佛祖統紀 5.11

5.11

The Fourth Patriarch, the Venerable Upagupta, was a man of the country of Mathurā. He had a handsome countenance, keen intelligence, and eloquence. Śāṇakavāsa initially taught him to focus his mindfulness: if an evil thought arose, he should put down a black stone; when a good thought was born, he should put down a white stone. Upagupta collected his thoughts according to the instruction. At first, black ones predominated. Next, white and black were equal. By the end of seven days, there were only white stones. Śāṇakavāsa then preached the four noble truths for him, and he instantly attained the fruit of a srotāpanna. At that time, there was a courtesan in the city named Vāsumitā. Hearing of Upagupta's beauty, she sent someone to invite him, but Upagupta refused. A merchant's son had been lodging with the courtesan when a merchant arrived from afar carrying abundant treasures and sought union with the woman. Greedy for his treasures, the woman killed the merchant's son and buried him inside the house. The merchant's family investigated and traced him to the house; they dug into the ground and found him. They reported everything to the king, who immediately had the courtesan seized, her hands and feet severed, her ears and nose cut off, and her body cast away amidst the tombs. Upagupta went to transform her, arriving at the courtesan's location. Vāsumitā said, 'When I invited you with my beautiful countenance, you did not look at me. Now that I am mutilated and ruined, what use is it coming here?' He replied, 'I have come to observe the true nature of phenomena for your sake; it is not for desire. You originally deluded sentient beings with form, like a painted vase filled to the brim with foul filth. A wise person comprehends this and ultimately takes no pleasure or attachment in it. Now you should carefully observe that this physical form is impermanent, a congregation of manifold sufferings, like an abscess, like an ulcer. You should diligently apply expedient means to seek liberation.' The courtesan's mind opened, and she attained the purity of the Dharma-eye; when her life ended, she was born in heaven. Because he contemplated all phenomena as suffering, empty, and impermanent, Upagupta instantly attained the fruit of an anāgāmin. When he first saw Śāṇakavāsa, he immediately sought to leave home. Śāṇakavāsa asked, 'How old are you?' He answered, 'Seventeen.' Śāṇakavāsa said, 'Is your body seventeen, or is your nature seventeen?' Upagupta said, 'Master, your hair is already white. Is your hair white, or is your mind white?' Śāṇakavāsa knew he was a vessel of the Dharma, and forthwith ordained him. Once he received the full precepts, he immediately attained the way of an arhat. Śāṇakavāsa said to him, 'The Buddha prophesied that a hundred years after him, you would be foremost in seated meditation and greatly transform sentient beings.' Upagupta accepted the instruction and gathered an assembly to preach the Dharma. The demon king Pāpīyas transformed himself into a white elephant adorned with the seven jewels, and manifested as a woman, upright and extraordinarily beautiful. The entire assembly gazed at her and had no mind to listen to the Dharma. Knowing it was the demon's doing, Upagupta transformed three corpses—of a snake, a dog, and a human—into a flower garland and placed it around his neck. [The demon] saw it return to being dead corpses, rotten and stinking with maggots; exhausting his supernatural powers, he was unable to remove it. He leaped into empty space and asked the hosts of devas. The Brahmā King asked him, 'How could you undo the supernatural power wrought by a disciple of the Ten Powers? If you take refuge in the Venerable One, you may perhaps be able to undo it.' Pāpīyas then went to the Venerable One's place, prostrated his whole body to the ground, and begged him to undo the three corpses. The Venerable One said to him, 'Do not harass or harm the true Dharma ever again; only then will I undo them for you.' The demon said, 'I accept your instruction.' The Venerable One then untied and removed the three corpses for him. Upagupta always felt regret that he had not seen the Buddha. He therefore asked the demon, 'You once saw the Buddha; what were his marks like? Can you manifest them?' He replied, 'I can.' Before a great forest, he manifested the form of a Buddha: his marks were wondrous and extraordinary, like a mountain of purple gold, his light illuminating the ten directions, escorted by Brahmā and Śakra. Upagupta was delighted, and without realizing it, bowed down in reverence. The demon immediately resumed his original form, stepped forward to receive him, and said, 'I am an ordinary mortal; how could I receive a sage's veneration?' On the fourth day, the demon descended again and proclaimed to all in a great voice: 'You who wish to obtain wealth and joy and be born among humans and devas, you who seek the foremost peace and security of nirvāṇa—though you did not see the Tathāgata preach the Dharma with great compassion, you should all go to the Venerable Upagupta, listen to and receive the wondrous Dharma, and practice with a sincere mind!' At that time, men and women in the city gathered together like clouds. He preached various teachings according to their capacities: hundreds of thousands of sentient beings attained the srotāpanna stage, and eighteen thousand people became arhats. At that time, King Aśoka heard that the Venerable One was preaching the Dharma for the assembly on Mount Urumuṇḍa. He sent an envoy to say that he wished to come and pay his respects. Because the place was cramped and humble, the Venerable One went in person to Pāṭaliputra, rubbed the king's crown, and preached verses for him. He pointed out the places where the Tathāgata had formerly traveled, walked, and stayed, and had stupas erected at all of them. When Upagupta transformed and liberated sentient beings, whenever both husband and wife attained the arhat state, he would drop one tally. The tallies were four inches long, and filled a stone chamber. The chamber was sixteen feet high, and equal in length and breadth. His supernatural transformations and applications were no different from the Buddha's, except that he lacked the thirty-two marks. The entire world called him the 'Buddha without the physical marks.' When his karmic conditions for transforming beings were completed, he performed eighteen transformations and entered extinction. The tallies in the chamber were used for his cremation. The people wept aloud, gathered his relics together, and erected a stupa to make offerings to them (from the *Fu fazang jing*).