ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ་པ 17.15

17.15

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.