ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ་པ 16.7

16.7

“A buddha has arisen here, in this central land,” they said. “He has let fall a rain of nectar, and so they have come to take refuge and the fundamental precepts.”

“Mother, Father,” the young nāga requested, “please, permit me to go take refuge and maintain the fundamental precepts, by whose power nāga sand will no longer rain down on my body.”

“Do not take them, son,” cautioned his parents. “Though the sufferings of the sands are innate to us, they are minor. If you take refuge and the fundamental precepts but do not maintain them, it will be the basis of your taking rebirth as a hell being, an animal, or an anguished spirit, where you will undergo great suffering, compared to which your current sufferings are not even a fraction’s worth—not even a hundredth, not even a thousandth, not even a hundred thousandth.”

“Mother, Father,” said the young nāga, “I shall maintain them to the best of my ability, if only to assuage the sufferings of the sands innate to us.” With those words the young nāga filled up the front of his long shirt with divine blue lotus, lotus, white water lily, white lotus, and mandārava flowers, disappeared from beneath the great ocean, and traveled to the garden of Prince Jeta, where the Blessed One sat teaching the Dharma amid a company of hundreds. The young nāga saw the Blessed Buddha, resplendent and agreeable, in the distance. His senses were tamed, his heart was at peace, and his mind was tame and absolutely serene. He was graced with a supreme tranquility, shining and radiant like a golden pillar.

He saw the Blessed Buddha, and the sight of him filled him with supreme joy. Full of such joy he approached the Blessed One, and when he arrived he scattered the divine blue lotus, lotus, white water lily, and white lotus flowers over the Blessed One. Then he touched his head to the Blessed One’s feet, took refuge in the Blessed One, received the fundamental precepts,