ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ་པ 18
The Hundred Deeds 18
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Time passed, and one day while they were camped there King Brahmadatta’s queen conceived. After nine or ten months had passed, she gave birth to a child who was well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, and beautiful, and as soon as she was born, celebratory music resounded from the palace.
King Prasenajit heard that a daughter had been born to King Brahmadatta who was well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, and beautiful. As soon as he heard this, his spirits lifted, and he thought, “I’ve found a way to become King Brahmadatta’s kin. Because of this little child there will be no more resentment between us.”
King Prasenajit sent an envoy to King Brahmadatta with the following message: “Let there be no more resentment, my friend. Because of your daughter there will be no more resentment. Hand your daughter to me in marriage.”
As soon as King Brahmadatta heard this, his spirits lifted too and he thought, “Over time he and I have both slaughtered many people. But because of my daughter there will be no more resentment between us.”¹²⁷ He sent an envoy with his response: “As you wish.”
The two kings met, embraced, and King Brahmadatta pledged his daughter and returned to his own country. Upon returning to his country, he held an elaborate feast celebrating her birth, and asked, “What name should we give this child?” And they named her, saying, “Since her birth brought happiness to the two kingdoms, her name will be Kṣemaṅkarā (She Who Brings Happiness).” They raised young Kṣemaṅkarā on milk, yogurt, butter, ghee, and milk solids.
Now desires are like salt water—the more you use to slake your thirst, the more you need. So one day, King Brahmadatta’s queen conceived again, and when nine or ten months had passed,
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she gave birth to a child who was well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, and beautiful. They held another elaborate feast, celebrating his birth, and they asked, “What name should we give this child?” And they named him, saying, “Since this child was born after his sibling Kṣemaṅkarā, his name will be Kṣemaṅkara (He Who Brings Happiness).”
They raised young Kṣemaṅkara on milk, yogurt, butter, ghee, and milk solids, and he flourished like a lotus in a lake. When they grew up, young Kṣemaṅkarā and Kṣemaṅkara became close friends, and could not bear to be apart for even a moment.
Then one day King Prasenajit sent an envoy to King Brahmadatta with the message, “We will receive your daughter now.” As soon as King Brahmadatta heard this, he sent an envoy with the message, “There is nothing preventing this, so please come on such-and-such a date.”
King Prasenajit responded, “As you wish,” and with great opulence and a great display of royal power he traveled to Kāśi, where King Brahmadatta handed his daughter to him in accordance with the customs of householders. Afterward, King Prasenajit bore the girl back to his own country.
Young Kṣemaṅkara said to his parents, “I can’t bear to be without my elder sister, Kṣemaṅkarā.¹²⁸ I shall be with her again.”
“My child,” King Brahmadatta replied, “you are my precious, beloved only son—my regent. After I pass away, you will have to become king. It wouldn’t be right for you to go to another country.” Many times the king tried to impede him from going, but he was not able to stop him.
Then King Prasenajit said, “Deva, I shall protect brother and sister both. If he comes it changes¹²⁹ nothing,” and King Brahmadatta
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replied, “As you wish.”
King Prasenajit took young Kṣemaṅkarā and Kṣemaṅkara both to Śrāvastī. King Prasenajit had the young man study letters, and trained him in all the different fields of craft and skill in which duly consecrated rulers of the royal caste train, such as how to ride an elephant, how to ride horseback, how to wield a weapon, and how to shoot an arrow, advance, retreat, wage war, grasp with an iron hook, wield a lasso, shoot a spear, throw a single-pointed vajra, throw other single-pointed weapons, throw a disk; how to cut, cleave, grapple and hold, employ footwork, guard one’s head, strike from a distance, strike at the noise of an unseen enemy; and how to target the vital points, take infallible aim, and maximize damage. By the time he had been educated in all of these, he was learned in the five fields of knowledge.
Now the young man was unruly and careless, and he had intercourse with a sex worker. He broke some one hundred of the country’s laws, and though his sister Kṣemaṅkarā and King Prasenajit tried, they were not able to stop him. Finally King Prasenajit sent an envoy to King Brahmadatta with the message, “Since your son has been here, he has done about a hundred vulgar things, and though we have tried, we have not been able to stop him.”
Immediately upon hearing this, King Brahmadatta sent a message to his son: “My child, come back here. Don’t stay there anymore. After my death it will be necessary for you to take on the dominion of the king. Don’t act in such a vulgar manner. Live here.”
Still, Kṣemaṅkara ignored his father’s message and did not return to his country. After he refused to give up his careless ways, King Brahmadatta, unable to stop him, finally disowned him. King Prasenajit
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also gave up on him and no longer permitted him to enter the royal palace.
One day he wished to enter the royal palace, and though the doorkeeper physically restrained him, he forced his way inside. “I will see my sister!” he insisted, and took a seat at the queen’s door. King Prasenajit and Queen Kṣemaṅkarā were inside playing lutes, and young Kṣemaṅkara, bow in hand, overheard them. In anger he let loose an arrow, hoping to kill King Prasenajit. The arrow severed a string of the king’s lute and fell to the ground.
As soon as King Prasenajit saw this he fled in terror. Then, seething with anger, he thought, “If I kill him in some ordinary manner, King Brahmadatta too will come to shame. So I will convict him in a court of law and have him executed.”
It was King Prasenajit’s custom that when a trial was to be held, if the dispute was trivial, two intertwined conches were sounded, and if the dispute was grave, the two intertwined conches were sounded over the beating of a great drum. In this case King Prasenajit had them sound both. As soon as this was heard, every high functionary in Śrāvastī gathered in the royal palace. King Prasenajit convicted the young man in court, draped his neck with garlands of oleander flowers, and handed him over to the executioners.
Clad in black, the executioners unsheathed their swords, and with a thundering of drums they led him to the crossroads on the main highway. As they neared the place where he was to be executed, young Kṣemaṅkara cried for mercy, flailed all about, and thought, “Who can protect me from such desolation, distress, and suffering? Who can save my precious life?”
The blessed buddhas, teachers of the one path to be traversed, with mastery over wisdom and the two types of knowable objects,
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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 Kṣemaṅkara, so he donned his lower garment and Dharma robes, and, carrying his alms bowl, went for alms in Śrāvastī. Young Kṣemaṅkara saw the Blessed One in the distance. Upon seeing him, he approached the Blessed One,
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bowed down at the Blessed One’s feet, and pleaded, “Blessed One, Blessed One, please take on the difficult task of saving my precious life!”
“Young man,” the Blessed One said, “don’t be afraid. Your life will not be lost.” Then the Blessed One spoke to the executioners, saying, “My friends, release this young man.”
“Do we look to you like we have spare heads?”¹³⁰ the executioners replied. “How can we release him, Blessed One?”
“My friends,” the Blessed One requested, “hold him a little while, until I have met with the king.”
“As you wish, Blessed One,” they replied.
So the Blessed One went to see King Prasenajit. Upon arriving, the Blessed One addressed the king, saying, “Great King, release this young man.”
“Lord,” the king replied, “if he goes forth, I shall release him.”
At that, King Prasenajit countermanded his execution and offered him to the Blessed One. The Blessed One took the young man to the garden of Prince Jeta, led him 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.
“Lord,” the monks requested the Blessed One, “please tell us why the unruly Prince Kṣemaṅkara had been sent to his death, and the Blessed One rescued him and established him in the unsurpassed, supreme welfare of nirvāṇa.”
“Not only now,” the Blessed One explained, “but in times past as well, and in the same way, he was unruly and committed sexual misconduct, Brahmadatta sent him to be executed, and I rescued him, placing him in the four meditative states and five superknowledges.
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Listen well!
“Monks, in times past during King Brahmadatta’s¹³¹ reign in the city of Vārāṇasī, there lived a certain man in Vārāṇasī who was unruly and lascivious, and who had the whole city in turmoil. A crowd seized him and presented him to King Brahmadatta, and King Brahmadatta sent him to be executed. As the executioners were carrying him to the spot where he was to be executed, he became terrified of being executed and looked all about, thinking, ‘Who can take on the difficult task of saving my precious life?’
“At that time, there was a certain sage living in the Vārāṇasī area who had all the five superknowledges and was a person of great miracles and great power. The man saw him approaching the vicinity of Vārāṇasī, and as soon as he saw him, he bowed down at his feet and said, ‘Sage, please undertake the difficult task of saving my precious life.’
“ ‘My friends,’ the sage told the executioners, ‘do not kill him. Release him instead.’
“ ‘Do we look to you like we have spare heads?’ the executioners replied. ‘How can we release him, sage?’
“The sage said, ‘Hold him a little while, until I have met with the king.’ Then the sage went to see King Brahmadatta and implored him, ‘Great king, do not kill this man. Release him instead.’
“ ‘Sage,’ King Brahmadatta replied, ‘if he goes forth, I shall release him.’
At that, King Brahmadatta sent a message countermanding the execution order and offered him to the sage. The sage brought him to a hermitage, led him to go forth, and instructed him. While staying in that very hermitage, the man generated the four meditative states and the five superknowledges.
“O monks, what do you think? I am the one who was that sage then, and lived the life of a bodhisattva. The one who was that man then is none other than this young man.
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The one who was the king then is now King Prasenajit himself. At that time he sent the man to be executed, and I rescued him, led him to go forth, and placed him in the four meditative states and the five superknowledges. Now as well he was sent to be killed by King Prasenajit, and I rescued him and established him in the unsurpassed, supreme welfare of nirvāṇa.”
“Lord,” the monks asked, “what action did Prince Kṣemaṅkara take that ripened into his birth into a family of great means, prosperity, and wealth, and that he pleased the Blessed One, did not displease him, went forth in the doctrine of the Blessed One, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifested arhatship?”
“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 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, he went forth in his doctrine and acted as steward for the monks.
“He acted as steward of the saṅgha in accord with the Dharma, and progressed in meditative stabilization on love. He practiced pure conduct all his life, and at the time of his death, he prayed, ‘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. Going forth in his doctrine alone may I cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifest arhatship.’
“Monks,
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what do you think? The monk who acted as steward then is now none other than Prince Kṣemaṅkara. At that time he acted as steward in accord with the Dharma, cultivated the meditative stabilization on love, and at the time of his death, he prayed, ‘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. Going forth in his doctrine alone may I 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 he has pleased me, not displeased me, gone forth in my very doctrine, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifested arhatship.
“By acting as steward in accord with the Dharma he was born into a family of great means, prosperity, and wealth. He cultivated the meditative stabilization on love, and so he was well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, and beautiful.”
The Young Untouchable
When the Blessed One was dwelling near the city of Ujjayinī, in Śiṃśapā forest north of town, King Pradyota reigned in Ujjayinī, and King Udaya reigned in Suvīra. The two were dear friends, and from time to time they sent envoys to each other bearing gifts.
There were hardly any mangoes in King Pradyota’s country, so the king of Suvīra sent gifts of many mangoes to please King Pradyota. King Pradyota gave some to the queen, some to his sons, and some to his ministers. Then King Caṇḍapradyota himself ate some of the mangoes,
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and the thought came to him, “Here in my country there are no mangoes, so I’ll plant these mango pits in the garden.” He took those mango pits and planted them in his own garden, and before long the trees grew big, and there was a large grove with mature branches. Later, the trees blossomed and bore fruit, and King Pradyota charged some untouchables with protecting the mangoes so they would not be eaten by others.
One day the untouchables ate the mangoes themselves. They shouted, “Thieves! Thieves!” and claimed, “Thieves ate them.”
King Caṇḍapradyota was suspicious, and thought, “Perhaps the untouchables have eaten the mangoes themselves.” He sent his servants to search the untouchables’ dwellings. After they went there and saw remnants of the mangoes, the royal servants informed King Pradyota. Then, in a fit of anger, King Caṇḍapradyota corralled all the untouchable families back into their dwellings, heaped up dry grass all around the dwellings, and set fire to it, burning them to the ground.
One of the young untouchables from the village who felt embarrassed about the way the untouchables had acted had already gone south. After he left he took on the guise of a brahmin and trained in the science of invisibility. Having mastered it he later returned to the city of Ujjayinī, where, on the way to his house, he saw that the entire village had burned to the ground.
When he saw this he asked, “Who destroyed our village?” and was told, “It was King Caṇḍapradyota.”
“Where did my family go?” he asked.
“In a fit of anger, King Caṇḍapradyota surrounded their houses with heaps of dry grass,” they said, “and he and his servants burned them up in the fire.”
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The young man was devastated when he heard all this. “In truth it was the men’s fault, and they have been dealt with according to the law,” he thought. “But the children and the women did him no harm at all, and they too were burned up in the fire. I will take revenge on the king of our wicked age.”
He made himself invisible, entered the royal palace, and struck the king on the head with a whip. “King of our wicked age!” he said. “What harm did the untouchables ever do to you?”
“They stole my mangoes!” replied King Caṇḍapradyota.
“The men were to blame,” said the young untouchable, “but what did their wives and children do wrong? Put your affairs in order, vile king. Your life is at its end, for in seven days you must die!”
Every day after that the young untouchable went to the royal palace to beat the king and to say, “On such-and-such a date you will be no more!”
King Caṇḍapradyota was terrified, and his ministers entreated him, “Deva, don’t be afraid. We will make supplications to Noble Kātyāyana.”
The ministers approached Venerable Kātyāyana and implored him, “Noble one, disembodied spirits are doing harm to the king. We ask you, please protect him!” As soon as Noble Kātyāyana heard this, he counteracted the young untouchable’s secret mantra so that he could never become invisible again.
The young man thought, “Who destroyed my mantra?” and he asked the ministers, “Tell me, who protected the king from fear of disembodied spirits?”
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“Kātyāyana did, noble one,” the ministers replied.
When he heard this, the young untouchable immediately went to see Venerable Kātyāyana and asked, “Lord, why did you neutralize my mantra?”
“Sit down child,” Kātyāyana replied, “and I shall tell you in detail.”
The young untouchable bowed down at Noble Kātyāyana’s feet and sat before him, and Venerable Kātyāyana taught him the Dharma in a gradual way, in a manner agreeable to him. When he heard it the young untouchable 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.
After seeing the truths, he rose from his seat, drew down the right shoulder of his upper garment, bowed toward Venerable Kātyāyana 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.”
Venerable Kātyāyana led him 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.
When the ministers heard this,
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they told King Caṇḍapradyota, “Deva, Noble Kātyāyana has led the one who terrified you so to go forth.” As soon as he heard this, the king joyfully went to see Noble Kātyāyana, bowed down at his feet, and said, “Noble one, you undertook the difficult task of saving my precious life. Please permit me to invite you, together with the saṅgha of monks, to take your meals at my house for seven days.”
“Deva,” Kātyāyana said, “the Blessed One is staying right here in Ujjayinī. Therefore, you should invite the Blessed One instead.”
No sooner had he heard this than the king went to see the Blessed One, touched his head to the Blessed One’s feet, and sat before him to listen to the Dharma. The Blessed One instructed, encouraged, inspired, and delighted him with a discourse on the Dharma, and then sat in silence.
Knowing that the Blessed One had completed his discourse, King Caṇḍapradyota rose from his seat, drew down the right shoulder of his upper garment, bowed toward the Blessed One with palms pressed together, and asked the Blessed One, “Out of solicitude for Noble Kātyāyana, please permit me to invite you, together with the saṅgha of monks, to take your meals at my house for seven days.” The Blessed One assented to King Caṇḍapradyota by his silence.
Understanding that by his silence the Blessed One had given his assent, King Caṇḍapradyota then praised this assurance from the Blessed One, rejoiced, touched his head to the Blessed One’s feet, and took leave of him.
After
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he had offered food to the Buddha and the rest of the saṅgha of monks for seven days inside the palace, on the last day he offered food of a hundred flavors to the Buddha and the rest of the saṅgha of monks and to the Blessed One he offered a very costly robe. He offered a set of robes fashioned from cotton to each of the other monks, and after the Blessed One had instructed, encouraged, inspired, and delighted him with a discourse on the Dharma, he rose from his seat and departed.
“Lord,” the monks inquired of the Blessed One, “what action did the young untouchable take that ripened such that he pleased the Blessed One, did not displease him, went forth in the doctrine of the Buddha, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifested arhatship?”
“Monks,” the Blessed One explained, “such are the actions that he committed and accumulated:
“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 the activities of a buddha and passed beyond all sorrow into the realm of nirvāṇa without any remainder of the aggregates, like a fire when all the wood is gone.
“King Bandhumat¹³² used his great fortune to heap up fragrant wood in a wide open space and burned all of Buddha Vipaśyin’s remains in a fire. Then he interred the relics so that others would not remove them,
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and charged a nearby group of untouchables with protecting them. One night, as the untouchables were sleeping there, a tiger in the area carried one of them off. One of the others cried out in terror, ‘I bow down to the Buddha!’ and by the power of the Buddha, the gods protected him.
“Then King Bandhumat built a stūpa for the relics of the totally and completely awakened Buddha Vipaśyin. When it was complete in every respect and the time came to celebrate its traditional festival, the thought occurred to that untouchable, ‘It is by the power of the Blessed Buddha that I am alive at all.’ Knowing this, he made a large offering to the stūpa and prayed, ‘By this root of virtue, may I please and not displease a teacher just like this one. Going forth in his doctrine alone may I cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifest arhatship.’
“O monks, what do you think? The one who was that young untouchable then is none other than this young untouchable. At that time he venerated the stūpa and made those prayers.
“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.
“Later, he also went forth in the doctrine of the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa. Quarrelsome as a monk, he became a scholar. At that time out of anger he called a group of monks untouchables. One day
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he felt regret, asked forgiveness of the monks, and practiced the conduct leading to liberation all his life. While he may not have attained any great virtues, at the time of his death, he prayed, ‘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. Going forth in his doctrine alone may I cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifest arhatship.’
“O monks, what do you think? The monk who went forth in the doctrine of the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa then is none other than this untouchable. At that time the act of calling a group of monks untouchables ripened such that for five hundred lifetimes he took rebirth as a untouchable. He also practiced pure conduct all his life, and at the time of his death, he prayed, ‘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. Going forth in his doctrine alone may I 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 he has pleased me, not displeased me, gone forth in my very doctrine, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifested arhatship.”
The Story of Subhadra the Charioteer
King Śuddhodana had a certain charioteer named Subhadra.¹³³ When the time came for him to marry,
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he took a wife. But even though they enjoyed themselves and coupled, they had no children. They desired a son, so the householder supplicated the deities. He prayed to Paśupati, Varuṇa, Kubera, Śakra, Brahmā, and the rest, and to the deities of the pleasure groves, the forest deities, the deities of the crossroads, the deities of forks in the road, the deities who receive strewn oblations, the deities of his inherited tradition, and the deities who are in constant attendance of righteous persons. Although he made every effort to pray to them, he still could not have a son or a daughter.
Then, when the Bodhisattva was born, the soothsayers prophesied, “If he remains here at home, he will become a universal monarch, but if he shaves his head and face and dons the colorful religious robes, and if with nothing short of perfect faith he goes forth from home to live as a mendicant, then he will be renowned throughout the world as a tathāgata, an arhat, a totally and completely awakened buddha.”
Upon hearing these words, the charioteer Subhadra was devastated. “If I have a son,” he thought, “he will become charioteer to the prince, and our lineage of charioteers will not be broken.” With that, he began making especially fervent prayers to all the deities.
The Bodhisattva, upon witnessing old age, sickness, and death, went to live in the forest, where he practiced austerities for six years. After practicing austerities there for six years, from the young women Nandā and Nandabalā¹³⁴ of Serika village he accepted honeyed porridge prepared from milk that had been made into cream sixteen times over.
Then he accepted grass from Svastika the grass peddler. Then the nāga king Kāla praised him highly, and he proceeded to Bodhimaṇḍa. There he laid the grass out smooth,
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sat down cross-legged, and made a firm commitment to himself: “Until such time as I attain the highest wisdom,” he thought, “I shall not give up this cross-legged posture.” On that spot, he conquered the thirty-six million beings of Māra’s retinue and achieved unexcelled, total, and complete wisdom.
Then, beseeched by Brahmā three times, he enumerated the four truths of the noble ones three times in Vārāṇasī, properly setting in motion the wheel of the Dharma in its twelve aspects, and led the group of five to go forth. After he had established another five in the truths, as well as a party of sixty fathers, the sons of fifty village chieftains, and the two siblings Nandā and Nandabalā, he led the brothers Uruvilvā Kāśyapa and Nadī Kāśyapa to go forth and traveled on to Gayā.
He tamed others with three types of miraculous displays, traveling to the Forest of Reeds, where he established in the truths King Bimbisāra, eight thousand gods, and the hundreds and hundreds of brahmins and householders of Magadha. Then he went to Rājagṛha, where he accepted the gift of Bamboo Grove, and led Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana to go forth.
He proceeded to Śrāvastī, subjugated King Prasenajit through the discourse on “the similes of the young ones,”¹³⁵ accepted the gift of the garden of Prince Jeta, and went to stay in Kapilavastu, where he was reunited with his father and son. With support from Kapilavastu he lived on to act for the benefit of those to be tamed.
Thereupon the thought occurred to Subhadra, “Seeing as I have no heir, after I die all I have will become the king’s property. I will bring it to bear on my next life.”¹³⁶ So the next day he invited the Buddha and the rest of the saṅgha of monks for a meal and with his own hands contented them with many good, wholesome foods, proffering all that they wished. Once he knew that their bowls had been taken away and their hands washed, he brought in a very low seat
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and sat before the Blessed One to listen to the Dharma. The Blessed One instructed, encouraged, inspired, and delighted him with a discourse on the Dharma. Once he had instructed, encouraged, inspired, and delighted him with a great variety of Dharma discourses, he sat there silently.
Knowing that the Blessed One had completed his discourse, the charioteer Subhadra said to the Blessed One, “Lord, you will be my teacher for a long time. If I’d had a son, he would have been charioteer to you, the prince, just as I have been charioteer to King Śuddhodana. Now the Blessed One has gone forth, but if I have a son, I shall offer him to the Blessed One as an attendant just the same.” The Blessed One saw the good it would bring and said, “The virtuous keep their promises.” Then he left the house, and returned whence he came.
One day, the charioteer Subhadra’s wife finally conceived, and after nine or ten months had passed, she gave birth to a child who was well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, and beautiful. At the elaborate feast celebrating his birth they asked, “What name should we give this child?” And they named him, saying, “Since he is Subhadra’s child, his name will be Bhadra.”
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;
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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.
One day, the Blessed One saw that the time had come for the young man to go forth, so he reminded the charioteer Subhadra, “Subhadra, before this child was born you offered him to me. The virtuous keep their promises, do they not? Didn’t you yourself make such a promise?”
“Yes, Blessed One,” Subhadra replied, “I did make just such a promise.” As he said this, he took the child by his two hands, offered him to the Blessed One, and told him, “Child, before you were born, I offered you to the Blessed One. Therefore go, and be an attendant of the Blessed One.”
“This will be of benefit to me,” the child said, and with those words he followed the Blessed One away.
The Blessed One instructed, encouraged, inspired, and delighted him with a great variety of Dharma teachings. Then the Blessed One led the child away and traveled to the monastery. There, the Blessed One led him 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.
After achieving arhatship he thought, “The Blessed One has dispelled so many kinds of suffering and anguish, brought me so many kinds of happiness and bliss,
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cleared away so many of my sins and nonvirtues, and secured for me such virtues. How could I repay the kindness of the Blessed One?” Then he thought, “Anytime a buddha arises in the world, it is only to benefit beings. So undoubtedly I too should act for the benefit of beings!” Reflecting in this way, he wondered, “Whom might I tame?” When he looked out, right away he saw he could tame his own parents. So he disappeared from the monastery, and burst forth right in front of them from the floor of their house. Like a regal swan spreading its wings before them, he rose into the sky, making a miraculous display of fire and light, rain and lightning, and descended to the earth.
He directly apprehended their thoughts, habitual tendencies, temperaments, capacities, and natures, and taught them the Dharma accordingly. When they heard 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 stream entry right where they sat.
After they saw the truths they said, “Child, we are also going to give up living at home and go forth just as you were.”
“As you wish,” Bhadra replied, and he left the house.
Thereupon his parents gave up household affairs, gave gifts, made merit, and went forth in the doctrine of the Blessed One. Casting away all afflictive emotions with diligence, practice, and effort, they manifested arhatship.
“Blessed One,” the monks asked,
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“what action did Bhadra take that ripened into his birth into a family of great means, prosperity, and wealth, and that he pleased the Blessed One, did not displease him, went forth in the doctrine of the Blessed One, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifested arhatship?
“What actions did his parents take that ripened into their trusting him completely, and that they pleased the Blessed One, did not displease him, 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, in times past, in this fortunate eon, when people lived as long as forty 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 Krakucchanda was in the world, he performed all the activities of a buddha and passed beyond all sorrow into the realm of nirvāṇa without any remainder of the aggregates, like a fire when all the wood is gone.
“King Śobha performed a reliquary offering for the Blessed One’s relics and began to cover the stūpa and the entire surrounding area within one mile with four different kinds of jewels. The minister he had appointed to oversee this had no faith, and told his son, ‘My child, I must complete this task on behalf of the king in addition to executing the royal duties.
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If I can’t handle both, I shall lose my position at the royal palace. Therefore, my child, please supervise work on the stūpa, and I shall serve the king.’
“ ‘As you wish, father,’ the young man said, and he remained there to supervise the work on the stūpa.
“He began to work on the stūpa, and as he was working there, he found faith in the doctrine of the Buddha Krakucchanda, so he went for refuge and took the fundamental precepts. Then he led his parents to live a life of perfect faith and to likewise take refuge and the fundamental precepts.
“King Śobha completed every aspect of the stūpa and made great offerings to it. At the beginning of the traditional stūpa festival, the minister, his wife, his servants,¹³⁷ and his son were elated to see that every aspect of the stūpa had been completed in full, and they made a large offering to the stūpa. The minister’s son bowed down at the foot of the stūpa and prayed, ‘By this root of virtue, wherever I am born, may it be into a family of great means, prosperity, and wealth. May I be well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, and beautiful. May I please and not displease a teacher just like this one. Going forth in his doctrine alone may I cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifest arhatship.’
“When his parents saw this, they asked, ‘Child, what prayers are you making?’
“He told them everything in detail, and when they heard it, right away they both prayed, ‘By this root of virtue, wherever
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we are born, may it be into families of great means, prosperity, and wealth. May he be our son. Entrusting ourselves to him completely, 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.’
“O monks, what do you think? The one who was the minister’s son then is none other than Subhadra. Those who were his parents then are none other than his parents now. The act of venerating the stūpa and saying that prayer ripened such that wherever they were born, it was into a family of great means, prosperity, and wealth.
“So it is, monks, now that I myself have become the very equal of the totally and completely awakened Buddha Krakucchanda—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.
“His parents’ acts of venerating the stūpa and saying that prayer ripened such that wherever they were born, it was into a family of great means, prosperity, and wealth. By entrusting themselves to their son completely, they have pleased me, not displeased me, gone forth in my very doctrine, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifested arhatship.
“The three of them also went forth in the doctrine of Buddha Kāśyapa. After practicing pure conduct all their lives then, their faculties ripened, and now they have been liberated.”
Linked texts (1)
- ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ་པ — Classical Tibetan