法華義疏 1.231

1.231

「憍梵婆提」，者此云牛呞。《無量壽經》云「尊者牛王過去世曾作比丘，於他粟田邊摘一莖粟，觀其生熟數粒墮地，五百世作牛償之。今值釋迦得道，足甲似牛、食後猶呞，因以為名也。佛恐凡夫笑之得罪，徙置忉利天上尸利沙樹下，即舍利弗上足弟子，解律並於優婆離，佛滅度後於天上般涅槃也。

Regarding "Gavāmpati": translated here as "cow chewing the cud." The *Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra* calls him "the Venerable Bull King." In a past life, he was once a monk; beside another person's millet field, he picked a stalk of millet to see whether it was ripe or raw, and several grains fell to the ground; for five hundred lifetimes he became a cow to repay it. Now encountering Śākyamuni, he attained the Way; his toes resembled a cow's, and after eating he still chewed the cud, whence he was named after this. The Buddha, fearing that ordinary people would incur guilt by laughing at him, moved him to dwell under a śirīṣa tree in the Trāyastriṃśa heaven. He was Śāriputra's chief disciple, his understanding of the Vinaya rivaled Upāli's, and after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, he entered parinirvāṇa in heaven.