分別功德論 2.9

2.9

When it speaks of 'one thousand two hundred and fifty', it cites those who constantly attended [the Buddha]. When it is said 'five hundred people', it was when the Buddha accepted the invitation of Anavatapta: he selected five hundred suitable people to follow him directly to the dragon king's palace. Why? This Lake Anavatapta cannot be reached by those with defiled, obstructed physical forms. When Ānanda brought forth the sūtras, he assembled eighty-four thousand arhats; from this perspective, the number is beyond calculation. This sūtra now brings forth exactly one hundred people; their foremost qualities encompass the four assemblies, and two hundred and twenty are each foremost. How could the remainder be counted? It is said: 'This sūtra originally had one hundred topics, which Ānanda entrusted to Uttara.' Twelve years after the compilation of the Ekottarāgama, Ānanda entered parinirvāṇa. At that time, the monks each practiced seated meditation and no longer recited and practiced [the texts], saying that of the Buddha's three activities, seated meditation is foremost, and thus each neglected chanting and recitation. After twelve years, the monk Uttara also entered parinirvāṇa, and because of this, ninety topics of this sūtra were lost. Foreign masters transmission from master to disciple was by oral transmission, not permitting the recording in written text. What was transmitted at that time was only eleven topics. From then on down through the lineage, there was only the present text. Even so, the Sarvāstivāda school lacks the preface and the last eleven topics; through drifting over a long time, more and more was lost. The reason he specifically entrusted this disciple with the Ekottar[āgama] was that since the time of the seven Buddhas, he had specifically mastered and practiced the Ekottarāgama, and the previous sages had also all entrusted this sūtra [to him]; therefore, Śākyamuni again diligently reached out to this monk. At that time, Uttara's disciple named Kalyāṇabuddhi received and recited the Ekottar[āgama] from his master, obtaining only eleven topics, when Uttara entered parinirvāṇa. What is currently present in the Tripiṭaka abroad was completely transmitted by Kalyāṇabuddhi, handed down from master to disciple until now without interruption. The reason Kāśyapa always called Ānanda a child was because for successive lifetimes, he had treated him with paternal affection. At that time, Ānanda's sister was a nun; hearing Kāśyapa's words, she was deeply resentful: 'Ānanda is intelligent, broadly learned, and looked up to by the masses. How can the Venerable One call him a child?' Kāśyapa said to the nun: 'Elder sister! Ānanda has two shameful matters. What is there to resent? Precisely because Ānanda urged the Buddha to ordain women, he caused the Buddha's Dharma to decrease by a thousand years; this is the first. Ānanda had sixty disciples, and recently thirty monks returned to lay life. In the Buddha's teaching on the method for ordaining disciples, if a householder with faith comes seeking the path, one must test him for seven days. If one from an external teaching comes seeking the path, one must test him for four months. Why are they not equal? Because those from non-Buddhist traditions might come with bad intentions seeking faults, therefore one first tests them to know if they are completely sincere. Otherwise, Ānanda ordaining them as soon as they arrived is the second shameful matter. The reason these thirty monks returned is that they heard Ānanda was foremost in equal knowledge among the ninety-six paths; when seeking ordination from Ānanda, they wished to request equal knowledge. However, Ānanda did not explain equal knowledge to them, and thus it did not match their original intention, whereupon they returned. Upon returning, they will surely slander Ānanda, saying he lacks equal knowledge. Ordaining disciples is like a fish laying billions of eggs: if she keeps her mind on them, they hatch; if she does not keep her mind on them, they rot away. Disciples are also like this: if one attends to teaching them, they are accomplished; if one does not attend to them, they fall back. Is this not shameful!' Because this nun directed anger toward Kāśyapa, she fell into hell in her present body. Because Ānanda had these deficiencies, Kāśyapa merely called him a child. Ānanda himself cited that in the past he had been a cakravartin named Dīrghāyus. Receiving the bequest of his father the great king, he ascended the throne and governed. When he was about to leave household life, he again entrusted Crown Prince Sudarśana, handing over the state governance to him. Transmitted successively, it was never suspended for a moment. Formerly there was succession from father to son; now there is succession from master to disciple. If in the past he did not lose even defiled teachings, how could he lose the supreme, true, wondrous Dharma now? Therefore, he cited his own experience to show that he was certainly capable of receiving the bequeathed scriptures.