妙法蓮華經文句 2.14

2.14

“Vakkula” is translated as “Good Countenance”, or “Stately Form”, or “Greatly Plump and Vigorous”, or “Fat Sack”, or “Clumsy”, or “Selling Nature”. However, his facial appearance was upright and handsome, hence he is called “Good Countenance”. He lived to one hundred and sixty years of age, without illness and without untimely death, possessing the retribution of five non-deaths. His stepmother placed him in a roasting pan, a cauldron, and in water, he was eaten by a fish, and cut open by a knife, yet in all of these he did not die. Because he formerly observed the precept against killing, for ninety-one kalpas his life did not end untimely. Because he formerly gave a single harītakī fruit to the Saṅgha, his body was permanently free of illness. He was able to keep one precept, and four precepts adorned him; he firmly upheld it without violation, avoiding neither fire nor water. Although other people observe the five precepts, they often violate them (and so on). In body he rejoiced in stillness, constantly abiding in solitude, taking no pleasure among the multitude. His eyes took no pleasure in dark, yellow, or other colours; his ears took no pleasure in hearing worldly sounds; his nose did not smell worldly aromas or stenches; his tongue had never spoken a word or two for anyone; his mind was constantly in meditative concentration without distraction, and even his relics in the stūpa took pleasure in quiet solitude. When King Aśoka paid homage to the stūpas of the arhats, he next arrived at his stūpa and spoke a verse, saying: “Though you trained yourself [away from] ignorance, you provided little benefit to the world.” He offered twenty cowrie shells. The Ekottarika-āgama states: “He offered one coin, and the cowrie shells flew out from the stūpa and came to land at the king's feet. The ministers were astonished: because of his solitude and few desires, even his stūpa still possessed such power.” The Ekottarika-āgama states: “Among those whose lifespan is extremely long, never dying untimely, and who constantly take pleasure in solitude without dwelling among the multitude, Vakkula is foremost.”