ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ་པ 21.13

21.13

Part Six

1. The Bird: Two Stories
2. The Story of Majestic Body
3. The Teacher
4. A Story about Kāśyapa
5. A Story about Ānanda
6. The Story of Son of Grasping
7. The Story of Subhadra the Mendicant¹⁵⁰
8. The Worthy of Offerings Litany
9. Latecomers: Two Stories

The Bird: Two Stories

The First Bird Story

Once, when the Blessed One was staying at Vulture Peak Mountain in Rājagṛha teaching the Dharma amid a company of hundreds, from Gandhamādana Mountain a certain peacock named Beautiful to See came gliding through the sky over the garden of Prince Jeta.¹⁵¹ The bird overheard the Blessed One teaching the Dharma as he sat amid the company of hundreds, which inspired him to descend to the earth and alight at the feet of the Blessed One.

The Blessed One taught him three lines of the Dharma: “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.” The peacock was delighted and gazed upon the Buddha’s countenance for a long time.

Then, as he flew up into the sky above, he was killed by a falcon. He died filled with joy at the thought of the Blessed One, transmigrated, and took rebirth into the family of a trader there in Rājagṛha. After nine or ten months had passed the wife gave birth to a child. 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 as he grew up he studied letters, tallying, and arithmetic; the study of seals, lending, deposits, and commerce; and the examination of cloth, jewels, gems, incense, medicine, elephants, horses,