佛祖統紀 5.5

5.5

The First Patriarch, the Venerable Mahākāśyapa (Translated here as 'Great Light-Drinker'. An ancient ṛṣi had a bodily radiance that overshadowed other lights, and so took this as his surname; this venerable one was his descendant, and his body was likewise luminous, drinking in and overshadowing other lights. Among the Buddha's disciples there were the Daśabala-kāśyapas, the three Kāśyapas, and others; because he was the eldest among those of this same surname, the word 'Great' was prefixed to distinguish him). His personal name was Pippala (This is the name of the bodhi tree; because his parents prayed to the tree deity and gave birth to him, he took his name from the tree). He was a person of Rājagṛha (Translated here as 'City of the Royal Abode', which is the name of the capital city within Magadha). His father was Kapila (Translated here as 'Golden-Hued Head and Face'; he was presumably a descendant of the ancient Golden-Light Ṛṣi). The world called him a great wealthy elder; none among the sixteen great kingdoms could rival him, and he surpassed King Bimbisāra (that is, King Bimbisāra; translated here as 'Handsome Demeanor') a thousandfold. The king possessed a thousand golden plows; fearing to surpass the king, [Kapila] reduced his plows by one, using only nine hundred and ninety-nine pairs of oxen with golden plows. He had sixty granaries of gold and grain, each granary holding three hundred and forty hu. Long ago, after the Buddha Vipaśyin entered parinirvāṇa (Translated here as 'Exalted Vision'), a golden statue at his stūpa had fallen into disrepair in a few places. At that time there was a poor woman who begged and obtained gold beads, wishing to repair the statue's face. At that time Kāśyapa was a goldsmith; having repaired it for her, they thereupon made a mutual vow: 'May the two of us always be husband and wife, our bodies of pure golden color, constantly experiencing superior bliss.' Through this cause and condition, for ninety-one kalpas they were born among gods and humans, and finally were born in the seventh Brahma Heaven (The Great Brahma of the First Dhyāna resides above the Six Desires, exactly corresponding to the seventh). At that time in the country of Magadha (translated here as 'Harmless'), there was a brāhmaṇa of immeasurable wealth who had no son. Beside his house stood a tree deity to whom he repeatedly went to pray for a son, but with no response for many years. In wrath and indignation he said, 'I shall worship you for seven more days; if there is still no sign, I will surely burn down the tree.' The tree deity was filled with dread and immediately went to the Brahma Heaven. With divine vision the Brahma King saw that a certain deva in the Brahma Heaven was about to reach the end of his lifespan, and urged him to take birth there. When ten months were complete, a boy was born whose body was of pure golden color, blazing with brilliance that illuminated forty li, endowed with thirty of the primary marks (The Commentary says: 'It should be that he lacked the two marks of the white ūrṇā-hair and the uṣṇīṣa'). A physiognomist divined: 'This child has past merit and will surely leave household life.' When he reached the age of fifteen, [his parents] wished to find him a wife. The boy said to his parents: 'If you can find for me a woman of purple-gold color, I will take her.' His parents then summoned various brāhmaṇas, cast a golden woman, placed her in a carriage, and toured the villages, calling out in a loud voice: 'If any woman sees this golden deity, when she later marries she will surely obtain a fine husband.' Hearing this, the women all came out; only one woman, whose own body was of golden color, alone refused to come out. The other women forced her to go together to see the golden deity. When the brāhmaṇas saw her, they betrothed her [to him]. The husband and wife had no sexual desire whatsoever, each dwelling in a separate chamber. When the parents learned of this, they demolished one chamber to make them share the room. Kāśyapa said: 'When I sleep, you should practice walking meditation; when you rest in sleep, I will practice walking meditation.' With husband and wife maintaining such chastity and profoundly weary of the mundane world, they petitioned to leave household life. They thereupon abandoned their household affairs and went deep into the mountain forest, thinking in their minds and saying aloud: 'All the Buddhas, the Tathāgatas, leave the household to cultivate the Way; I now should likewise follow the Buddha to leave the household.' He then donned dyed patch-robes and shaved his own beard and hair. A god in the sky announced to him: 'Śākyamuni Tathāgata is now dwelling with twelve hundred and fifty arhats in the Bamboo Grove at Rājagṛha.' Hearing these words, Kāśyapa went straight toward the Bamboo Grove. The Buddha went out to meet him. When he reached the village of Vṛji, he met the Buddha and offered him a precious robe; the Buddha then gave him a great robe of cast-off rags (pāṃśukūla). Upon first hearing the higher training in morality, concentration, and wisdom, he immediately attained the taintless state (anāsrava); at that time he was already one hundred and twenty years old. His wife subsequently also attained the fruit of arhatship. Kāśyapa adopted the practice of begging for food and maintained the twelve dhūta observances, never abandoning them into old age. He constantly said: 'I received the Buddha’s robe; I regard it as my Master, as a stūpa. I have never placed my head on it as a pillow, much less slept under it. Such a great robe has greatly advanced my practice.' The Buddha said to him: 'You are old in years and your faculties are decrepit; you may abandon begging for food and accept extra robes.' Kāśyapa replied: 'For the rest of my life I will practice the āraṇyaka observance (translated here as "dwelling in a quiet place", one of the twelve dhūta observances).' The Buddha said: 'Excellent! If Kāśyapa’s practice of the dhūta observances remains in the world, my Dharma will long abide.' After Kāśyapa had long practiced the dhūta observances, his hair was long and his robes tattered. When he came to the Buddha’s presence, the monks all felt disdain. The Buddha divided his seat in half and invited him to sit; Kāśyapa would not. The Buddha then extensively praised Kāśyapa's merits: 'He is not different from me; why does he not sit?' Hearing this, the monks were astonished in their hearts. The Buddha further explained his past causes: 'Long ago there was Mandhātṛ (the Fuxing says he is King Mūrdhagata), of unequalled talent. The Lord of Devas respected his virtue and sent a carriage of a thousand horses to the palace to welcome him. The Lord of Devas came out to greet him and invited the king to sit with him, sharing mutual delight, and then sent the king back to his palace. Long ago Kāśyapa offered me a seat in saṃsāra to sit together with him; now that I have become a Buddha, I repay his past merit with a seat of the True Dharma.' When Kāśyapa sat together with the Buddha, the gods and humans all considered him the Buddha's teacher. He then arose and kissed the Buddha's feet, saying: 'The Buddha is my Master; I am the disciple' (and so on). In the city of Vaiśālī there was an elder named Vimalakīrti, who employed expedient means to manifest illness to benefit sentient beings. The Buddha told Mahākāśyapa: 'Go to Vimalakīrti to inquire after his illness.' Kāśyapa addressed [the Buddha], saying: 'I am not competent to go there and inquire after his illness. Why is this? I recall that formerly, when I was begging for food in an impoverished village, Vimalakīrti came and said to me: "If you give a single portion of food to all, make offerings to all Buddhas and the assemblies of worthy and noble ones, and only then eat—one who eats in this manner neither has afflictions nor is free from afflictions, neither enters meditative absorption nor emerges from meditative absorption, neither abides in the world nor abides in nirvāṇa. As for those who give, there is no great merit and no small merit, no benefit and no harm; this is to truly enter the Buddha Path without relying on the śrāvakas. Kāśyapa, if you eat like this, you will not consume the alms of others in vain." When I heard these words at that time, I gave rise to profound reverence toward all bodhisattvas, and no longer exhorted people with the practices of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas. For this reason, I am not competent to go there and inquire after his illness' (Vimalakīrti Sūtra). The World-Honoured One, in the Lotus Assembly, told Śāriputra: 'Such wonderful Dharma is spoken by the Buddhas, the Tathāgatas, only at rare intervals.' At that time Śāriputra attained understanding of this Dharma teaching. The World-Honoured One conferred a prophecy on him: in the future he would become a Buddha named Padmaprabha. He further told Śāriputra: 'I will now clarify this meaning once again by means of a parable.' He then spoke of the elder's great house suddenly catching fire; the elder used expedient means to coax his sons, drawing them out with the playthings of three carts—drawn by sheep, deer, and oxen—and afterward equally bestowed on them great, high and wide, white-ox carts. The Tathāgata is also like this: first speaking the three vehicles to guide sentient beings, and afterward delivering them solely by means of the Great Vehicle. At that time, the four great śrāvakas, including Mahākāśyapa, attained understanding from this and thereupon recounted the parable of the prodigal son, saying: It is like a poor son who abandons his father and flees away for over fifty years; though he later encounters him, his mind's aspiration is base and inferior, and for twenty years [the father] continually has him shovel dung. After this time has passed, their minds mutually trust each other, and [the father] gathers [relatives] to acknowledge him as father and son, officially handing over the family estate. [Kāśyapa] stated of themselves: 'Formerly we took delight only in lesser dharmas; the World-Honoured One, through the power of expedient means, expounded the Tathāgata's wisdom. Only now do we know that the World-Honoured One begrudges nothing of the Buddha's wisdom. Therefore we say that originally we had no thought of seeking anything, yet now the great jewel of the Dharma King has arrived of itself; all that a Buddha's son ought to obtain, we have already obtained.' Thereupon the World-Honoured One spoke to Kāśyapa again, preaching the Parable of the Medicinal Herbs to confirm his understanding, and said to him: 'In the future you shall become a Buddha named Raśmiprabha' (Lotus Sūtra; this is the general entrustment of the Dharma). The Buddha told the monks: 'The unsurpassed True Dharma that I now possess has all been entrusted to Kāśyapa; he shall serve as a great refuge for you all' (Nirvāṇa Sūtra; this is the specific entrustment of the Dharma; The Sūtra of Ānanda’s Questions says: 'When I enter nirvāṇa, Mahākāśyapa will serve as a great refuge for the monks and nuns, no different from myself'). At that time Mahākāśyapa was at Mount Gṛdhrakūṭa with five hundred disciples, fifty yojanas away from the city of Kuśinagara. While in samādhi, Kāśyapa felt a shock in his heart and his body trembled; emerging from concentration, he saw the earth shake violently, and immediately knew that the Tathāgata had entered parinirvāṇa. He then led his disciples toward the city of Kuśinagara. When they reached the Buddha's coffin, the Tathāgata, out of great compassion, caused the coffin to open spontaneously for Kāśyapa's sake, displaying his solid physical body of purple-polished pure gold. Kāśyapa sobbed with grief, then washed it with scented water and wrapped the body in a thousand pieces of fine cloth; the coffin lid then closed. Kāśyapa recited a verse, and the Tathāgata again manifested his two feet adorned with the thousand-spoked wheel mark extending outside the coffin. Kāśyapa bowed in praise to the vajra feet, which then returned into the coffin of themselves. From his heart and chest fire welled forth outside the coffin, gradually cremating it; after seven days, the scented pyre was consumed (Latter Part of the Nirvāṇa Sūtra; Kāśyapa and his disciples were heading toward Kuśinagara when along the road they met a brahmacārin holding a māndārava flower, who said to them: 'The World-Honoured One’s parinirvāṇa has already passed seven days; all gods and humans have held a great offering. I obtained this flower from that place and have come.' This comes from the Sūtra on Going to Nirvāṇa).