ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ་པ 19.12

19.12

“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