Karmashataka 17: Bam po 17

The Dark Forest

When the Blessed One was in Śrāvastī, there was a certain very dark forest, and in that forest was a certain place where spring water pooled. Some five hundred sages lived at the spring and practiced austerities. All of them were in their final existence, like ripe fruit ready to burst at the touch of a blade.

The blessed buddhas, teachers of the one path to be traversed, with mastery over wisdom and the two types of knowable objects, in command of the three kinds of sterling equanimity, fearless by means of the fourfold fearlessness, freed from migration through the five destinies, keen in the six sense bases, practiced in the seven limbs of enlightenment, focused on the eight liberations, absorbed in the nine successive meditative absorptions, possessing all ten of the ten powers, whose proclamations are the great roaring of a perfect lion, by nature regard the world with their buddha eyes six times throughout the day and night—three times by day and three times by night.

These are their thoughts as they look out in wisdom: “Who is in decline? Who will flourish? Who is destitute? Who is in a dreadful state? Who is being harmed? Who is destitute, in a dreadful state, and being harmed? Who is veering toward the lower realms? Who is descending through the lower realms? Who has descended to the lower realms? Whom shall I pull up from the lower realms, and establish in the resultant state of heaven and liberation? Whom, mired in misdeeds, shall I lift up by the hand? Whom, lacking the seven jewels of the noble ones, shall I lead to command of the seven jewels of the noble ones? Whom, not having produced roots of virtue, shall I lead to produce them? Whom, having already produced roots of virtue, shall I lead to ripen their roots of virtue? Whom, having already ripened their roots of virtue, shall I slice open with the blade of wisdom? For whom shall I cause this world, adorned with a buddha’s presence, to be fruitful?”

The ocean, home of creatures fierce,
Could fail to send its tides on time.
But when the time has come to tame

Their offspring, buddhas never fail.

The Blessed One thought, “The time has come to tame those five hundred sages.” He disappeared from Śrāvastī and traveled to the dark forest. The five hundred sages saw the Blessed One from a distance, and when they saw him they said to one another, “Oh no! Here comes the ascetic Gautama, who has taken on many distractions and given up begging for his livelihood. When he gets here, let us not speak to him at all but only indicate the huts with a hand gesture.”

So all five hundred sages hunkered down and said nothing at all. As the Blessed One, lord of taming actions, stepped before them and addressed them, they did not answer the Blessed One at all, but only indicated the huts with a hand gesture. The Blessed One entered a hut and took his place on a grass seat. Then, in order to set right the five hundred sages, the Blessed One performed a miracle that dried up the pool of spring water. When the five hundred sages saw that there was no more water in the pool, they suffered greatly and began making supplications to their deity, but still no water came from the spring.

Then, in order to engender faith in them, the deity revealed his bodily form to the five hundred sages and said, “What is the use of fasting and going thirsty, my friends? The Blessed One is a person of great miracles and great power. Go, take refuge in the Blessed One. By the power of the Blessed One, the pool will again be as it was.” Hearing the deity’s advice, the five hundred sages were elated. In their joy they went to see the Blessed One, and upon their arrival they implored the Blessed One for his forgiveness and sat before him to listen to the Dharma.

The Blessed One directly apprehended their thoughts, habitual tendencies, temperaments, capacities, and natures, and taught them the Dharma accordingly. Hearing it, they destroyed with the thunderbolt of wisdom the twenty high peaks of the mountain of views concerning the transitory collection, and manifested the resultant state of non-return right where they sat, Having seen the truths, they rose from their seats, drew down the right shoulder of their upper garments, bowed toward the Blessed One with palms pressed together, and made this request of the Blessed One: “Lord, if permitted we wish to go forth in the Dharma and Vinaya so well spoken, complete our novitiates, and achieve full ordination. In the presence of the Blessed One, we too wish to practice the holy life.”

With the words “Come, join me, monks!” the Blessed One led them to go forth as novices, conferred on them full ordination, and instructed them. Casting away all afflictive emotions through diligence, practice, and effort, they manifested arhatship. As arhats, free from the attachments of the three realms, their minds regarded gold no differently than filth, and the palms of their hands as like space itself. They became cool like wet sandalwood. Their insight crushed ignorance like an eggshell. They achieved the insights, superknowledges, and discriminations. They had no regard for worldly profit, passion, or acclaim. They became objects of offering, veneration, and respectful address by Indra, Upendra, and the other gods. After the Blessed One had led them to go forth and ordained them, he disappeared from the forest and traveled to the garden of Prince Jeta.

In the meantime, the brahmins and householders of faith had heard that five hundred monks had taken up residence in the forest, so they built a monastery in the forest that was complete in every respect

and offered it to the Buddha and the rest of the saṅgha of monks.

The monks inquired of the Blessed One, “Lord, what action did the five hundred monks take that ripened into their pleasing the Blessed One and not displeasing him, and that they went forth in the doctrine of the Blessed One, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifested arhatship?”

“It came about by the power of their prayers,” the Blessed One replied.

“Lord, where did they make these prayers?”

“Monks,” the Blessed One recounted, “in times past, in this fortunate eon, when people lived as long as twenty thousand years, and the totally and completely awakened buddha possessed of insight and perfect conduct, the sugata, the knower of the world, the tamer of persons, the charioteer, the unsurpassed one, the teacher of humans and gods, the blessed buddha known as Kāśyapa was in the world, they went forth in his doctrine and practiced pure conduct all their lives.

“At the time of their deaths they prayed, ‘While we may not have attained any great virtues, still we have gone forth in the teaching of the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa and practiced pure conduct all our lives. By this root of virtue, may we please and not displease Uttara, the young brahmin prophesied by the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa to be the next blessed buddha. May we go forth in his doctrine, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifest arhatship.’

“O monks, what do you think? The five hundred monks who went forth then are none other than these five hundred monks. At that time they practiced pure conduct all their lives, and at the time of their deaths they prayed,

‘May we please and not displease Uttara, the young brahmin prophesied by the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa to be the next blessed buddha. May we go forth in his doctrine, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifest arhatship.’

“So it is, monks, now that I myself have become the very equal of the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa—equal in strength, equal in deeds, and equal in skillful means—that they have pleased me, not displeased me, gone forth in my very doctrine, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifested arhatship.”

The One Who Heard

When the Blessed One was in Śrāvastī, there was a certain householder, prosperous and wealthy, a person of vast and magnificent means, endowed with the wealth of Vaiśravaṇa—with wealth to rival Vaiśravaṇa’s. When the time came for him to marry he took a wife, and as they enjoyed themselves and coupled, one day his wife conceived. After nine or ten months had passed, she gave birth to a child who was well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, and beautiful, with glowing, golden skin and a well-rounded head, long arms, a broad brow, a fine and prominent nose, and eyebrows that met. At the elaborate feast celebrating his birth they named him according to their clan.

They reared him on milk, yogurt, butter, ghee, and milk solids, and he flourished like a lotus in a lake. As he grew up he studied letters, tallying, and arithmetic; the study of seals, lending, deposits, and commerce; and the examination of cloth, jewels, gems, incense, medicine, elephants, horses,

and arms and armor. He became skilled in writing, skilled at reading, learned, decisive, and industrious, a master of the eight types of examination.

His father built three houses for him—one for summer, one for winter, and one for spring—with three different gardens, and the son married three wives, a primary wife, a middling wife, and a lesser wife. He would stay up on the roofs of his palatial homes in the company of the women, reaping the fruits of his merit as they played music, enjoyed themselves, and coupled.

One day in the spring, when many trees were in bloom and the parrots, mountain birds, cuckoos, peacocks, and jīvaṃjīva birds began to call out, he strode into his garden grove with his attendants, and they began to enjoy themselves and couple amid a flourish of cymbals.

The blessed buddhas, teachers of the one path to be traversed, with mastery over wisdom and the two types of knowable objects, in command of the three kinds of sterling equanimity, fearless by means of the fourfold fearlessness, freed from migration through the five destinies, keen in the six sense bases, practiced in the seven limbs of enlightenment, focused on the eight liberations, absorbed in the nine successive meditative absorptions, possessing all ten of the ten powers, whose proclamations are the great roaring of a perfect lion, by nature regard the world with their buddha eyes six times throughout the day and night—three times by day and three times by night.

These are their thoughts as they look out in wisdom: “Who is in decline? Who will flourish? Who is destitute? Who is in a dreadful state? Who is being harmed? Who is destitute, in a dreadful state, and being harmed? Who is veering toward the lower realms? Who is descending through the lower realms? Who has descended to the lower realms? Whom shall I pull up from the lower realms, and establish in the resultant state of heaven and liberation? Whom, mired in misdeeds, shall I lift up by the hand? Whom,

lacking the seven jewels of the noble ones, shall I lead to command of the seven jewels of the noble ones? Whom, not having produced roots of virtue, shall I lead to produce them? Whom, having already produced roots of virtue, shall I lead to ripen their roots of virtue? Whom, having already ripened their roots of virtue, shall I slice open with the blade of wisdom? For whom shall I cause this world, adorned with a buddha’s presence, to be fruitful?”

The ocean, home of creatures fierce,
Could fail to send its tides on time.
But when the time has come to tame
Their offspring, buddhas never fail.

The Blessed One knew that the time had come to tame the householder’s son, so he emanated another garden nearby, and in that garden he began teaching the Dharma to a great crowd of people with a voice like Brahmā. The householder’s son heard the Blessed One’s voice ringing out in the garden, and thought, “I have never heard a human voice like this before.” He found it marvelous. “I will go and find out who could have such a voice,” he thought.

Following the sound into the next garden, the householder’s son and his servants saw the Blessed Buddha. His body, graced and resplendent with the thirty-two signs of a great person, looked like it was on fire, like flames stoked with ghee, like a lamp set in a golden vessel, and like a pillar adorned with all manner of jewels. He was immaculate, clear-minded, and pure of heart.

He saw the Blessed Buddha, and the sight of him filled him with supreme joy, for beings who have gathered the roots of virtue to see a buddha for the first time experience such rapture

as is not to be had even by those who practice calm abiding meditation for twelve years.

Seeing the Blessed Buddha in this way, the householder’s son felt a surge of joy toward the Blessed One. In his joy he went to see the Blessed One, touched the top of his head to the Blessed One’s feet, and took a seat at one side. The Blessed One directly apprehended the thoughts, habitual tendencies, temperament, and nature of the householder’s son, and taught him the Dharma accordingly.

When he heard it, the householder’s son destroyed with the thunderbolt of wisdom the twenty high peaks of the mountain of views concerning the transitory collection, and manifested the resultant state of stream entry right where he sat. Having seen the truths, he rose from his seat, drew down the right shoulder of his upper garment, bowed toward the Blessed One with palms pressed together, and requested, “Lord, if permitted I wish to go forth in the Dharma and Vinaya so well spoken, complete my novitiate, and achieve full ordination. In the presence of the Blessed One, I too wish to practice the holy life.”

“Have you informed your parents?” the Blessed One asked.

“I have not, Lord.”

“Young man,” the Blessed One said, “the buddhas and their disciples neither lead novices to go forth nor confer full ordination on young persons without their parents’ permission. Go and ask your parents, then come back here. This will make things easier for you later on.”

“I shall do as the Blessed One has instructed,” said the young man, and he heeded the Blessed One’s advice and approached his parents. “Mother, Father,” he said, “I ask for your kind permission to go forth in the doctrine of the Blessed One.”

“We shall not be able to stop him,” thought his parents, so they told him, “You have our permission, child.

And should you achieve any special attainments, please come see us.”

“I shall,” he replied.

Then the young man returned to see the Blessed One. Upon his arrival he touched his head to the Blessed One’s feet, drew down the right shoulder of his upper garment, bowed toward the Blessed One with palms pressed together, and requested him again, “Lord, now that my parents have given me their consent, if permitted I wish to go forth in the Dharma and Vinaya so well spoken, complete my novitiate, and achieve full ordination. In the presence of the Blessed One, I too wish to practice the holy life.”

With the words “Come, join me, monk! Practice the holy life,” the Blessed One led the householder’s son to go forth as a novice, conferred on him full ordination, and instructed him. Casting away all afflictive emotions through diligence, practice, and effort, he manifested arhatship. As an arhat, free from the attachments of the three realms, his mind regarded gold no differently than filth, and the palms of his hands as like space itself. He became cool like wet sandalwood. His insight crushed ignorance like an eggshell. He achieved the insights, superknowledges, and discriminations. He had no regard for worldly profit, passion, or acclaim. He became an object of offering, veneration, and respectful address by Indra, Upendra, and the other gods.

After he attained arhatship he established his parents in the truths. He inspired them to give gifts and to share what they had, until their home became like an open well for those in need.

“Lord,” the monks asked the Blessed One, “what action did this householder’s son take that ripened into his birth into a family of great means, prosperity, and wealth; that he pleased the Blessed One, and did not displease him;

that he went forth in the doctrine of the Blessed One, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifested arhatship; and that by entrusting themselves to him, the people of his house pleased the Blessed One, and did not displease him?”

“It came about by the power of his prayers,” the Blessed One replied.

“Lord, where did he make these prayers?”

“Monks, in times past, in the ninety-first eon, when people lived as long as eighty thousand years and the tathāgata, the arhat, the totally and completely awakened buddha possessed of insight and perfect conduct, the sugata, the knower of the world, the tamer of persons, the charioteer, the unsurpassed one, the teacher of humans and gods, the blessed buddha known as Vipaśyin was in the world, he performed all of the deeds of a buddha and then passed beyond all sorrow into the realm of nirvāṇa without any remainder of the aggregates, like a fire when all the wood is gone.

“The king of the city of Bandhumatī built a reliquary stūpa and was preparing to raise the life pillar¹²² when a great crowd gathered. So the king exhorted them, ‘Whoever generates the most wealth on behalf of this stūpa will raise the stūpa’s life pillar.’

“A certain householder’s son in that region heard of the king’s declaration, and an idea came to him, ‘If I can generate a lot of wealth on behalf of the stūpa, I shall get to raise the life pillar. I’m not that wealthy, but I will go see my family and generate some wealth.’

“The householder’s son went to his family, and they said, ‘Be strong. You have to believe. Whatever wealth you generate, we will match.’ When he heard this, the young man immediately began to generate greater sums than the king, generating 600 million in gold¹²³ all together.

“The king was not pleased about this. ‘How can I harm this boy?’ he thought, and sat there, unhappy. His officer said to him, ‘Deva, I implore you, remain committed. You must believe. We shall offer our wealth to you, Deva.’

“Many of the young man’s relatives tried to stop him. ‘Take care not to upset the king,’ they cautioned him. ‘One should not vie with a king.’ And the young man immediately relented.

“The king was very pleased about this, for the life pillar of the stūpa would have been raised based on the donations given to the young man. In no time at all the stūpa was completed in every respect, and people made offerings to the stūpa of flowers, and burning sticks of incense, incense powders, and incense cones, and prepared for the traditional stūpa festival.

“The householder’s son thought, ‘This 600 million in gold was donated for the stūpa. I don’t dare use it for myself. I shall offer all of it to the stūpa.’ So the young man and his relatives made a large offering to the stūpa, and the young man prayed, ‘By this root of virtue, wherever we are born, may it be into families of great means, prosperity, and wealth. May we be well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, and beautiful. May we please and not displease a teacher just like this one. May we go forth in his doctrine, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifest arhatship.’

“ ‘Child,’ his relatives asked him, ‘what prayers are you making?’

“He told them what kind of prayers he was making, relating everything in detail, and as soon as they heard him they prayed in the same way, saying, ‘Entrusting ourselves to you alone, may we please and not displease a teacher just like this one.’

“O monks, what do you think? The one who was the householder’s son then is this young man. The act of venerating the stūpa and praying ripened such that he was born into a family of great means, prosperity, and wealth, and that he was well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, and beautiful.

“So it is, monks, now that I myself have become the very equal of the totally and completely awakened Buddha Vipaśyin—equal in strength, equal in deeds, and equal in skillful means—that he has pleased me, not displeased me, gone forth in my very doctrine, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifested arhatship.

“Those who were his relatives then are none other than these relatives of his. At that time they prayed, ‘Entrusting ourselves to you alone, may we please and not displease the Blessed One. May we go forth in his doctrine, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifest arhatship.’

“So it is, monks, that they have pleased me and not displeased me.”

Part Five

1. The Story of Virūpa
2. The Story of Kṣemaṅkara
3. The Young Untouchable
4. The Story of Subhadra the Charioteer¹²⁴
5. The Story of Sahadeva
6. The Bull
7. The Story of Good Compassion
8. The Story of Fleshy
9. The Story of Black
10. The Story of Iṣudhara
11. The Man Who Was Trampled
12. The Story of Jackal

The Story of Virūpa

As the Blessed One was traveling through the countryside in the land of Garga, he came to Mount Śiśumāri and stayed there in the deer park in The Terrifying Forest. On Mount Śiśumāri there lived a certain householder, prosperous and wealthy, a person of vast and magnificent means, endowed with the wealth of Vaiśravaṇa—with wealth to rival Vaiśravaṇa’s. He took a wife of the same caste, and as they enjoyed themselves and coupled, one day his wife conceived. After nine or ten months had passed, she gave birth to a child who was ugly in eighteen different ways.

When his parents saw him they were wracked with suffering. “Though a son has finally been born to us,” they thought, “what good is he, with such singular flaws? He’d be better off dead—when night falls, we’ll toss him out and feed him to the dogs.”

Then the householder’s wife said, “Not only is murder disgraceful, but if we commit such an act we will take rebirth as hell beings, so this we cannot do. Even though the child is flawed, let us raise him in some remote place. Then when he’s grown, we’ll throw him out of the house to seek his pitiful livelihood.”

So the two of them raised the baby in a remote place. They named him Virūpa (Ugly), and as soon as he was grown, they threw him out of the house. Emaciated from hunger and thirst, he began to beg, carrying around a walking stick and a pot. Whenever he came to the door of a house, or to someplace where goods were kept, or to a shop, the people of the village would punch him, cuff him, pelt him with sticks and dirt clods, shout “Here comes a ghost!” and chase him away.

He suffered greatly and wondered, “What nonvirtuous act did I commit that has ripened into such suffering for me now? Let me give up living in the city and leave to go begging from garden to garden. I shall find something to fill my stomach there.” With this thought he set out from the city.

As he began making his way from garden to garden, the people there also thought he was a ghost. They punched him, cuffed him, pelted him with sticks and dirt clods, and chased him away. Finally, terrified of being beaten and terrified of people, he went into the thick of the forest and spent his days there, walking after sundown from garden to garden,

nourishing himself only with whatever food fell to the ground. Now it is impossible and out of the question for a being in their final existence to die an untimely death. Thus, he found just enough to stay alive there.

The blessed buddhas, teachers of the one path to be traversed, with mastery over wisdom and the two types of knowable objects, in command of the three kinds of sterling equanimity, fearless by means of the fourfold fearlessness, freed from migration through the five destinies, keen in the six sense bases, practiced in the seven limbs of enlightenment, focused on the eight liberations, absorbed in the nine successive meditative absorptions, possessing all ten of the ten powers, whose proclamations are the great roaring of a perfect lion, by nature regard the world with their buddha eyes six times throughout the day and night—three times by day and three times by night.

These are their thoughts as they look out in wisdom: “Who is in decline? Who will flourish? Who is destitute? Who is in a dreadful state? Who is being harmed? Who is destitute, in a dreadful state, and being harmed? Who is veering toward the lower realms? Who is descending through the lower realms? Who has descended to the lower realms? Whom shall I pull up from the lower realms, and establish in the resultant state of heaven and liberation? Whom, mired in misdeeds, shall I lift up by the hand? Whom, lacking the seven jewels of the noble ones, shall I lead to command of the seven jewels of the noble ones? Whom, not having produced roots of virtue, shall I lead to produce them? Whom, having already produced roots of virtue, shall I lead to ripen their roots of virtue? Whom, having already ripened their roots of virtue, shall I slice open with the blade of wisdom? For whom shall I cause this world, adorned with a buddha’s presence, to be fruitful?”

The ocean, home of creatures fierce,
Could fail to send its tides on time.
But when the time has come to tame
Their offspring, buddhas never fail.

The Blessed One knew that the time had come to tame young Virūpa, and entered into meditative absorption in cessation.¹²⁵ Then the Buddha rose from his meditative absorption in cessation just to tame young Virūpa, emanating a form with features even uglier than his. Then, after filling a vessel with food and drink, he set out to see young Virūpa.

When young Virūpa saw the Blessed One in the distance he fled, thinking, “This person is coming to beat me!” But the Blessed One performed a miracle of preventing the young man from fleeing. The Buddha’s miracle also caused Virūpa to wish to see the Blessed One.

“I would like to know who that is,” he thought, and came walking back. As soon as young Virūpa saw the emanation’s extraordinarily ugly features he began to wonder, “Who could this be?” so he went to where the Buddha’s emanation stood.

The Buddha’s emanation saw young Virūpa, and made as if to run away. Young Virūpa called to him, “You’ve already seen me, friend. Why are you running away?”

The Buddha’s emanation replied, “By the ripening of my past actions, my friend, my form has become like this. I was afraid you might beat me, thinking that I am a ghost, so I ran.”

“It was likewise by the ripening of actions of my past lives that I gained these unattractive features, my friend,” said young Virūpa. “Because of my unattractive features my parents threw me out of the house. As I went wherever I could for alms, I was punched, cuffed, and pelted with sticks and dirt clods, and chased away, until I lived in terror of being beaten and chased away. In terror of being beaten by people, I went into the thick of the forest, and there I have stayed—that is, until you came along. Let’s be friends and make our way together.”

“Let’s do that,” the emanation said, and he sat down there and divided his food with Virūpa.