ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ་པ 33.6

33.6

father died. Upon his death the neighboring kings began to do harm to the country, and the ministers thought, ‘The neighboring kings do us such harm because we have no lord. We must summon the prince so that he can assume the throne.’ With this in mind the chief minister went to see the prince and said to him, ‘Lord, your father has passed away. Please come and assume your father’s kingdom.’

“ ‘If you adopt the path of the ten virtuous actions, then I shall return,’ he replied. With that he led the chief minister to adopt the path of the ten virtuous actions. The chief minister then set all five hundred ministers on the path of the ten virtuous actions, and afterward they summoned the prince and set him on the throne. By returning there, he set all the country’s many inhabitants on the path of the ten virtuous actions.

“O monks, what do you think? I am the one who was that king then, and lived the life of a bodhisattva. The one who was that chief minister then is none other than Head of Indra. Those who were his ministers then are none other than the five hundred Licchavis. At that time the five hundred ministers entrusted themselves to Head of Indra, and I turned them away from sinful actions and set them on the path of the ten virtuous actions. Now as well they have entrusted themselves to Head of Indra, and I have turned them away from sinful actions and established them in the unsurpassed, supreme welfare of nirvāṇa.

“They also went forth in the teaching of the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa. After practicing pure conduct all their lives then, their faculties ripened, and now they have been liberated.”

Part Ten

1. Śakra
2. The King
3. The Hunter
4. The Story of Deluded ²⁰²