feeding the crows was given to the peacock, and they revered it and turned to it for refuge; and the crows all vanished and no one knew where.
Then a god spoke this verse:
“Before the sun’s light is seen, / a candle flame alone is bright. / They used to see and serve the crows / with water to drink and fruit and melons. / Now that the beautiful voice is complete, / like the sun rising between the trees, / the crows have lost their offerings — / one sees, in the seeing, high and low.”
Ānanda spoke this verse:
“As when the Buddha has not appeared, / the brahmins get to be served; / now the Buddha’s voice is complete / and the other schools have lost their offerings.”
The peacock was myself; the crows are the heterodox schools; and the god is Ānanda (Source: Peacock Sūtra).
6. Pūraṇa Kāśyapa Contests the Path with the Buddha, Is Outmatched, and Destroys Himself
The twin miracle at Śrāvastī, told from the loser's side: the wind that overturns his seat, the vajra-holder who asks why he is not performing, the old woman who scolds him on the road home, and what he tells his disciples at the river.
昔舍衛國有婆羅門師。名富蘭迦葉。與五百弟子相隨。國王人民莫不奉事。佛初得道。與諸弟子從羅閱祇至舍衛國。身相顯赫道教清美。國王中宮率土人民莫不奉敬。迦葉嫉妬欲毀世尊。謂波斯匿王曰。吾等長老先學國之舊師。沙門瞿曇。後出求道實無神聖。而王捨我今欲與佛捔試。道德勝者王奉。王言大善。王以白佛。佛言甚佳。結期七日當角變化。王於城東平廣好地。立二高座。國王群臣大眾雲集。欲觀二人角道。迦葉與諸弟子先到座所登梯而上。般師神王。見其虛妄嫉妬。即起大風。吹坐具顛倒幢幡。飛揚雨沙礫石。眼不得視。世尊高座儼然不動。佛與大眾庠序而來。方向高座忽然已上。眾僧一切寂然次坐。王及群臣加敬稽首白言。願垂神化壓伏邪見。并令國人明信正真。世尊於座㸌然不現。即昇虛空奮大光明。東沒西現四方亦爾。身出水火上下交易。坐臥空中十二變化。沒身不現還在座上。天龍鬼神華香供養。讚善之聲震動天地。富蘭迦葉自知無道。低頭慚怖不敢舉目。金剛力士捉金剛杵。杵頭火出以擬迦葉。問何以不現變化。迦葉惶怖投下而走。五百弟子奔波迸散。世尊威容都無欣慼。還到祇園。國王群臣歡喜辭退。於是迦葉與諸弟子受辱而去。去至道中逢一老優婆夷。字摩尼。逆罵之曰。卿等群愚不自忖度。而欲與佛比捔道術。狂愚欺誑不知羞恥。亦可不須持此面目行於世間也。迦葉羞諸弟子。往江水邊誑諸弟子。我今投水必生梵天。若我不還則有樂。彼諸弟子待之不還。自共議言。師必上天。我何宜住。一一投水冀當隨師。不知罪牽皆墮地獄。後日國王聞其如此。甚驚怪之往到佛所白佛言。迦葉師徒何緣乃爾。佛告王曰。迦葉師徒重罪有二。一者三毒熾盛自稱得道。二者謗毀如來欲望敬事。以此二罪應墮地獄。殃咎催逼使其沒河。身死神去受苦無量。往昔有二獼猴王。各主五百獼猴。一王起嫉妬意。欲殺一王規圖獨治。便往共鬪。鬪數不如。羞慚退去。到大海邊海曲之中。有大聚沫。風吹積聚高數百丈。獼猴王愚癡謂是雪山。語群輩言。久聞海中有雪山。其中快樂甘果恣口。今日乃見吾當先往行視。若審樂者不能復還。若不樂者當還語汝。於是上樹盡力跳騰。投聚沫中溺死海底。餘者怪之不出。謂必大樂。一一投中斷群溺死。嫉妬獼猴王者富蘭迦葉是也。群輩者今富蘭弟子五百人是也(出法句喻經第四卷賢愚出事廣略同不取)。
Long ago in the kingdom of Śrāvastī there was a brahmin teacher named Pūraṇa Kāśyapa, who went about with five hundred disciples, and there was no one, king or commoner, who did not serve him.
When the Buddha had just attained the path he came with his disciples from Rājagṛha to the kingdom of Śrāvastī. His bodily marks were resplendent and his teaching of the path pure and beautiful, and the king, the inner palace, and the people of the whole land all revered him.
Kāśyapa, in jealousy, wished to slander the World-Honored One, and said to King Prasenajit: I am an elder and the earlier learning and the old teacher of the kingdom. The śramaṇa Gautama came later to seek the path, and truly has nothing divine or holy about him; and yet the king casts me aside. I now wish to hold a trial with the Buddha, and let the king serve whichever is superior in the way and its virtue. The king said: very good.
The king reported it to the Buddha, and the Buddha said: excellent. A term of seven days was fixed for a contest of transformations. The king, on level and open ground east of the city, set up two high seats; and the king, his ministers, and a great crowd gathered like clouds to watch the two contend in the way.
Kāśyapa and his disciples arrived at the seats first and climbed up by the steps. The divine king Bānshī, seeing their falsity and jealousy, at once raised a great wind that blew their seating-mats about, overturned their banners, and sent sand and gravel flying so that the eye could not see; while the World-Honored One’s high seat stood grave and unmoving.
The Buddha came with the great assembly in dignified order, and turning toward the high seat was suddenly upon it; and the whole community of monks sat down in silence and in order. The king and his ministers made obeisance with added reverence and said: we ask you to send down a divine transformation that will subdue wrong views and make the people of the country believe clearly in what is right and true.
The World-Honored One vanished suddenly from his seat and rose into the open air and blazed with a great light; he disappeared in the east and appeared in the west, and did the same in the four directions; his body sent out water and fire, above and below alternately; and he sat and lay in the air, twelve transformations in all; and then he vanished and was back on his seat. Gods, nāgas, ghosts, and spirits made offerings of flowers and incense, and the sound of their praise shook heaven and earth.
Pūraṇa Kāśyapa knew of himself that he had no way, and hung his head in shame and fear and dared not raise his eyes. A vajra-holding strongman took a vajra club, and fire came out of the club’s head, and he pointed it at Kāśyapa and asked why he did not display his transformations; and Kāśyapa in terror threw himself down and fled, and his five hundred disciples scattered in every direction. The World-Honored One’s majestic countenance showed neither pleasure nor sorrow, and he returned to the Jetavana, and the king and his ministers took their leave in joy.
So Kāśyapa and his disciples went away in disgrace; and on the road they met an old lay-woman named Maṇi, who scolded them to their faces: you crowd of fools, who do not measure yourselves and would contend in arts of the path with the Buddha — mad, foolish, deceitful, and without shame. You had better not carry those faces about in the world.
Kāśyapa was ashamed before his disciples and went to the river and deceived them: I shall now throw myself into the water and shall certainly be born in the Brahmā heaven; if I do not come back, there is joy there. His disciples waited and he did not come back, and they said to one another: our teacher must have gone up to heaven; why should we stay? And one after another they threw themselves into the water hoping to follow their teacher — not knowing that their offenses drew them, and they all fell into hell.
Afterward the king heard of it and was much startled, and went to where the Buddha was and asked: why did Kāśyapa and his disciples come to this? The Buddha told the king: Kāśyapa and his disciples have two grave offenses. First, the three poisons blazing in them while they claimed to have attained the path; second, slandering the Tathāgata while looking to be revered themselves. For these two offenses they should fall into hell, and calamity pressed them on and made them sink in the river; their bodies died and their spirits went and receive measureless suffering.
Long ago there were two monkey kings, each ruling five hundred monkeys. One king gave rise to a jealous thought and wished to kill the other and rule alone, and went and fought with him; and fighting he was beaten several times, and withdrew in shame. He came to the seashore, and in a bend of the sea there was a great mass of foam that the wind had blown up several hundred fathoms high. The monkey king, in his folly, took it for a snow mountain, and said to his followers: I have long heard that in the sea there is a snow mountain, delightful within, with sweet fruit to the mouth’s content, and today I have seen it. I shall go first and look; if it is truly delightful I shall not come back, and if it is not delightful I shall come back and tell you. So he climbed a tree and leapt with all his strength, and plunged into the mass of foam and drowned at the bottom of the sea. The rest wondered that he did not come out and supposed that it must be very delightful, and one after another they plunged in, and the whole troop was cut off and drowned. The jealous monkey king is Pūraṇa Kāśyapa; the troop is Pūraṇa’s five hundred disciples now (Source: Dharmapada Parables Sūtra, fascicle 4; the Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish gives the matter at length, broadly the same, and is not taken here).
This is the great display at Śrāvastī, told entirely from the losing side, and its interest lies in how little of it the Buddha does. He is not shown challenging anyone; the contest is proposed by Kāśyapa and referred to the Buddha, who says only "excellent." The wind that wrecks Kāśyapa's seat is raised by a spirit; the demand that he perform is made by a vajra-holder; and when it is over the Buddha's face is described as showing neither pleasure nor sorrow.
The scene that follows the contest is the one the entry is really built around. On the road home Kāśyapa meets an old lay-woman named Maṇi, who tells him to his face that he is a fool who does not measure himself and would do better not to carry that face about in the world. It is her scolding — shame in front of his own disciples — and not the defeat itself that sends him to the river, and the lie he tells them there kills all five hundred of them.
The Buddha's diagnosis is two offenses, and neither is losing a contest: the three poisons blazing while claiming attainment, and slandering the Tathāgata in order to be revered. The monkey story then supplies the pattern — a jealous leader who cannot bear defeat, a mass of sea-foam mistaken for a snow mountain, and a whole troop drowning one after another because none of them will go and look.
7. The Sage Kṣāntivādin, Cultivating Patience and Practicing Loving-Kindness, Is Cut to Pieces by King Kali
Kṣāntivādin, dismembered piece by piece for the offense of having held the attention of a king's women, is asked whether his mind has moved.
羼提仙人在大林中。修忍行慈。時迦利王將諸婇女入林遊戲。飯食既訖。王小睡息。諸婇女輩採華林間。見此仙人。加敬禮拜在一面立。仙人爾時為諸婇女說諸慈忍。其言美妙聽者無厭。久而不去。迦利王覺不見婇女。拔劍追蹤。見在仙人前。憍妬隆盛瞋目奮劍。而問仙人。汝作何物。仙人答言。我今在此修忍行慈。王言。我今試汝。當以利劍截汝耳鼻斬汝手足。若不瞋者知汝修忍。仙人言任意。王即拔劍截其耳鼻斷其手足。而問之言。汝心動不。答言。我修慈忍心不動也。王言。汝一身在此無有勢力。雖口言不動誰當信者。是時仙人即作誓言。若我實修慈忍。血當為乳。即時血變為乳。王大驚喜。將諸女去。是時林中龍神為此仙人雷電礔礰。王被毒害沒不還宮(出智論第四卷)。
The sage Kṣāntivādin was in a great forest cultivating patience and practicing loving-kindness. At that time King Kali came into the forest with his palace women to amuse themselves; and when the meal was over the king slept a little to rest, and the palace women went gathering flowers in the forest and saw this sage, and bowed to him in reverence and stood to one side. The sage then taught the palace women about loving-kindness and patience, and his words were so fine that they never tired of listening, and they stayed a long while and did not go.
King Kali woke and did not see the palace women, and drew his sword and followed their tracks, and saw them in front of the sage. Arrogance and jealousy swelled in him, and he glared and brandished his sword and asked the sage: what are you doing? The sage answered: I am here cultivating patience and practicing loving-kindness. The king said: I shall test you now. I shall cut off your ears and nose with a sharp sword and cut off your hands and feet; and if you do not grow angry I shall know you cultivate patience. The sage said: as you please.
The king then drew his sword and cut off his ears and nose and cut off his hands and feet, and asked him: is your mind moved? He answered: I cultivate loving-kindness and patience, and my mind is not moved. The king said: you are alone here with no power at all; though your mouth says you are unmoved, who will believe it?
Then the sage made this vow: if I truly cultivate loving-kindness and patience, let my blood become milk. And at once the blood turned to milk. The king was greatly startled and glad, and took the women and went. Then the nāgas and spirits of that forest raised thunder, lightning, and thunderbolts for this sage’s sake, and the king was stricken with the poison of it and perished and did not return to his palace (Source: Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom, fascicle 4).
Kṣāntivādin, the Speaker of Patience, is among the best-known of the jātakas, and this version is unusually compressed and unusually clear about what provokes the king. It is not doctrine and not insult: the palace women stayed to listen to him and did not come back, and the king woke alone. The words the text uses are arrogance and jealousy.
Note that the king's stated purpose is empirical — I shall test you — and that after each amputation he asks whether the mind has moved. It is only when he objects that a helpless man's word is worth nothing that the sage produces the milk, and the milk is the answer to the epistemic objection rather than to the violence.
The ending is worth noting for what it does not say. The nāgas and spirits of the forest kill the king with thunderbolts, and the sage neither asks for this nor prevents it, and the text passes no judgment on it.
8. The Sage Luówén's Writings, Which Wind and Rain Cannot Damage
Two sentences of report and a question left open: a householder sage with the attainments of a non-returner, whose writings the weather cannot damage.
昔有仙人。名曰螺文精進純備。而處居家不有梵行者。或作是說。如彼螺文有清淨行。然在居家不善清淨。螺文造書。風雨不能沮壞。處俗修梵行。如阿那含。在家眷屬圍繞。此非清淨行耶。神足境界不可思議(出婆須蜜經第六卷)。
Long ago there was a sage named Luówén, complete in vigor and purity, who yet lived at home and did not practice celibacy. Some say: one like Luówén has pure conduct, and yet in living at home is not well purified.
When Luówén composed writings, wind and rain could not damage them. Living in the world he cultivated the holy life like a non-returner; at home, surrounded by kin — is this not pure conduct? The realm of supernormal power is beyond conceiving (Source: Vasumitra Treatise, fascicle 6).
9. The Causes by Which Four Sages Attained the Path
Four sages fly into Rājagṛha from the four directions and are taken for buddhas. The Buddha's answer is not a debate.
佛在羅閱祇。宣說正法。諸尼揵等心皆愁惱。梨夷山有五百仙人。尼揵遣使云。此間有佛。自謂得道神變第一。皆不及我等而自高大。願大師等。自屈見佐。論道至要毀滅其道。遂令諸師功名益顯。答言大善。我等且遣四人往難瞿曇。尼揵宣令國內。却後七日當有四佛入國度人。及至其日。四人現視神變。從空中來各從城一面入。眾人覩見謂為真佛。尼揵遣使白佛。可來講道。佛言。食時當往。尼揵喜曰。瞿曇恐不如。詐不前來。眾皆謂然。佛令空中火起。從西面來。四人南飛火復南來。四面熱氣四人惶懅。頓臥在地。佛現在涼處。即時尋涼來至佛前。佛為說法。皆作沙門得應真道。佛入城。城中人言。旦有四佛在虛空中。佛言。即指左右。此四羅漢是也(出十卷譬喻經第五卷)。
The Buddha was at Rājagṛha proclaiming the true Dharma, and the Nirgranthas were all distressed at heart. On Mount Líyí there were five hundred sages, and the Nirgranthas sent messengers to say: there is a Buddha here who says of himself that he has attained the path and is first in divine transformations, and that none of us come near him; and he exalts himself. We ask the great teachers to trouble themselves to come and help us, to debate the essentials of the way and destroy his doctrine, and so make the fame and merit of our teachers the greater. They answered: excellent. We shall send four men to go and challenge Gautama.
The Nirgranthas proclaimed throughout the country: in seven days’ time four buddhas will enter the country and deliver people. And when the day came, the four men displayed their transformations, coming through the air, each entering by one side of the city; and the crowd who saw them took them for real buddhas.
The Nirgranthas sent a messenger to say to the Buddha: you may come and discuss the way. The Buddha said: I shall come at mealtime. The Nirgranthas said in delight: Gautama is afraid he is no match and pretends he cannot come now; and the crowd all thought so.
The Buddha caused a fire to arise in the air and come from the west; the four men flew south and the fire came from the south; the hot air pressed on all four sides and the four men, in terror, collapsed on the ground. The Buddha appeared in a cool place; and they at once made for the coolness and came before the Buddha, and the Buddha taught the Dharma for them, and they all became śramaṇas and attained the path of a true and worthy one.
The Buddha went into the city, and the people of the city said: this morning there were four buddhas in the air. The Buddha pointed to those beside him and said: these four arhats are they (Source: Ten-Fascicle Parables Sūtra, fascicle 5).
10. A Sage Loses His Powers and Is Born in an Evil Destiny
Udraka, having lost his powers to the touch of a queen's hands, is prevented from regaining them by birds and then by fish, and forms a wish about them that outlasts eighty thousand kalpas of heaven.
如欝陀羅伽仙人。得五神通。飛到國王宮中食。王大夫人如其國法。接足而禮。夫人手觸即失神通。從王求車。乘駕而出還其本處。入林樹間更求五通。一心專至垂得。而樹上有鳥急鳴以亂其意。捨樹至水邊求定。復聞魚鬪動水之聲。此人求禪不得。即生瞋恚。我當盡殺魚鳥。此人久後思惟得定。生非有想非無想處。於彼壽盡。下生作飛狸。殺諸魚鳥。作無量罪墮惡道(出大智論第十七卷)。
Take the sage Udraka, who attained the five supernormal powers and flew into the royal palace to eat. The king’s chief consort, according to the law of that country, touched his feet in salutation; and at the touch of the consort’s hand he lost his supernormal powers. He asked the king for a carriage, and rode out in it and returned to his own place.
He went into the forest among the trees to seek the five powers again, and with a single-pointed and concentrated mind was on the verge of it; but there were birds in the tree crying urgently and disturbing his mind. He left the tree and went to the water’s edge to seek concentration, and heard the sound of fish fighting and stirring the water. This man, unable to attain meditation, gave rise to anger: I shall kill every fish and bird.
Long afterward this man, by reflection, attained concentration, and was born in the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception. When that lifespan was exhausted he was born below as a flying civet and killed fish and birds, and, committing measureless offenses, fell into the evil destinies (Source: Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom, fascicle 17).
Entries 10 and 12 are the same story about the same man — Udraka Rāmaputra, one of the Buddha's own two teachers before his awakening — from two different sources, placed two entries apart. Neither the compendium nor either source acknowledges the other, and we have not harmonised them.
Entry 10, from the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom, is the compressed version: the queen's touch, the birds, the fish, the resolve to kill them all, and the rebirth as a flying civet after a heavenly lifespan is spent. Entry 12, from the Abhidharma Vibhāṣā, gives the same sequence with much more detail and one significant difference — there it is the king's daughter, not the queen, and the text explains at length why the king delegated the task to her.
11. Sages Who See and Hear Women's Forms and Voices Lose Their Supernormal Powers
King Udayana catches five hundred sages falling out of the sky over his naked dancers, and asks two questions before drawing his sword.
優陀延王。將諸宮人婇女。詣欝毒波陀山林。除却男子純與女人五樂自娛。其音清妙燒眾名香。時諸婇女。或有裸形而起舞者。時有五百仙人經過彼處。時諸仙人見色聞聲嗅香便失神足。猶無翼鳥墮彼林中。王問。汝等是誰。諸仙人答言。我是仙人。王復問。汝得非想非非想處定耶。答言不得。又問。汝得初禪耶。答言。曾得而今已失。時王瞋言。有欲之人見我宮人殊非所以。便拔利劍斷五百仙人手足(出抄毘曇毘婆沙第三十三卷)。
King Udayana took the women of his palace to the forest on Mount Yùdúbōtuó, and, sending the men away and keeping only the women, amused himself with the five pleasures. The music was pure and fine and fragrant incense of every kind was burned; and some of the palace women danced naked.
At that time five hundred sages were passing that place, and, seeing the forms and hearing the sounds and smelling the scents, they lost their power of flight, and fell into that forest like wingless birds.
The king asked: who are you? The sages answered: we are sages. The king asked again: have you attained the concentration of the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception? They answered: we have not. He asked again: have you attained the first dhyāna? They answered: we once had it, and have now lost it.
Then the king said in anger: it is quite improper for men with desire to see the women of my palace — and drew a sharp sword and cut off the hands and feet of the five hundred sages (Source: Abridged Abhidharma Vibhāṣā, fascicle 33).
12. Set Down by a King's Daughter's Hands, He Conceives Love, Later Raises an Evil Thought, and Falls into Avīci
The same story as entry 10, from a different source and at greater length: the paved streets, the birds, the fish, and the exact terms of the vow he makes on the mountain.
優陀羅摩子。有王。常施其食。若食時至。以神足力飛騰虛空詣於王宮。王即迎抱坐金床上。以諸仙人所食之味而供養之。時彼仙人飯食已竟。除器澡漱說偈呪願飛空而去。是王後時。以國事故應詣餘處。無人給事仙人。仙人性躁。或起瞋恚而呪咀我。或失王位或斷我命。便問其女。仙人若來如我常法汝能供養不。女答言能。時王重約勅女盡心奉養。然後乃行。營理國事。後日食時仙人飛來。王女如王法。躬身迎抱坐金床上。王女身體細軟。仙人觸女退失神足。飲食訖。除器澡漱說偈呪願。欲飛不能。時王宮中有後園林。即入其中欲修神足。聞象馬車乘之聲而不得修。時城中人恒作是念。若令大仙在地行者。我等當得親近禮足。仙人聰明黠慧善知方便。語王女言。汝今宣告城中人民。今日大仙當從王宮步行而出。汝等人民所應作者皆悉作之。時彼王女如其所勅。即便宣告。街陌清淨無瓦礫糞穢。懸幡燒香散種種花。嚴飾鮮潔。仙人步出去城不遠。入林樹間欲修神足。聞眾鳥聲修不能得。便捨林樹復詣河邊。以其本法欲修神足。復聞水中魚鼈迴轉之聲。而不得修。便上山上作是思惟。我今所以退失善法皆由眾生。凡我所有善法淨行。使我當作如是眾生。能害世間所見地行飛行水性眾生。無免我者。發是惡誓願見。離八地欲生非想非非想有頂處。開甘露門寂靜園田。八萬劫中處閑靜樂。業報盡已乃還此間。答波樹林曇摩阿蘭若處。作著翅狸。身廣五十由旬。兩翅各廣五十由旬。其身量百五十由旬。以此大身殺害空行水陸眾生。無得免者。身壞命終生阿鼻地獄(出抄毘曇毘婆沙第三十三卷)。
There was a king who regularly gave food to Udraka Rāmaputra. When the mealtime came, the sage would rise into the air by his power of flight and go to the royal palace, and the king would receive him in his arms and seat him on a golden couch and make offerings to him of the foods that sages eat. When the sage had eaten, the vessels were cleared and he rinsed his mouth and spoke a verse of blessing and flew away.
Afterward the king had to go elsewhere on affairs of state, and there was no one to attend to the sage. The sage was hasty by nature, and the king thought: he may grow angry and curse me, and I may lose my throne or my life. So he asked his daughter: if the sage comes, can you attend on him as I always do? His daughter answered that she could, and the king charged her earnestly to serve him with all her heart, and then went off to manage the business of the state.
On a later day, at mealtime, the sage flew in, and the king’s daughter, following the king’s manner, received him in her own arms and seated him on the golden couch. The king’s daughter’s body was fine and soft, and at the touch of her the sage lost his power of flight. When he had eaten and the vessels were cleared and he had rinsed his mouth and spoken his verse of blessing, he wished to fly and could not.
There was a rear garden and grove in the palace, and he went into it meaning to restore his power of flight; but he heard the sound of elephants, horses, and carriages and could not cultivate it.
The people of the city constantly thought: if the great sage would walk on the ground, we might come near him and bow at his feet. The sage was clever and shrewd and well understood expedients, and said to the king’s daughter: proclaim now to the people of the city that today the great sage will walk out from the royal palace, and let the people do whatever they should do.
The king’s daughter did as instructed and proclaimed it; and the streets and lanes were made clean, with no tiles, gravel, or filth, and banners hung and incense burned and flowers of every kind scattered, all adorned and fresh and pure.
The sage walked out, and not far from the city went into the forest among the trees meaning to restore his power of flight; but he heard the voices of the birds and could not get it. So he left the trees and went to the riverside and, by his own method, tried to restore his power of flight; but he heard again the sound of the fish and turtles turning in the water and could not cultivate it.
So he went up onto a mountain and reflected: that I have now lost my good dharmas is all on account of living beings. Whatever good dharmas and pure practice I have, let them make me become such a being as can harm all the creatures I see in the world, that walk on the ground, fly in the air, or live in the water, and let none escape me.
Making this evil vow, he departed from desire for the eight grounds and was born in the highest sphere of neither perception nor non-perception; he opened the gate of nectar and dwelt in a quiet garden-field, and for eighty thousand kalpas dwelt in the joy of leisure and quiet. When that karmic reward was exhausted he came back here, and in the Dápō grove at the Dharma-araṇya became a winged civet, its body fifty yojanas across, each wing fifty yojanas across, its whole extent a hundred and fifty yojanas. With this great body it killed and harmed the beings of the air, the water, and the land, and none escaped it; and when the body broke up and its life ended it was born in the Avīci hell (Source: Abridged Abhidharma Vibhāṣā, fascicle 33).
Read alongside entry 10, this version supplies what the shorter one leaves out, and the additions are all about the sage's own resourcefulness in the service of a ruinous end. Having lost his flight, he does not admit it; he arranges for the city to be swept and hung with banners so that his walking out on foot will look like a favour to the citizens who had wished to come near him. Only then does he go looking for somewhere quiet.
The vow he makes on the mountain is stated with a precision that is worth reproducing exactly: whatever good dharmas and pure practice I have, let them make me become such a being as can harm all the creatures I see — that walk on the ground, fly in the air, or live in the water — and let none escape me. He is spending his accumulated merit, deliberately and as merit, on the capacity to kill. The eighty thousand kalpas at the summit of the formless realm are the interest on it; the winged civet a hundred and fifty yojanas across is the principal; and Avīci is what is left.
13. Típōyánnà Hears Śacī's Voice and Conceives Love
Śacī stows away invisibly in her husband's carriage, is discovered, is struck with a lotus stalk, and apologizes — and the sage overhears the apology.
佛未出世時。天帝釋常往詣提波延那仙人所聽法。後一時乘寶飾車欲詣仙人。而舍芝念言。今者帝釋棄我欲詣餘婇女。即隱其形上車上。帝釋不知垂到仙人所。顧視見之。而問言。汝等何故來。仙人不欲眼見女人。汝可還宮。舍芝不欲去。帝釋以蓮華莖打之。舍芝以女人軟美之音而謝帝釋。仙人聞之。而起欲愛。螺髮即落耳識而退(出抄毘曇毘婆沙第三十三卷)。
Before the Buddha appeared in the world, Śakra, lord of the gods, used regularly to go to the sage Típōyánnà to hear the Dharma. On one occasion he was riding in a jeweled carriage to go to the sage, and Śacī thought: Śakra is abandoning me and going to some other heavenly woman. And she made herself invisible and got up into the carriage, and Śakra did not know it.
When they were nearly at the sage’s place, he looked round and saw her and asked: why have you come? The sage does not wish to set eyes on a woman; you should go back to the palace. Śacī did not wish to go, and Śakra struck her with the stalk of a lotus, and Śacī apologized to Śakra in the soft and sweet voice of a woman. The sage heard it, and desire and craving arose in him, and his coiled topknot fell away, and his ear-consciousness declined (Source: Abridged Abhidharma Vibhāṣā, fascicle 33).
14. A Sage of the Snow Mountains Couples with a Tigress and Begets Twelve Sons
A sage of the Snow Mountains who cultivated loving-kindness but could not remove the defilements, a tigress, twelve sons, and twelve years of the orphaned boys calling on Brahmā.
往昔雪山有一仙人。名跋伽婆。食果草根修習慈心。而不能除諸煩惱結。時住彼處有一雌虎。與共行欲遂便懷妊。日月滿足來仙人所產十二子。仙人憐愍即取洗浴而哺養之。虎母愛念隨時乳養。仙人各為立名。一名竭伽。二名跋婆伽。三名為虎。四名師子。五名擔重。六名婆羅墮闍。七名步行。八名婆羅奴。九名健食。十名惡性。十一名師子擔。十二名健行。年始七歲能食根華果。父母俱亡子心愁惱。仰天號哭無所歸依。樹神言。且莫號哭。汝等應當晝夜六時淨自洗浴向於虛空至心禮拜求哀梵天。梵天聞之。當至汝所壞汝癡暗。施汝慧明當供養汝。依教而行經十二歲。時梵天帝釋三十三天。與無數眷屬皆來供養。告童子曰。汝等何故十二年中精懃苦行。供養於我欲何所求。僉曰。唯願大士施我智慧。令我識知善惡等業苦受樂事(出大集經第二十四卷)。
Long ago in the Snow Mountains there was a sage named Bhārgava, who ate fruit and grass roots and cultivated a mind of loving-kindness, but could not remove the fetters of the defilements. There was a tigress dwelling in that place, and he had intercourse with her, and she conceived.
When the months were full she came to the sage’s place and bore twelve sons. The sage took pity on them and bathed them and fed them, and the tiger mother, in her love for them, suckled them in due time. The sage gave each of them a name: the first Jiéjiā; the second Bápójiā; the third Tiger; the fourth Lion; the fifth Burden-Bearer; the sixth Bhāradvāja; the seventh Walker; the eighth Póluónú; the ninth Strong-Eater; the tenth Ill-Natured; the eleventh Lion-Bearer; the twelfth Strong-Goer.
When they were seven years old they could eat roots, flowers, and fruit. Their father and mother both died, and the sons in their grief cried aloud to heaven with nothing to turn to. A tree spirit said: do not cry out. You should at the six times of day and night wash yourselves clean and bow toward the open sky and beg with all your hearts for Brahmā’s pity. Brahmā, hearing it, will come to you and break your dark folly and give you the light of wisdom, and will provide for you.
They did as they were taught, and after twelve years Brahmā, Śakra, and the gods of the Trāyastriṃśa heaven came with countless retinues and made offerings, and said to the boys: why have you for twelve years practiced diligent austerity and made offerings to us? What is it you seek? They said together: we ask only that the great ones give us wisdom, and let us know good and evil deeds and the matters of receiving suffering and joy (Source: Mahāsaṃnipāta Sūtra, fascicle 24).
This entry is brief and its content startling, and we have translated it without softening: a sage of the Snow Mountains who ate roots and cultivated loving-kindness but had not removed the defilements, a tigress who lived in the same place, intercourse between them, and twelve sons. The text spends no words at all on the transgression and moves straight to the sage bathing and feeding the infants while the tigress suckles them.
What follows is a genealogy in miniature. Twelve names are given, some transliterated and some plainly descriptive — Tiger, Lion, Burden-Bearer, Walker, Strong-Eater, Ill-Natured, Lion-Bearer, Strong-Goer — and one, Bhāradvāja, is a well-known brahmin clan name. The Mahāsaṃnipāta context suggests these are meant as the ancestors of lineages, and the entry ends not with a moral but with the twelve orphans, after twelve years of calling on Brahmā, asking for the wisdom to tell good deeds from bad.
15. The Sage Bōjié Sees a King's Daughter, Conceives Desire, and Loses His Powers
A sage who loses his powers by lifting a princess's hands off himself, and a king who comes to his room at night, alone, and asks him about it in verse.
昔過去久遠世時。有一仙人。名曰撥劫。得五神通。時為國王之所奉事。神足飛行往反王宮。時王供養一切施安。王手捧仙人布髮與行。手自斟酌百種飲食。積有年歲。時王緣務。王有一女。端正姝好於世希有。王甚敬重。女未出門。王告女曰。吾奉事仙人不敢失意。今吾遠行汝供養之。當如我在。時彼仙人從空飛下至宮內。王女見來。以手擎之坐著座上。觸女體柔軟即起欲意。愛欲興盛尋失神足。思惟經行欲復神足故不能獲。步行出宮。時無央數人皆來集看。王行畢還聞墮恩愛不能飛行。王夜至宮獨竊自行。往見仙人稽首足下。以偈頌曰。吾聞大梵志 本異皆食飲為從何所教 何因習色欲撥劫答曰。吾實爾大王 如聖之所聞王曰。不審惠所在 乃善德所念假使發欲心 不能伏本事撥劫答曰。愛欲失義利 婬心欝然熾今日聞王語 便當捨愛欲仙人羞慚剋心自責。宿夜精懃還復神通。時仙人者今舍利弗是。時國王者吾身是也(出仙人撥劫經)。
Long ago, in the far distant past, there was a sage named Bōjié who attained the five supernormal powers, and at that time he was served by a king of a country, and would fly by his power to and from the royal palace. The king made offerings to him and gave peace to all; the king would take the sage up in his hands and spread out his hair for him to walk on, and ladle out a hundred kinds of food and drink with his own hands; and so it went for some years.
Then the king had business. The king had a daughter, upright and lovely and rare in the world, whom the king held in great esteem, and who had not yet gone out to be married. The king told his daughter: I have served the sage and never dared to fail him. Now that I am going far away, do you make the offerings, just as if I were here.
Then that sage flew down from the air into the palace, and the king’s daughter, seeing him come, lifted him in her hands and seated him on the seat. At the touch of the girl’s soft body desire arose in him; and as his love and desire grew he at once lost his power of flight. He reflected and paced, wishing to restore his powers, and could not get them; and he walked out of the palace on foot, and countless people gathered to look at him.
When the king’s journey was over and he returned, he heard that the sage had fallen into affection and could not fly. The king came to the palace at night, and went alone and secretly, and, coming to the sage, bowed at his feet and spoke a verse:
“I have heard the great brahmin / was originally different in all his eating and drinking. / By whom have you been taught? / What has caused you to practise lust?”
Bōjié answered:
“Truly it is so, great king, / as the holy one has heard.”
The king said:
“I do not know where your wisdom has gone, / that once was mindful of good virtue. / If you give rise to a mind of desire / you cannot subdue what was your original practice.”
Bōjié answered:
“Desire loses meaning and benefit; / the lustful mind burns and blazes. / Hearing the king’s words today, / I shall now cast off desire.”
The sage was ashamed and reproached himself in his heart, and by diligence night and day he recovered his supernormal powers. The sage of that time is Śāriputra now; the king of that time is myself (Source: Sūtra of the Sage Bōjié).
16. The One-Horned Sage, His Feelings Stained by Worldly Desire, Is Ridden by a Courtesan
The Ekaśṛṅga legend in full: conception in a washing basin, birth to a doe, a twelve-year drought pronounced over a hurt foot, and a courtesan with five hundred cartloads of drugged sweets and liquor the color of water.
時波羅奈國山中有仙人。以仲秋之月。於澡槃中小便。見鹿合會婬心即發。精流槃中鹿飲之。即時有身。滿月生子大類如人。頭有一角其足似鹿。鹿當產時往仙人舍前生子。付仙人而去。仙人出時見此鹿子。自念本緣知是己兒。取已養育。及其年大。懃教學習。通十八種大經。又學坐禪。行四無量心得五神通。一時上山。值大雨泥滑。其脚不便躄傷其足。便大瞋恚。呪令不雨。仙人福德諸龍鬼神皆為不雨。不雨故穀果不生。人民窮乏無復生路。波羅奈王憂愁懊惱。命諸大官集議雨事。明者議言。我聞有一角仙人。上山傷足瞋呪令十二年不雨。王即開募。若有能令仙人失五通屬我為民者。當與分國半治。是波羅奈國有婬女。名曰扇陀。端正巨富。來應王募。婬女言。若是人者我能壞之作是語已。取金槃盛好寶物。語王言。我當騎此仙人來。婬女即時求五百乘車。載五百美女。五百鹿車載種種歡喜丸。皆以眾藥草和之。及持種種大力美酒。色味如水服樹皮衣行林樹間。以像仙人。於仙人舍邊作草庵住。一角仙人遊行見之。諸女皆出好華妙香供養仙人。仙人歡喜。諸女以美言敬辭問訊仙人。將入房中坐好床褥。與好淨酒以為淨水。與歡喜丸以為果瓜。食飲飽已。語諸女言。我從生來初未得如此果水。諸女言。我一心行善故天與我願得此果水。仙人問女。汝那膚色肥盛。答曰。我常食此好果飲此美水。仙言。汝何不在此住。答曰。亦可住耳。女呼共澡洗。女手柔軟觸之。心動遂成婬欲。即失神通。天為大雨七日七夜。令得歡樂飲食七日。酒食皆盡。繼以水木果。其味不美。更索前者。答言已盡。今當共取。去此不遠有可得處。仙人言。隨意。共出去城不遠。女便臥地言。我極不復能行。仙人言。汝不能行者騎我項上。我當擔汝。女先遣信報王。王可暫出觀我智能。王見問言。何由得爾。女曰以方便力無所復能。令住城中好供養恭敬之。足其所欲拜為大臣。住城少日身轉羸瘦。念禪定心厭此世欲。王問仙人。汝何不樂。答曰。雖得五欲常念林間。王曰。本除旱患何為強奪其志。即便遣之。既還山中精進不久還得五通。一角仙人我身是也。婬女者耶輸陀羅是也(出大智論第十七卷)。
At that time there was a sage in the mountains of the kingdom of Vārāṇasī who, in the middle month of autumn, urinated into a washing basin; and, seeing deer coupling, lust arose in him and his semen flowed into the basin. A doe drank it and at once conceived; and when the months were full she bore a son much like a human, with one horn on his head and feet like a deer’s. When the doe was about to give birth she went in front of the sage’s dwelling and bore the child, and handed him over to the sage and went away.
When the sage came out and saw this fawn-child, he considered its origin and knew it was his own son, and took him and raised him. When he had grown, he taught him diligently, and he mastered the eighteen great treatises; and he studied meditation besides, practiced the four immeasurable minds, and attained the five supernormal powers.
Once he went up the mountain and met with heavy rain and slippery mud; his feet failed him and he fell and hurt his foot, and in great anger he pronounced a curse that it should not rain. By the merit of the sage, the nāgas and the ghosts and spirits all made it not rain; and because it did not rain the grain and fruit did not grow, and the people were destitute and had no way to live.
The king of Vārāṇasī was grieved and distressed, and called his great officials to consider the matter of rain. A knowing one said: I have heard that a one-horned sage went up the mountain and hurt his foot and in anger has cursed it not to rain for twelve years.
The king then made a proclamation: whoever can make the sage lose his five powers and belong to me as a subject shall have half my kingdom to govern.
In the kingdom of Vārāṇasī there was a courtesan named Śāntā, beautiful and very rich, who came and answered the king’s call. The courtesan said: if he is a man, I can ruin him. Having said this, she took a golden basin filled with fine treasures and said to the king: I shall ride this sage here.
The courtesan then asked for five hundred carriages, which she loaded with five hundred beautiful women, and five hundred deer-carts loaded with sweetmeats of every kind, all mixed with medicinal herbs, and with strong and fine liquor of every kind whose color and taste were like water. They wore garments of tree bark and walked among the forest trees so as to look like sages, and built a grass hut beside the sage’s dwelling and stayed there.
The one-horned sage came walking by and saw them, and the women all came out with fine flowers and rare incense and made offerings to the sage, and the sage was delighted. The women greeted the sage with sweet words and respectful phrases and brought him into their room and seated him on a fine couch and mat, and gave him good clear liquor as though it were pure water, and sweetmeats as though they were fruit and melons.
When he had eaten and drunk his fill he said to the women: since I was born I have never had such fruit and water as this. The women said: because we practice good with a single mind, heaven has granted our wish and given us this fruit and water. The sage asked the women: how is your complexion so full and glowing? They answered: we always eat this fine fruit and drink this sweet water. The sage said: why do you not stay here? They answered: we may stay.
The women called him to bathe with them, and their hands were soft, and at their touch his mind moved and lust came about, and at once he lost his supernormal powers; and heaven made a great rain for seven days and seven nights, and let him have his pleasure and eat and drink for seven days.
When the liquor and food were all gone they continued with water and tree fruit, and the taste was not good; and he asked for what he had had before. They answered: it is finished; we shall go together and get some. There is a place not far from here where it can be had. The sage said: as you like.
They went out together, and not far from the city the woman lay down on the ground and said: I am worn out and can go no further. The sage said: if you cannot walk, get up on my shoulders and I shall carry you.
The woman had already sent word ahead to the king: the king may come out for a moment and see my skill. The king saw and asked: how did you bring this about? The woman said: by the power of expedient means, so that he can do nothing more. She had him housed in the city and served and revered generously, and everything he wanted supplied, and he was appointed a great minister.
After a few days in the city his body grew thin and wasted; he thought of meditative concentration and grew weary of the desires of this world. The king asked the sage: why are you unhappy? He answered: though I have the five desires, I think constantly of the forest. The king said: my original purpose was to remove the drought; why should I force him against his will? And he sent him away.
When he had returned to the mountains and applied himself diligently, it was not long before he recovered the five powers. The one-horned sage was myself; the courtesan is Yaśodharā (Source: Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom, fascicle 17).
This is the Ekaśṛṅga or Ṛṣyaśṛṅga legend, one of the most widely told stories in Indian literature, and the Treatise's version is the fullest and frankest. We have translated the whole of it, including the conception — the sage's semen in a washing basin, drunk by a doe — and the mechanics of the seduction, which are entirely a matter of substitution: liquor whose color and taste are like water, sweetmeats compounded with drugs presented as fruit, bark garments to look like a sage's, and a grass hut built next door.
The deception is elaborated in a way that repays attention. When he says he has never had such fruit and water in his life, the women answer that heaven granted it because they practice good with a single mind; when he asks why their complexions glow, they say it is from this fine fruit and sweet water. Every step of it is an argument that his own austerity has been the wrong method.
The ending is the part most often left out of retellings. Śāntā collects on the king's offer, and the sage is installed in the city as a great minister with everything he wants supplied — and wastes away within days, thinking of the forest. The king's response is the closest thing to a moral the entry offers: my original purpose was to remove the drought; why should I force him against his will? He lets him go, and the powers come back.
The identification at the close is the sting. The one-horned sage is the Buddha; the courtesan is Yaśodharā, his wife. This closes fascicle 39.