分別功德論 4.15

4.15

The reason why Aniruddha is called foremost in the divine eye is that once when the Buddha was preaching the Dharma to a great assembly, Aniruddha was sleeping on his seat. Seeing him sleep, the Buddha said to him: "Now while the Tathāgata preaches the Dharma, why do you sleep? Sleep blocks the mind—how does it differ from death?" Feeling ashamed, Aniruddha resolved firmly within himself and vowed: "From this day forward, I shall not dare to sleep again." Not sleeping for a long time, his eyes consequently lost their sight. The reason for this is that generally there are six nutriments, and the eye has two nutriments: first, looking at form; second, sleep. The five sense organs each also have two nutriments. Only when obtaining their nutriments are the six faculties intact. Because the eye lost the nutriment of sleep, he lost the faculty of the eye. The Buddha ordered Jīvaka to treat it, but he said: "Without sleep, it cannot be cured." Having lost his physical eyes, he could see nothing more. His five hundred disciples each scattered and abandoned him; he had to ask others to thread his needle as he groped about patching his robes. When the thread ran out and was to be re-threaded, there was no one he could ask. He cried out to his left and right: "Whoever wishes to seek merit, thread this needle for me!" The World-Honoured One suddenly arrived before him, took it, and said: "I shall thread it for you." He asked: "Who is this?" He replied: "I am the Buddha." "The Buddha is already full in merit; do you still wish to seek merit?" He replied: "Can meritorious virtue ever be satiated?" Aniruddha reflected: "Even the Buddha still seeks merit, how much more so an ordinary person?" Deeply moved in his heart, he turned to look toward the Buddha, and because of his utmost sincerity, he suddenly obtained the divine eye. Having obtained the divine eye, he further reflected again and thereupon attained the state of an arhat. In general, arhats all have three eyes: the physical eye, the divine eye, and the wisdom eye. Aniruddha had precisely two eyes: the wisdom eye and the divine eye. One who sees with three eyes is confused; the physical and divine [eyes] compete in efficacy, with fine and coarse seen mixed together—therefore it is called confused. Aniruddha exclusively used the divine eye to view the great-thousandfold world, seeing both fine and coarse completely, clearly discerning within physical forms those that possess consciousness and those that are without consciousness. What devas and humans see has the pure and the impure. Those whose vision is extremely pure see all physical kinds in the world, both with consciousness and without consciousness, as all moving and wavering, suspecting that they are insects when they are not insects. Those whose vision is impure see grains of cooked rice moving and all think they are insects. The distinction between superior and inferior has its origins. For these reasons, he is [called] foremost in the divine eye.