ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ་པ 20.11

20.11

So that Iṣudhara might become disillusioned with saṃsāra, the Blessed One transported him with his miraculous powers and showed him the beings of the eight great hells.¹⁴⁶ Śākya Iṣudhara asked, “Lord, what deeds cause one to take birth here?”

The Blessed One explained, “Those who inure themselves to the act of killing and commit it many times will take birth here. Thereafter, whenever they die and transmigrate, they will take birth here again into the same conditions, and their lives will be short.”

When the Blessed One showed him in detail the paths of the ten nonvirtuous actions in the same way, right away Iṣudhara became particularly afraid. “If you take the fundamental precepts from the Blessed One and don’t protect them,” he worried, “won’t you take birth as a hell being, an animal, or an anguished spirit?” So he confessed that he had broken all his precepts, and sat before the Blessed One to listen to the Dharma.

Then the Blessed One taught Śākya Iṣudhara the Dharma particularly suited to him. 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 stream entry right where he sat. Having seen the truths, after his death he immediately took rebirth as a god.

Upon taking rebirth as a god, he wondered, “Whence did I die and transmigrate?” and he saw that he had died as a human being. “Where have I taken birth?” he wondered, and he saw he had taken birth as a god. “What action did I take?” he wondered, and he saw that at the time of his death he had maintained the fundamental precepts and felt joy toward the Blessed One as well. “Not a day should pass without my seeing the Blessed One and offering him my respect,” he thought.

So he decorated himself with earrings, garlands, and strings of precious stones, put on a crown decorated with various types of precious jewels, and perfumed his body with saffron, tamala, spṛka, and other herbs. That night he filled the front of his long shirt with divine blue lotus, lotus, white water lily, white lotus,