止觀輔行傳弘決 1.28

1.28

"The Dharma was transmitted to Puṇyayaśas." Puṇyayaśas debated with Aśvaghoṣa; Aśvaghoṣa clung to the existence of a self, and Puṇyayaśas said: "In the Buddha's Dharma there are two truths: in conventional truth there is a self, but in ultimate truth there is no self." Aśvaghoṣa wanted to cut off his own head, but Puṇyayaśas had him shave his hair and become his disciple. Aśvaghoṣa composed the Rāṣṭrapāla music, within the sounds of which he expounded impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and non-self; those who heard it were awakened to the Way. Five hundred princes became disillusioned with the world and left the household life; the king, fearing that the population would be exhausted, prohibited the music from being performed. Under attack by the Yuezhi, who demanded nine hundred million pieces of gold for peace, he substituted Aśvaghoṣa, the Buddha's bowl, and a compassionate rooster as equivalent to nine hundred million. The Yuezhi accepted them and joyfully withdrew their army. Furthermore, as he walked paying homage to a stūpa, the stūpa collapsed; digging into the stūpa, the corpse of a Nirgrantha was found. There was a barber who came to ask for the king's daughter, doing so repeatedly. The king said: "Why does this base person act so presumptuously?" Aśvaghoṣa said: "Beneath that ground there is gold, which is why he is made to act thus." They dug, and indeed found a hoard. That king was valiant; the three seas submitted to his virtue, but he had killed nine hundred million people. Aśvaghoṣa said: "I know the method of repentance." He then heated a cauldron for seven days, threw in a gold bracelet, and said: "Who can retrieve it?" No one could fetch it. The king threw in water, and retrieved it from where the water was. The king was thereby awakened, saying: "My sins are like the boiling cauldron, and repentance is like throwing in water." Aśvaghoṣa preached the Dharma for him; because of this, his sin was lightened and he became a fish with a thousand heads. Iron wheels severed its heads; once severed, they grew back again. Hearing the bell, the pain ceased, so he urged that it be rung constantly.