Devadatta's Powers, and the Corruption of a Prince
Ānanda's meditation instructions, meant to lead toward liberation, become the means of Devadatta's own downfall: seven days of solitary practice yield real supernormal power, which he uses first to win a young prince's affection, then to demand the Buddha's own place, and finally to turn that same prince against his father with a single, devastating lie.
Seven Days of Practice, and a Display of Power
然阿難雖得初果未證他心，不知阿兄私密學通欲於佛所起於惡計。阿難遂即喚向靜處，次第教之。跏趺正坐先教將心舉身似動想，去地一分一寸想，一尺一丈想，至舍作空無礙想，直過上空中想，還攝心下至本坐處想。次將身舉心，初時去地一分一寸等亦如前法，以身舉心，以心舉身，亦隨既至上空已，還攝取身下至本坐處。次想身心合舉，還同前法一分一寸等周而復始。次想身心入一切質礙色境中，作不質礙想。次想一切山河大地等色入自身中，如空無礙不見色相。次想自身或大遍滿虛空，坐臥自在，或坐或臥，以手捉動日月，或作小身入微塵中，一切皆作無礙想。阿難如是次第教已。
時調達既受得法已，即別向靜處，七日七夜一心專注即得身通，一切自在皆得成就。既得通已，即向太子殿前，在於空中現大神變。身上出火身下出水，或左邊出水右邊出火，或現大身或現小身，或坐臥空中，隨意自在。
太子見已問左右曰：『此是何人？』左右答太子言：『此是尊者提婆。』太子聞已心大歡喜，遂即舉手喚言：『尊者何不下來。』提婆既見喚已，即化作嬰兒直向太子膝上。太子即抱嗚口弄之，又唾口中，嬰兒遂咽之。須臾還復本身。太子既見提婆種種神變，轉加敬重。
Yet though Ānanda had already attained the first fruit, he had not yet realized the minds of others, and did not know that his own elder cousin, secretly seeking to study these powers, intended to use them to plot evil against the Buddha himself. Ānanda thereupon called him to a quiet place, and taught him these powers in their proper sequence. Seated in the full lotus posture, he first taught him to use the mind to lift the body, visualizing it as though moving — first visualizing rising a fraction of an inch off the ground, then a full inch, then a foot, then a full ten feet, all the way up to visualizing the body passing unobstructed through empty space itself, rising directly up into the sky above, and then gathering the mind back and returning down to one's own original seat. Next, he taught him to use the body to lift the mind, beginning again with the same fraction of an inch, an inch, and so on, exactly as before — using the body to lift the mind, and using the mind to lift the body, until, having likewise reached the sky above, one gathers the body back down again to one's own original seat. Next, he taught him to visualize body and mind lifting together, again following this same sequence of a fraction of an inch, an inch, and so on, beginning the whole cycle over again. Next, he taught him to visualize body and mind entering into every kind of solid, obstructing form, visualizing them as unobstructed. Next, he taught him to visualize every mountain, river, and expanse of earth, every such form, entering into his own body, as unobstructed as empty space itself, with no visible form remaining at all. Next, he taught him to visualize his own body as either vast, filling the whole of empty space, sitting or lying down entirely at will, or else sitting or lying down while grasping and moving the sun and moon with his own hand, or else making his own body small enough to enter into a single mote of dust — visualizing every one of these as entirely unobstructed. Ānanda taught him in this way, step by step, in sequence.
Devadatta, having received this method, went off on his own to a quiet place, and, single-mindedly and intently focused for seven days and seven nights, thereby attained bodily supernormal power, accomplishing every kind of freedom entirely at will. Having attained this power, he went directly before the prince's own palace hall, and, in the empty air, manifested great spiritual transformations — fire issuing from the upper half of his body, water from the lower half; or water from his left side and fire from his right; manifesting a vast body, or manifesting a tiny one; sitting or lying suspended in the air, entirely at his own will.
The prince, seeing this, asked those around him: "Who is this?" Those around him answered the prince: "This is the Venerable Devadatta." The prince, hearing this, was filled with great delight, and at once raised his hand and called out: "Venerable One, why do you not come down?" Devadatta, hearing himself called, transformed himself at once into an infant, and went directly into the prince's own lap. The prince embraced him, kissed him, and played with him, and even spat into his mouth — and the infant swallowed it. In a moment, he returned to his own original form. The prince, having witnessed Devadatta's every kind of spiritual transformation, grew all the more reverent and respectful toward him.
Shandao transmits Ānanda's meditation instructions in exactly the step-by-step detail the sūtra's own commentary tradition reserves for genuine practice, with no indication that these methods are themselves at fault. The techniques are neutral; what corrupts them is entirely on Devadatta's own side. It is worth noting, too, what the sūtra chooses to dwell on once the power is won: not any grander demonstration, but an infant transforming itself specifically to be held, kissed, and fed — an act of engineered intimacy rather than mere spectacle. Devadatta does not simply impress the prince; he manufactures, through supernatural means, exactly the kind of affection an uncle or a beloved teacher might earn honestly over years. Everything that follows depends on trust built this deliberately, and this fast.
Rivalry, Rebellion, and a Devastating Lie
既見太子心敬重已，即說父王供養因緣。色別五百，乘車載向佛所奉佛及僧。太子聞已即語尊者：『弟子亦能備具色各五百車，供養尊者及施眾僧，可不如彼也。』提婆言：『太子此意大善。』自此已後大得供養，心轉高慢。譬如以杖打惡狗鼻轉增狗惡，此亦如是。太子今將利養之杖打提婆貪心狗鼻，轉加惡盛。
因此破僧，改佛法戒教戒不同。待佛普為凡聖大眾說法之時，即來會中，從佛索於徒眾，并諸法藏盡付屬我。世尊年將老邁，宜可就靜內自將養。一切大眾聞提婆此語，愕爾迭互相看，甚生驚怪。爾時世尊即對大眾語提婆言：『舍利、目連等即大法將，我尚不將佛法付屬。況汝癡人食唾者乎。』時提婆聞佛對眾毀辱，由如毒箭入心，更發癡狂之意。
藉此因緣即向太子所，共論惡計。太子既見尊者，敬心承問言：『尊者今日顏色憔悴不同往昔。』提婆答曰：『我今憔悴，正為太子也。』太子敬問：『尊者為我有何意也？』提婆即答云：『太子知不？世尊年老無所堪任，當可除之，我自作佛。父王年老，亦可除之，太子自坐正位。新王新佛治化，豈不樂乎？』太子聞之極大瞋怒，勿作是說。
又言：『太子莫瞋。父王於太子全無恩德。初欲生太子時，父王即遣夫人在百尺樓上當天井中生，即望墮地令死，正以太子福力故命根不斷，但損小指。若不信者自看小指，足以為驗。』太子既聞此語，更重審言：『實爾已不？』提婆答言：『此若不實，我可故來作漫語也。』因此語已，遂即信用提婆惡見之計，故噵隨順調達惡友之教也。」
Having seen the prince's own mind grow reverent and respectful toward him, Devadatta at once told him of the occasion of his father's own offerings — five hundred cartloads of each kind of item, carried before the Buddha and presented to the Buddha and the Sangha. The prince, hearing this, said to the Venerable One: "I, your disciple, am likewise able to prepare five hundred cartloads of each kind of item, to offer to you, Venerable One, and to give to the assembly of monks as well — how could this fail to match what my father did?" Devadatta said: "Prince, this intention of yours is truly excellent." From this time on, Devadatta received a great abundance of offerings, and his own mind grew ever more arrogant. It is like striking a vicious dog on the nose with a stick — this only makes the dog's own viciousness grow worse — and it was exactly the same here: the prince, now wielding the stick of material gain and offerings, struck Devadatta's own greedy, dog-like nose with it, and his evil only grew all the more intense.
On account of this, he went on to split the Sangha, altering the Buddha's own precepts and teaching a discipline different from the Buddha's own. Waiting until the Buddha was teaching the Dharma before the whole assembly of ordinary beings and sages alike, he came before the assembly, and demanded of the Buddha: "Give over to me your own body of disciples, together with the entire treasury of the Dharma. The World-Honored One is growing old in years — it would be fitting for you to withdraw into quiet seclusion, and rest and nourish yourself." The whole assembly, hearing Devadatta's own words, stared at one another in shock, filled with astonishment. At that time the World-Honored One, before the whole assembly, said to Devadatta: "Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana are already my own great generals of the Dharma, and even to them I would not entrust the Buddha-dharma — how much less, then, to a foolish man like you, who feeds on the spit of others?" Devadatta, hearing himself reviled and humiliated by the Buddha before the entire assembly, felt this like a poisoned arrow piercing his own heart, and gave rise to an even more deranged and deluded intent.
Taking this occasion, he went to the prince's own place, to discuss his evil plan together with him. The prince, seeing the Venerable One, respectfully inquired: "Venerable One, your countenance today looks haggard and worn, unlike before." Devadatta answered: "My own haggard state today is entirely on the prince's own account." The prince respectfully asked: "Venerable One, what concern do you have for my own sake?" Devadatta answered him directly: "Does the prince know this? The World-Honored One is old in years, and no longer fit for his own task — he ought to be removed, and I myself shall become the buddha in his place. Your own royal father, too, is old in years, and he too ought to be removed, that the prince himself may take the rightful throne. A new king, and a new buddha, to govern and transform the world — would this not be a joy?" The prince, hearing this, flew into a towering rage: "Do not speak such words!"
Devadatta said further: "Prince, do not be angry. Your own royal father has, in truth, shown you no kindness at all. When you were about to be born, your own father had the queen give birth atop a hundred-foot tower, directly above an open well in the courtyard below, hoping that you would fall to the ground and die — it was only through the power of your own merit that your life was not cut off, and only your small finger was injured. If you do not believe this, look at your own small finger — it will be proof enough." The prince, hearing these words, asked once more, pressing him closely: "Is this truly so?" Devadatta answered: "If this were not true, would I have come specially to tell you such an idle lie?" Having heard these words, the prince thereupon came to believe and act upon Devadatta's own evil scheme — and this is exactly what is meant by "following the teaching of an evil friend."
Shandao's own simile — the stick that only worsens a vicious dog's own nature — reframes what might otherwise read as simple flattery-turned-corruption into something closer to a diagnosis of how status and material gain interact with an already-damaged character: the prince's own generosity, meant as innocent emulation of his father, becomes the very fuel for Devadatta's escalating ambition. And the lie that finally turns Ajātaśatru against his father works precisely because it is not really a lie at all — the attempted infanticide, told in full in Part 10, actually happened. Devadatta's cruelty here is not fabrication but selective disclosure at the worst possible moment, aimed at a young man already primed by Devadatta's own earlier displays to trust him completely. The prince's proof, offered as his own confirmation, is his own body: his small finger, injured at birth, now read for the first time as evidence of his father's own murderous intent rather than as the accident it must, until this moment, have seemed to be.
Part 11 Complete
This closes Part 11, and with it the full account of how Ajātaśatru came to believe "the teaching of an evil friend." Part 12 turns to the imprisonment itself: the father seized and confined, and the queen's own secret, elaborate scheme — bathing, honey, flour, and jewelry filled with grape juice — to keep him alive against his son's own decree.
Continue to Part 12 — Imprisonment, and a Queen's Secret Feeding →