འཕགས་པ་དཔལ་སྦས་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་མད intro.3

intro.3

Interwoven with the dramatic narrative of the assassination attempt are scenes in which the Buddha recounts four of his past lives: as a pheasant chick, a hare, the peacock king Suvarṇāvabhāsa, and a young brahmin boy named Dharmakāma. Each of these stories is told to demonstrate why Śrīgupta’s plot was doomed to fail; but on a deeper level, each one underscores the infallibility of the consequences—good and bad—of actions from one’s previous lives.