分別功德論 2.14

2.14

Among all the Buddhas, in valiant vigor none surpasses Śākyamuni. Among the brothers, Maitreya should have been in front, but now on the contrary he is behind. Why? Formerly, thirty kalpas ago, three bodhisattvas were traveling together on a mountain. At that time, they saw a starving tigress about to eat her cubs. One person thought: 'This tiger is already an animal, and moreover is about to eat her cubs; in death there is bitter pain, and the mother is not compassionate. As for my present body, compounded of the four great elements, it must inevitably end in death; I should use my body to save the cubs' lives.' The two persons were unwilling, intending rather to go to the market to buy meat to substitute for the cubs' lives. The one person reflected: 'If there is this going and returning, the cubs' lives will not be preserved. I should cast my body down from the mountain to save the cubs' lives.' He immediately cast himself down from the mountain and approached the tiger's mouth. His body remained unharmed, and the tigress did not dare eat him. Why was this so? Because when one enters the loving-kindness samādhi, nothing can harm him. Therefore, he pierced himself with a bamboo [splinter] to let the tigress eat him. Due to this vigor, he surpassed nine kalpas, and now precedes Maitreya. From this perspective, in the Path there is no before or after; determination of will comes first. Therefore, now that I have become a Buddha, I entrust the bequeathed scriptures to Ānanda. In the future you shall say, 'Thus have I heard'.