English (machine translation)

Translation of 一切智光明仙人慈心因緣不食肉經

Language: English
Extent: 32 passages, 2,312 words
Text: complete digital text
Source: pramana-mt · Machine translation by Gemini 3.8 Flash (2026-10-21) of in.bauddha.taisho.183 · Machine output without human authorship: no copyright is claimed (CC0 1.0). The original text keeps its own…

1 — 32 parts

Text

1.1

The translator's name is lost; now appended to the Qin catalogue.

1.3

At one time the Buddha was dwelling in the kingdom of Magadha, at the bodhimaṇḍa of quiet extinguishment, in the village of the woman Mika, at the monastery of the shrine of Īśvara.

At that time there was a son of a Kapali Brahmin named Maitreya—his body was golden in color, endowed with the thirty-two marks and the eighty minor signs, emitting a silver light and adorned with yellow gold like a silver mountain, of immeasurable majestic radiance—who came to where the Buddha was.

1.5

At that time, the World-Honoured One was walking mindfully in the forest together with twelve hundred and fifty monks; there were also five hundred Brahmacārins with matted hair. Seeing from afar Maitreya's dignified deportment and serene composure, and his pure marks and signs, he threw his five limbs to the ground like a silver mountain collapsing, transforming into a heap of golden flowers interspersed with various jewels. In the golden flowers and golden terraces, with the seven treasures as fruit, there was a wondrous voice from within the pavilions that spoke a verse, saying:

1.6

"I see the Muni, the Honoured One, / Whose countenance is ever pure, / With extraordinary marks of a hundred merits, / Unrivalled in the world. / The defilements and taints are forever ended, / His wisdom is fully perfected; / Single-mindedly I ever take refuge in him, / Without weariness of body or mind. / Therefore with my five limbs, / Wishing to attain supreme peace and happiness, / And freed from suffering without fear, / I pay homage to Śākyamuni."

1.7

Then all the Brahmacārins, seeing and hearing this, said to the Buddha: "World-Honoured One! This youth has dignified deportment and immeasurable radiance no different from the Buddha's. Before which Buddha did he first generate the thought of awakening? Whose sūtra does he uphold? We only pray that the God among Gods will explain it for us!"

1.8

The Buddha told the Brahmacārin Śikha: "Listen attentively now, and reflect upon it well! I shall analyze and explain it for you, so that you may rejoice!

1.9

"Long ago in the past, countless, boundless asaṃkhyeya kalpas ago, there was a world named Supreme Flower Bloom, where a Buddha was named Maitreya, who constantly taught and transformed everyone through the four immeasurable states of loving-kindness. That Buddha preached a sūtra called 'Ocean Cloud of Great Compassion and Light of the Loving-Kindness Samādhi'. If anyone heard it, they would immediately transcend the transmigratory offenses of hundreds of thousands of myriads of kalpas, and would surely attain Buddhahood without any doubt.

1.10

"At that time in that country there was a great Brahmin named Sarvajñaprabha (Light of Omniscience), intelligent and of vast wisdom, well-versed in numerous scriptures; among worldly arts and the sixty-four skills, there were none he had not mastered. Hearing that a Buddha had appeared in the world and was preaching the Sūtra of the Ocean Cloud of Great Compassion and Light of the Loving-Kindness Samādhi, he immediately challenged and interrogated that Buddha with all worldly treatises and arguments, exhausting his eloquence without being able to refute him. Thereupon, in faithful submission, he became a disciple of the Buddha, promptly generated the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, and made this statement: 'Now, within the Buddha's Dharma, I recite and uphold the Sūtra of the Ocean Cloud of Great Compassion and Light of the Loving-Kindness Samādhi. By this merit, I vow that after passing through incalculable kalpas in the future, I will surely attain Buddhahood and be named Maitreya.' Thereupon he abandoned his household, entered deep into the mountains, took long hair as his sign, and cultivated the holy life (brahmacarya); for eight thousand years, with few desires and no worldly affairs, he sustained himself by begging for food, recited and upheld this sūtra, and single-mindedly eliminated distraction.

1.11

"At that time in the world, the rain stars appeared, the king was licentious and unruly, comets streaked wildly, and continuous rain did not cease; the floods surged violently, and the seer sat upright, unable to beg for food, and seven days passed.

1.12

"At that time in the forest, there were five hundred white hares. There was a hare king, mother and child, two animals. Seeing that the seer had not eaten for seven days, [the hare king] said: 'Now this seer, for the sake of the Buddha path, has not eaten for many days, and his life will not last long; the banner of the Dharma is about to collapse, and the ocean of the Dharma is about to dry up. For the sake of the supreme, great Dharma, so that it may abide long, I should not spare my own body and life.'

1.13

"He then told the hares: 'All conditioned things are impermanent. Sentient beings cherish their bodies, being born in vain and dying in vain, never acting for the sake of the Dharma. I now wish to make a great bridge for all sentient beings, to make the Dharma abide long, and to make an offering to the Dharma teacher.'

1.14

"Then the hare king spoke a verse for the flock of hares, saying:

1.15

"'If any beings in the realm of animals / Are able to hear the names of the Buddhas, / They will forever leave the three evil destinies / And not be born in the eight conditions of hindrance. / If they hear the Dharma and practice it, / Wherever they are born they will always encounter the Buddha, / Believing in the Dharma without doubt, / And taking refuge in the noble, sagely Saṅgha. / Following all the moral practices, / They will thus quickly attain Buddhahood, / Surely reaching the great nirvāṇa / And constantly enjoying supreme bliss.'"

1.16

"Then, having spoken this verse, the hare king told the hares: 'I now wish to offer my body to the Dharma; you should each rejoice in it. Why is this? For many kalpas I have lost my body countless times, driven by the three poisons to take the form of birds and beasts, born in vain and dying in vain, never acting for the sake of the Dharma. Now, for the sake of the supreme Dharma, I wish to abandon my life and body to make an offering to the Dharma teacher.'

1.17

"Then the mountain tree deity piled up fragrant firewood and ignited it with fire. The hare king and its young circled the seer's feet a full seven times, and said: 'Great master! I now make an offering to the venerable one for the sake of the Dharma.' The seer told them: 'You are animals; although you have a mind of loving-kindness, by what means can you accomplish this?' The hare said to the seer: 'I myself offer my body to the benevolent one, so that the Dharma may abide long and all sentient beings may be benefited.' Having said this, it then said to its young: 'You may seek water and grass as you wish, tie your mind to contemplating and maintaining correct mindfulness of the Three Jewels.' Then the young hare, hearing what its mother had said, knelt and said to its mother: 'As the venerable one has said, for the supreme, great Dharma, to make an offering, I too am willing and glad to do so.' Having said this, it threw itself into the fire, and the mother followed after it. When the bodhisattvas abandoned their bodies, heaven and earth shook violently, and even throughout the realm of form and among the devas, heavenly flowers rained down as an offering.

1.18

"After the meat was cooked, the mountain tree deity said to the seer: 'For the sake of making an offering, the hare king and its young threw their bodies into the fire. Now the meat is cooked; you may eat it.'

1.19

"Then the seer, hearing the tree deity's words, was so grieved that he could not speak. He placed the sūtra he had recited onto tree leaves, and furthermore spoke a verse, saying:

1.20

"'Better to burn one's body and destroy one's eyes / Than to bear killing and eating sentient beings. / The sūtras of loving-kindness and compassion spoken by all Buddhas, / In those sūtras it is said that one who practices loving-kindness / Would rather break the bones and marrow and expose the brain / Than bear eating meat and consuming sentient beings. / As the Buddha has said, one who eats meat, / This person's practice of loving-kindness is incomplete; / They will always receive a short life and a body full of illness, / Sunk and bewildered in saṃsāra, not attaining Buddhahood.'"

1.21

"Having spoken this verse, the seer made a vow: 'May I, in lifetime after lifetime, not give rise to thoughts of killing, never eat meat, enter the white-light loving-kindness samādhi, and even when attaining Buddhahood, establish the precept prohibiting meat.' Having said this, he threw himself into the fire pit to perish together with the hares. At that time, heaven and earth shook in six ways, and through the power of the devas, the tree emitted light, shining with a golden brilliance that illuminated a thousand lands.

1.22

"Then the people of that country saw the golden light issuing from the mountain tree, followed the light and arrived, whereupon they saw the seer and the two hares dead in the fire; seeing the verse he had spoken and obtaining the Buddha sūtra, they took it back and presented it to the king. Hearing this Dharma, the king transmitted and proclaimed it together, causing all who heard it to generate the mind of the supreme, true path."

1.23

The Buddha told Śikha: "You should know now that the white hare king of that time was none other than my present self, Śākyamuni Buddha; the young hare of that time was none other than present Rāhula; the seer who recited the sūtra was none other than the Brahmin's son Maitreya Bodhisattva-mahāsattva in this assembly. Fifty-six hundred million years after my nirvāṇa, he will attain the Buddha path under the dragon flower bodhi tree at the vajra seat in the Flower Forest Park in the realm of the wheel-turning sage king Śaṅkha, and turn the wondrous wheel of the Dharma. The five hundred hares of that time were none other than the five hundred monks including Mahākāśyapa; the two hundred and fifty mountain tree deities of that time were none other than the two hundred and fifty monks including Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana; the thousand kings were none other than the thousand bodhisattvas including Bhadrapāla; and the people of that king's country who were able to hear the sūtra are those disciples who attained the path upon receiving the Dharma during the period from my appearance in the world until that of Ruci."

1.24

The Buddha told Śikha: "When bodhisattvas seek the Dharma, they endure toil and suffering through kalpas without sparing their bodies or lives; even when receiving the body of an animal as a karmic result, they are always able to act for the sake of the Dharma without sparing their bodily lives, throwing themselves into a pit of fire to make an offering of their bodies; thereby they transcend the transmigratory offenses of nine million billion kalpas. Thereupon, before countless Buddhas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, and before Maitreya, they are able to attain the Buddha path. How could you not diligently strive for the sake of the Dharma?"

1.25

When the Buddha spoke these words, the five hundred Brahmacārins, including Śikha, sought to go forth under the Buddha. The Buddha said: "Welcome!" Their hair and beards fell off of themselves, and they immediately became śramaṇas. The Buddha preached the Dharma for them, and with their minds suddenly opening in understanding, they became arhats; eighty thousand devas also generated the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi.

1.26

Then the great assembly gathered there, hearing what the Buddha had said, each praised the practice of the bodhisattva.

1.27

Śāriputra said to the Buddha: "After that seer threw himself into the pit of fire, where was he born?" The Buddha told Śāriputra: "After that seer threw himself into the pit of fire, he was born in the realm of Brahmā, where he spoke the great Brahmā Dharma broadly for everyone, until he attained Buddhahood and turned the great Brahmā wheel, and the sūtra he spoke was also named 'Ocean Cloud of Great Compassion and Light of the Loving-Kindness Samādhi'. In the prātimokṣa he established, one who does not practice loving-kindness is termed a violator of the precepts; one who eats meat violates a grave prohibition, and in the place where they are born in future lives they will constantly drink molten copper, until the time when that seer attains Buddhahood, as spoken in the Sūtra on the Descent of Maitreya Bodhisattva."

1.28

The Venerable Ānanda, hearing what the Buddha said, immediately rose from his seat, bared his right shoulder, placed his right knee on the ground, joined his palms toward the Buddha, crossed his hands, knelt upright, and said to the Buddha: "World-Honoured One! The precept rules spoken by Maitreya upon attaining Buddhahood actually establish the prohibition against eating meat through the mind of loving-kindness, making it a violation of a grave prohibition—how truly rare and extraordinary!"

1.29

Then the great assembly gathered there, with one voice, all praised the precept of not eating meat practiced by the sentient beings of that land: "May we be born in that land!" The World-Honoured One gave prophecy to all that they would surely attain rebirth there.

1.30

The Venerable Ānanda again said to the Buddha: "What should this sūtra be named? How should it be upheld?"

1.31

The Buddha told Ānanda: "The essential teachings of this Dharma are named 'The White Hare King Bodhisattva Sparing Neither Body Nor Life for the Supreme Path', and also named 'Sūtra on the Seer Sarvajñaprabha's Compassion and Abstention from Eating Meat'. Uphold it thus." The Venerable Ānanda and the monks, hearing what the Buddha said, rejoiced and practiced accordingly.

1.32

Sūtra on the Seer Sarvajñaprabha's Compassion and Abstention from Eating Meat