觀音義疏 2.80

2.80

Asuras have a thousand heads and two thousand hands, ten thousand heads and twenty thousand hands, or three heads and six hands. Translated here as 'without wine', on one account because they maintain the precept of not drinking wine. The males are ugly and the females are graceful. They dwell in the Mountains of Many Forms; or it is said they dwell on the ocean floor, where a wind-wheel supports the water like clouds dwelling beneath them. An earlier text says: 'Dwelling on the edge of the great ocean, having great strength, they rebuke the sun and moon with their mouths so that the sun and moon lose their light; with their palms they strike Sumeru so that Sumeru limps and stumbles. Entering the ocean up to their waists, seeing the gods drink amṛta, they gathered flowers in the four continents and placed them in the four seas to brew it. Supported by the karmic power of the sentient beings in the seas, going forward they lost the amṛta, and retreating it did not become wine, whereupon they ceased drinking wine.' Therefore they are called 'without wine'. Because the spirits do not drink wine, they obtain great strength.