ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ་པ 16.5

16.5

he prayed, ‘By this root of virtue, may I please and not displease Uttara, the young brahmin prophesied by the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa to be the next blessed buddha.’

“O monks, what do you think? The one who was that monk then is none other than this elephant. The act of failing to maintain both the lesser and greater fundamental precepts ripened into his birth among the animals. Since he protected some of the fundamental precepts, at the time of his death he prayed, ‘By this root of virtue, may I please and not displease Uttara, the young brahmin prophesied by the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa to be the next blessed buddha.’

“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 he has pleased me and not displeased me. These were his past actions.

“As for his present actions, the monk became an elephant who offered me his respectful service with a mind full of joy, so he took birth among the gods. These were his present actions.”

The Nāga (1)

When the Blessed One was in Śrāvastī, a nāga king called Vasu lived in the great ocean. When the time came for him to marry he took a nāga wife, and they enjoyed themselves and coupled. One day she gave birth to a child, and at the elaborate feast celebrating his birth they asked, “What name should we give this child?” And they named him, saying, “Since this is Vasu’s child, his name will be Vasubhadra.” Young Vasubhadra was reared on milk, yogurt, butter, ghee, and milk solids, and he grew up, and learned to get around.