ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ་པ 19
The Hundred Deeds 19
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The Story of Sahadeva
When King Siṃhahanu reigned in Kapilavastu, and King Suprabuddha reigned in Devaḍaha,¹³⁸ the two were dear friends. One day King Siṃhahanu thought, “How wonderful it would be if a universal monarch was born in my lineage!” Subsequently he had four sons named Śuddhodana, Droṇodana, Amṛtodana, and Śuklodana, and four daughters named Śuddhā, Droṇā, Amṛtā, and Śuklā.
After that, King Suprabuddha prayed, “How wonderful it would be to become kin with King Siṃhahanu!” He and the queen enjoyed themselves and coupled, she gave birth to a child, and they named him Sahadeva.
As the young man grew up, they made him 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, and throw a disk; how to cut, cleave, grapple and hold, employ footwork, guard one’s head, strike from a distance, and 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, and he was without peer.
Later, King Suprabuddha had two daughters, and he named one Māyā and the other Mahāmāyā.
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The brahmin astrologers and augurs prophesied this about the two of them: “One will give birth to a universal monarch. The other will give birth to a youth graced with the signs.” When King Siṃhahanu heard this, he took them both to be Śuddhodana’s queens.
One day the Bodhisattva passed away and transmigrated from the Tuṣita Heaven and entered his mother’s womb. After nine or ten months had passed, she gave birth to a son. As he grew up, they made him study letters, and he mastered them. He also learned all the fields of knowledge. He mastered as well all the performing arts of dance, singing, and music.
Then King Śuddhodana thought, “Now we must train him in archery.” So he asked the Śākyas, “Who here is the greatest teacher of archery from whom a young person can learn archery?”
“Deva, you can forget all other teachers of archery,” the Śākyas told him. “King Suprabuddha’s son Sahadeva is the greatest teacher of archery. None can rival him.”
As soon as he heard this, King Śuddhodana dispatched a messenger to Sahadeva, saying, “Sahadeva, please teach this prince archery.”
“As you wish, Deva,” Sahadeva replied, and he began teaching the prince archery. The Bodhisattva learned everything he taught him. The Bodhisattva demonstrated other techniques that were not known in Sahadeva’s country, and Sahadeva was amazed upon witnessing the Bodhisattva’s discipline and these techniques that he had not seen before. He devoted himself to studying those archery techniques and learned them himself from the Bodhisattva.
When the Bodhisattva witnessed old age, sickness, and death,
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and went to live in the forest, Sahadeva traveled to Vaiśālī. While he was staying there, the people of Vaiśālī put five hundred youths in his care and said, “Train these youths in the five fields of knowledge.” By the time he had completed archery training for all five hundred youths, they had mastered the five fields of knowledge. After that they became arrogant and thought, “No one is our equal in form, strength, and knowledge—needless to speak of their being better!”
“Don’t be so arrogant, children,” Sahadeva said. “You can’t equal even the dust under the feet of the prince born into the Śākya clan—needless to speak of his fine form, strength, and knowledge.”
Now as soon as they heard this, the youths were eager to see him and said, “We should go see this young man.”
“That young man lives in the forest,” Sahadeva told them, “so you cannot see him now.”
In the meantime, while acting for the benefit of those to be tamed, the Blessed One eventually made his way to Vaiśālī. Sahadeva heard about this and informed the youths. As soon as they heard, the five hundred youths were very eager to see the Blessed One and they went with Sahadeva to meet him. All five hundred youths saw the Blessed One, resplendent and agreeable, in the distance. His senses were tamed and his mind was perfectly tame. He was graced with tranquility, shining and magnificent like a golden pillar.
When they saw him, whatever arrogance they had about their own forms disappeared. But still¹³⁹ they thought, “In form he may be our superior, but not in strength.” Thinking this, they went to see the Blessed One,
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and upon their arrival they touched their heads to the Blessed One’s feet, and sat before him.
The Blessed One thought, “I must destroy their arrogance.” Then the Blessed One had a thought about the world: “How good it would be for Śakra, King of the Gods, to take up his bow and arrow and come to see me!” Just as the Buddha thought this, Śakra, King of the Gods, immediately came to see the Blessed One with bow and arrow in hand. Then, to shatter the youths’ arrogance, the Blessed One made his natural form disappear and emanated in the form of a deity. He then emanated seven iron palm trees, seven wheels, seven great drums, and seven bricks¹⁴⁰ close to where the youths stood and addressed them, saying, “Children, take up this bow and arrow, and fire arrows into these targets.”
The youths hurried to take up the bow, but when he said, “Now draw,” they could not so much as pull the bowstring. The Blessed One, however, drew the bowstring with ease, and his arrow not only punctured the targets as it pierced the seven iron palm trees, seven wheels, seven great drums, and seven bricks, it even burrowed into the ground below.
When they saw this, whatever arrogance the youths had about their own strength disappeared in an instant, and they gained admiration for the Blessed One. The Blessed One directly apprehended their admiration and taught them the Dharma accordingly. When they heard it, all five hundred youths 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 seeing the truths, they rose from their seats, drew down the right shoulder of their upper garments,
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bowed toward the Blessed One with palms pressed together, and requested of the Blessed One, “Lord, if permitted we wish to go forth in the Dharma and Vinaya so well spoken, complete our novitiates, and achieve full ordination. In the presence of the Blessed One, we too wish to practice the holy life.”
With the words “Come, join me, monks!” the Blessed One led them to go forth as novices, conferred on them full ordination, and instructed them. They cast away all afflictive emotions through diligence, practice, and effort, and manifested arhatship. As arhats, free from the attachments of the three realms, their minds regarded gold no differently than filth, and the palms of their hands as like space itself. They became cool like wet sandalwood. Their insight crushed ignorance like an eggshell. They achieved the insights, superknowledges, and discriminations. They had no regard for worldly profit, passion, or acclaim. They became objects of offering, veneration, and respectful address by Indra, Upendra, and the other gods.
“Lord,” the monks inquired of the Blessed One, “tell us why, after all five hundred of these youths were put in the care of Sahadeva, the Blessed One shattered their arrogance and established them 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, they were put in Sahadeva’s care, and I destroyed their arrogance and placed them in the four meditative states and five superknowledges. Listen well!
“Monks, in times gone by, King Glacier Lake Deity¹⁴¹ reigned in the city of Campā. One day his wife conceived, and after nine or ten months
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had passed, she gave birth to a child who was well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, beautiful, and endowed with tremendous strength. At the elaborate feast celebrating his birth they asked, ‘What name should we give this child?’ And they named him, saying, ‘Since this is Glacier Lake Deity’s child, his name will be Glacier Deity.’ They reared him on milk, yogurt, butter, ghee, and milk solids, and he flourished like a lotus in a lake.
“As the young man grew up, they made him 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, and throw a disk; how to cut, cleave, grapple and hold, employ footwork, guard one’s head, strike from a distance, and 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.
“Then he came to see that his father administrated the affairs of the kingdom both righteously and unrighteously. Recognizing this he thought, ‘After the death of my father, I will have to assume the dominion of the king. I will give up living at home and go live in the forest.’ Reflecting in this way, he asked for his father’s permission and went to live in the forest. After he went there, he generated the four meditative states and the five superknowledges.
“After he had gone forth, the king’s ministers had five hundred sons. As they grew up, they were made to study letters and became educated in the five sciences. They thought
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, ‘No one is our equal in form, strength, and knowledge—needless to speak of their being better!’
“ ‘Children,’ their archery teacher told them, ‘don’t say such things. Your form, strength, and knowledge aren’t even a hundredth or a thousandth of that of the prince who went to live in the great forest.’
“As soon as they heard this, the youths were eager to meet the sage, so they went to see him along with the archery teacher. All five hundred youths saw the sage in the distance and he was resplendent, agreeable, and happy. His senses were tamed, and his mind was at peace.¹⁴² When they saw him, whatever arrogance they had about their own forms disappeared, and they thought, ‘Since his good qualities and the splendor of his form are as great as our teacher claimed, and we ourselves are certain it is so, let’s give up living at home and, in his presence, practice the conduct that leads to enlightenment.’ With this thought, they went forth in his presence. Having thus gone forth, they generated the four meditative states and five superknowledges.
“O monks, what do you think? I am the one who was that sage then, and lived the life of a bodhisattva. Those who were the five hundred youths then are none other than these youths. The one who was their archery teacher then is none other than Sahadeva. At that time, after they were put in Sahadeva’s care, I destroyed their arrogance and placed them in the four meditative states and five superknowledges. Now as well, they have been in the sole care of Sahadeva, and I have established them in the unsurpassed, supreme welfare of nirvāṇa.
“They also went forth in the doctrine of the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa
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and practiced pure conduct all their lives. At the time of their deaths, they prayed, ‘May we please and not displease Uttara, the young brahmin prophesied by the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa to be the next blessed buddha. May we go forth in his doctrine, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifest arhatship.’
“What do you think monks? The five hundred monks who went forth in the doctrine of the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa then are now none other than these renunciants. Back then they practiced pure conduct all their lives, and at the time of their deaths, they prayed, ‘May we please and not displease Uttara, the young brahmin prophesied by the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa to be the next blessed buddha. May we go forth in his doctrine, 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 they have pleased me, not displeased me, gone forth in my very doctrine, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifested arhatship.”
The Bull
When the Blessed One was in Śrāvastī, not far from the garden of Prince Jeta there lived a certain herd of cattle. There, the two bulls that led the herd were fighting and kicking one another until one of them had his stomach gored and his intestines spilled out onto the ground. Still feeling a surge of hatred for his opponent,
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he collapsed to the ground.
The blessed buddhas, teachers of the one path to be traversed, with mastery over wisdom and the two types of knowable objects, 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 thought, “If this bull dies in his present condition, he will take birth as a hell being. The time has come to lift him out of the lower realms.”
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The Blessed One disappeared from the garden of Prince Jeta and traveled to near where the bulls were. He put the intestines back into the bull’s stomach, sewed the wound closed, gave him grass and water, and said to him, “And so it is, my friend: all conditioned things are impermanent. All phenomena are selfless. Nirvāṇa is peace. Let your mind be filled with joy at the thought of me, and you may even be released from rebirth in the animal realm.”
Filled with joy at the thought of the Blessed One, the bull died shortly thereafter, transmigrated, and took rebirth in the house of a merchant in Śrāvastī. After nine or ten months had passed the child was born, and he was well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, and beautiful. At the elaborate feast celebrating his birth they named him according to their clan.
They reared him on milk, yogurt, butter, ghee, and milk solids, and when he was seven years of age, he found faith in the doctrine of the Blessed One. He asked for his parents’ permission and went forth, and though he was just seven years old, he cast away all afflictive emotions through diligence, practice, and effort, and manifested arhatship. After he manifested arhatship, he used his miraculous powers as a means of travel and would scoop flowers and fruits onto large leaves, carry them from one place to another, and bring them as offerings to the saṅgha.
The monks were amazed when they saw this, so they requested the Blessed One, “Lord, tell us why this one, who went forth as a novice at just seven years of age, has achieved such great virtues.”
The Blessed One asked the monks, “Did you see the bull whose intestines I put back into his stomach, and to whom I taught three lines of the Dharma?”
“Yes, Lord, we saw him,” they replied.
The Blessed One said,
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“Filled with joy at the thought of me, he died, transmigrated, and was reborn in the house of a merchant here in Śrāvastī. Then he went forth in my very doctrine, and at just seven years of age cast away all afflictive emotions and manifested arhatship.”
“Lord, what action did this novice take that ripened into his birth as a bull?” they inquired. “What action did he take that, after he died and transmigrated, ripened into his birth as a human being, and that he pleased the Blessed One, did not displease him, surpassed those whose lifespans were one hundred years, 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 this fortunate eon, when people lived as long as twenty thousand years, and the totally and completely awakened buddha endowed with perfect knowledge 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 Buddha Kāśyapa’s doctrine, acted as water server for the monks, and distributed water from a small vase.
“Another monk who was an arhat got distracted and bumped up against the serving monk, knocking the small vase from his hand and breaking it. In anger, the serving monk shouted at him, ‘This one’s like a thundering bull—huge and oblivious!’
“When he heard what he said, the arhat took him aside and asked, ‘Lord, do you know who I am?’
“ ‘I know that you have gone forth,’ he replied, ‘as have I.’
“ ‘Though we two are like brothers in having gone forth,’ he said, ‘you are an ordinary person, bound
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by every fetter, and I have been liberated from every fetter. You must confess the mistake you’ve made by speaking harshly to me. Otherwise you are certain to roam in saṃsāra and meet with the results of your ugly act.’
“When he heard this the serving monk was seized with regret, bowed down at his feet, and asked his forgiveness. After that he practiced pure conduct all his life, and at the time of his death he prayed, ‘May I not meet with the results of the act of speaking harshly to this person, so supremely worthy of offerings. While I may not have attained any great virtues, still I have gone forth and practiced pure conduct all my life. Therefore, 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 one who was the water-serving monk then is none other than this novice. The act of becoming angry and speaking harshly to the arhat ripened such that for five hundred lifetimes he took rebirth as a bull. Yet 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,
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not displeased me, gone forth in my very doctrine, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifested arhatship.”
The Story of Good Compassion
When the Blessed One was in Vaiśālī, there lived a certain army chief named Siṃha. One day his wife conceived, and after nine or ten months had passed she gave birth to a child who was well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, beautiful, and endowed with tremendous strength. At the elaborate feast celebrating his birth they named him Good Compassion.
They reared him on milk, yogurt, butter, ghee, and milk solids, and as the young man grew up, they made him 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, and throw a disk; how to cut, cleave, grapple and hold, employ footwork, guard one’s head, strike from a distance, and 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.
But this was not enough to satisfy him,¹⁴³ and he had intercourse with prostitutes. His father sent him off with a group of friends, and one day in the spring, when many trees were in flower, and the parrots, mountain birds, cuckoos, peacocks, and jīvaṃjīva birds began to call out, the men brought the foremost courtesan into the forest. As they sat there, they began to quarrel over the courtesan. In anger, young Good Compassion killed three men in the group of friends.
The group of friends
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went and told the army chief Siṃha. When he heard about this, the army chief Siṃha declared, “That boy is no child of mine!” and threw him out of the house. The Licchavis of Vaiśālī sentenced him to death, 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, in terror for his life he cast all about, thinking, “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, 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,
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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 thought, “The time has come to tame young Good Compassion.” He disappeared from the banks of Markaṭahrada and set out toward¹⁴⁴ young Good Compassion. Young Good Compassion saw the Blessed One from a distance. Drawing close, he bowed down at the feet of the Blessed One and implored the Blessed One, “Please undertake the difficult task of saving my precious life!”
“Young man,” the Blessed One told him, “don’t be afraid. Your life will not be lost.” Then the Blessed One spoke to the people of Vaiśālī, saying, “My friends, what is the use of killing this young man? Release him.”
“Lord,” the people of Vaiśālī replied, “if he goes forth, we shall release him.”
So 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.
“Lord,” the monks requested the Blessed One, “tell us why the people of Vaiśālī sentenced young Good Compassion to death because he could not be satisfied, prompting the Blessed One to rescue 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 could not be satisfied,
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practiced sexual misconduct, and was sent by a crowd to be killed, whereupon I rescued him and placed him in the four meditative states and five superknowledges.
“Monks, in times gone by, in a mountain village there lived a certain villager who lacked in discernment, practiced sexual misconduct, and intended harm to many. But the villagers found a way to harm him instead, and they caught him in the act of adultery with another man’s wife. They presented him to the king, and the king sent him to be killed. The executioners led him away, and as they neared the place where he was to be executed, he spotted a sage who had been going about his business and living in a place on the mountain, devoted to austerities, not far from the villages. As soon as he saw him, he bowed down at his feet, and said, ‘O sage, please undertake the difficult task of saving my precious life!’ At this the sage led the king to release him, brought him to the place of his retreat, welcomed his renunciation, and there he generated the four meditative states and 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. At that time a crowd sentenced him to death, and I rescued him and placed him in the four meditative states and five superknowledges. Now as well, because he could not be satisfied, a crowd sentenced him to death, and I have rescued him and established him in the unsurpassed, supreme welfare of nirvāṇa.
“He also went forth in the doctrine of the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa, and after practicing pure conduct all his life, 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
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may I cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifest arhatship.’
“O monks, what do you think? The one who was that monk then is none other than this Good Compassion himself. There 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.’
“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 Fleshy
When the Blessed One was in Śrāvastī, a certain brahmin lived in Śrāvastī who had no children but desired a son. The householder made supplications to all the deities, and finally one day his wife conceived. After nine or ten months had passed, she gave birth to a child who was well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, and beautiful. He was already corpulent, full-fledged in skin, flesh, and blood. At the elaborate feast celebrating his birth they asked, “What name should we give this child?” And they named him, saying, “Since he is so corpulent, and full-fledged in skin, flesh, and blood, his name will be Fleshy.”
They reared young Fleshy on milk, yogurt, butter, ghee, and milk solids, and as he grew up, he studied letters, brahminical customs and conduct, the syllables oṃ and bho, ritual purity, ritual actions, the collection of ashes, holding the ritual vase,
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the Ṛg Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sāma Veda, the Atharva Veda, how to perform sacrificial rites, how to lead others in performing sacrificial rites, how to give and receive offerings, recitation, and recitation instruction. Trained in these procedures, he became a master of the six types of brahminical activities, and in time he mastered the eighteen sciences.
The brahmin’s house was not far from the house of Anāthapiṇḍada, and the young brahmin was an acquaintance of Anāthapiṇḍada, so he too was fond of the doctrine of the Blessed One.
Then one day both the young brahmin’s parents died. After their death, he had to go to the city of Śūrpāraka on an errand. He traveled and traveled until eventually he came to a certain dense forest in the mountainous region between Śrāvastī and Śūrpāraka. In that dense forest there lived a certain sage. The young brahmin knew him and went to him, bowed down at his feet, and sat before him to listen to the Dharma.
Thereupon the sage spoke in praise of renunciation, and when he heard him the young brahmin immediately made up his mind to go forth. He went forth in the presence of the sage and lived in the forest, but he did not achieve anything of significance. One day the sage died, but Fleshy still stayed on at the hermitage.
Then as the Blessed One was traveling to Śūrpāraka, young Fleshy saw the Blessed One approaching in the distance. As soon as he saw him, he thought, “That’s the ascetic of the Śākya clan—the omniscient, all-seeing one. Here he comes down the path! It wouldn’t be right for me not to show my respect and offer my help.” And he thought, “If I clamber down from this boulder on foot, the Blessed One will have passed by. I will leap from the boulder so that I can show my respect and offer my help.”
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Having thought this, he leapt from the boulder.
Just then the Blessed One blessed the ground so that it became like a cotton cushion stuffed with wool, and so that when young Fleshy landed, he sprang right back up on his feet, delighted. He went to where the Blessed One was, touched his head to the Blessed One’s feet, and followed after him. Out of compassion for him, the Blessed One stepped off the path and sat down nearby. Again Fleshy touched his head to the Blessed One’s feet and then sat before him to listen to the Dharma.
The Blessed One taught him the Dharma particularly suited to him, and when he heard it he 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 non-return right where he sat.
After seeing the truths, he rose from his seat, drew down the right shoulder of his upper garment, bowed toward the Blessed One with palms pressed together, and requested of the Blessed One, “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.”
With the words “Come, join me, monk! Practice the holy life,” 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. 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. His state was such that Indra, Upendra, and the other gods
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worshiped and venerated him and addressed him with respect. The Blessed One also commended him as foremost among the faithful and devoted.
“Lord,” the monks requested the Blessed One, “tell us why Venerable Fleshy leapt from a boulder when he saw the Blessed One, and why 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.”
“Not only now,” the Blessed One explained, “but in times past as well, and in the same way, upon seeing me he leapt from a boulder, went forth in my presence, and generated the four meditative states and five superknowledges. Listen well!
“Monks, in times gone by, a certain sage was traveling a path with five hundred of his disciples. Upon reaching the face of a boulder, they took a seat at one side. There was an ascetic living on top of that boulder, practicing his austerities. He saw the sage sitting at the foot of the boulder, felt a surge of joy at the sight of him, and thought, ‘I will show my respect to that sage and offer my help.’ Then he thought, ‘But if I clamber down on foot, the sage will have left.’
“So he leapt from the boulder, and as he did so the sage dispatched a deity who took him in his hands and placed him on the ground. Then the ascetic approached the sage, bowed down at his feet, and sat before him to listen to the Dharma.
“The sage spoke in praise of renunciation, and the ascetic went forth in his presence. After going forth, he generated the four meditative states and 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 ascetic then is none other than Fleshy.
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At that time when he saw me he leapt from a boulder, went forth in my presence, and generated the four meditative states and the five superknowledges. Now as well, upon seeing me he leapt from a boulder, and went forth in my very doctrine, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifested arhatship.”
Again the monks inquired of the Blessed One, “Lord, what action did Fleshy take that ripened such 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, and that the Blessed One commended him as foremost among the faithful and devoted?”
“It came about by the power of his prayers,” the Blessed One replied.
“Lord, where did he make these prayers?” they asked.
“Monks,” recounted the Blessed One, “in times past, in this fortunate eon, when people lived as long as twenty 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 Kāśyapa was in the world.
“Traveling through the countryside with a retinue of twenty thousand attendants, he entered a certain dense forest where five hundred sages lived. The five hundred sages saw the Blessed One from a distance, and upon seeing him they experienced a surge of joy. In their joy they invited the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa and his retinue to their forest devoted to austerities and there offered them roots and fruit. After making this offering, they sat before him to listen to the Dharma.
“The totally and completely awakened Kāśyapa directly apprehended their thoughts,
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habitual tendencies, temperament, capacity, and nature, 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 non-return right where they sat.
“Then all but one of the five hundred sages immediately realized the truths and manifested the resultant state of non-return. After they saw the truths, they rose from their seats, drew down the right shoulder of their upper garments, bowed toward the Blessed Buddha Kāśyapa with palms pressed together, and requested, ‘Lord, if permitted we wish to go forth in the Dharma and Vinaya so well spoken, complete our novitiates, and achieve full ordination. In the presence of the Blessed One, we too wish to practice the holy life.’
“Then the totally and completely awakened Kāśyapa presented the five hundred sages to the monks, and the monks led all five hundred sages to go forth as novices, conferred on them full ordination, and instructed them. Casting away all afflictive emotions through diligence, practice, and effort, they manifested arhatship. But one sage there did not attain a single good quality—he did not so much as generate heat.
“The totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa commended the preceptor who had led them to go forth as foremost among the faithful and devoted.
“After that, the one sage who did not attain anything practiced pure conduct all his life, and at the time of his death, he prayed, ‘While I may not have attained any great virtues, still I have gone forth like this in the doctrine of the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa and practiced pure conduct all my life. Therefore, 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. Just as
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the Buddha Kāśyapa commended my abbot as foremost among the faithful and devoted, so may I too be commended by Śākyamuni, the most excellent King of Śākyas, as foremost among the faithful and devoted.’
“O monks, what do you think? The one who went forth in the doctrine of the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa then is none other than Fleshy. At that time 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. Just as the Buddha Kāśyapa commended my abbot as foremost among the faithful and devoted, so may I too be commended by Śākyamuni, the most excellent King of Śākyas, as foremost among the faithful and devoted.
“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, and I have commended him as foremost among the faithful and devoted.”
The Story of Black
When the Blessed One was in Rājagṛha, there lived a brahmin named Bhūta. One day his wife conceived, and after nine or ten months had passed, she gave birth to a child who was well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, beautiful, and had a very dark complexion. At the elaborate feast celebrating his birth they asked, “What name should we give this child?” And they named him, saying, “Since this child has a very dark complexion, his name can only be Black.”
Linked texts (1)
- ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ་པ — Classical Tibetan