阿彌陀經疏 1.93

1.93

「離婆多」者，《文殊問經》翻為常作聲，未詳其義。相傳云：依《智度論》，此翻為假和合，謂假死人頭頂手足而成體故。按彼論第十四卷，汎說一人不言名字，未知此是此人不？有人路行夜寄神廟中宿，有一老鬼持一死人來欲喫，即被一少鬼欲奪，各言我許，分競無定，乃引彼人為證。彼人思惟：「我實語亦死，妄語亦死，寧實不虛。」即云：「老鬼將來。」彼少鬼發怒，便擒彼人挽取臂咬乃至頭脚。老鬼慚愧此人為證，便取死人手足及頭挾著。天曉而去，口云：「為是我身、為非我身？」遂至一伽藍問僧：「是我不？」因問自說如上之事。僧云：「汝身本來四大五陰假和合成，何但今日方和合？」即出家，後得羅漢。

"Revata": The Mañjuśrīparipṛcchā translates this as "Constantly Making Sounds", though its meaning is not clear. Tradition says that according to the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa, this is translated as "False Combination", meaning that his body was formed by borrowing the head, hands, and feet of a dead man. Inspecting the fourteenth fascicle of that treatise, it speaks generally of a man without stating his name, and it is not known whether this was indeed this person or not. A man traveling by night took lodging in a spirit shrine to sleep. An old ghost came carrying a dead man intending to eat him, whereupon a young ghost tried to snatch him away. Each claiming the corpse was theirs, they disputed without resolution, and so they took that man as their witness. That man reflected: "If I speak the truth I will die, and if I speak falsely I will also die; it is better to be truthful and not speak falsely." So he said: "The old ghost brought it." The young ghost flew into a rage, seized the man, tore off his arms and bit them, and went on even to his head and legs. Feeling ashamed on account of this man who had testified for him, the old ghost took the hands, feet, and head of the dead man and fitted them onto him. At dawn the man departed, saying to himself: "Is this my body, or is it not my body?" He then arrived at a saṅghārāma and asked the monks: "Am I me, or not?" In response to their inquiries, he recounted the event as described above. A monk said: "Your body from the beginning was falsely combined out of the four great elements and the five skandhas; why would it be combined only today?" He thereupon went forth from the household life and later attained the state of an arhat.