ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ་པ 16.14

16.14

O sage, greatest of the herd, with speech unrivaled, sure, and good,
Reassure those prone to doubt.

“Mountain still, and vast as oceans,
Buddha, fully awakened lord,
Your smile is no mundane event.
Hero, make it manifest so that many might pay heed.

“With speech like a clap of thunder,
Graceful like a royal bull,
Oh tell the fruits awaiting those,
The peerless ones, who praise you!

“Lord, if in the absence of the right causes and conditions the tathāgatas, the arhats, the totally and completely awakened buddhas do not smile, what are the causes and conditions that make them smile?”

“Ānanda, so it is,” replied the Blessed One. “It is just as you say, Ānanda. Without the right causes and conditions the tathāgatas, the arhats, the totally and completely awakened buddhas do not smile. Ānanda, did you see the young nāga who provided for the Buddha and the rest of the saṅgha of monks, both on the road and here in Rājagṛha?”

“Yes, Lord, I saw him.”

“Ānanda, by the root of virtue of this nāga’s act, he will not fall to the lower realms for one hundred eons. For one hundred eons he will take rebirth among gods and humans. After circling in saṃsāra, in his final rebirth, his final dwelling place, he will take birth as a human being. Then he will go forth and manifest the thirty-seven wings of enlightenment without a teacher or any instruction. He will manifest the enlightenment of a solitary buddha and become the solitary buddha known as Aspiration Well Sown.”

The Story of Siṃha

When the Blessed One was in Vaiśālī, as a certain army chief named Siṃha and his wife enjoyed themselves and coupled, his wife conceived, and immediately her entire body began to smell of excrement. What’s more, she also had the urge to eat excrement.

She explained all of this to her husband, Siṃha the army chief. “Alas!” army chief Siṃha thought, “one of those rotting spirits has assumed control of my wife,” and he brought her to the soothsayers.

“No, she has not been possessed by a rotten spirit,” the soothsayers assured him.