佛祖歷代通載 4.129

4.129

(21. Renwu [22 CE]) The nineteenth patriarch, Kumāralāta, was the son of a brāhmaṇa in the kingdom of the Great Yuezhi. Long ago, as a god in the Paranimmitavasavatti heaven (the sixth heaven of the desire realm), seeing a bodhisattva's necklace, he suddenly gave rise to attachment and fell to be born in the Trāyastriṃśa heaven (the second heaven of the desire realm). There he heard Kauśika preach the Prajñāpāramitā. Owing to the supremacy of the Dharma, he ascended to the Brahmā heaven (the form realm). Endowed with sharp faculties, he skillfully expounded the essentials of the Dharma, and all the gods honoured him as their guide. When the time came for him to succeed as patriarch, he descended to be born among the Yuezhi. Later he went to the kingdom of Central India. There was a great being named Jayata who asked him, saying: 'My father and mother have always had faith in the Three Jewels, yet they have constantly been beset by illness and disease, and all their undertakings have gone contrary to their wishes. Meanwhile, my neighbour has long engaged in the conduct of a caṇḍāla, yet his body is always robust and strong, and everything he undertakes is harmonious. Why is he so fortunate while I am so blameless?' The venerable one replied: 'What cause is there for doubt? The retribution of good and evil occurs across three times. Ordinary people only see the benevolent die young and the violent live long, or the rebellious enjoy good fortune and the righteous meet disaster, and they immediately declare that there is no cause and effect and that bad deeds and merit are vain. Little do they know that effects follow causes like shadows and echoes, without the slightest deviation; even after hundreds of thousands of tens of thousands of kalpas, they are never extinguished.' When Jayata heard these words, his doubts were instantly dispelled. The patriarch said: 'Although you already believe in the three forms of karma, you have not yet understood that karma arises from delusion, delusion exists on account of consciousness, consciousness relies on ignorance, and ignorance relies on the mind. The mind is fundamentally pure: it has neither arising nor cessation, neither action nor contrivance, neither retribution nor outcome, neither victory nor defeat; it is utterly tranquil and profoundly luminous. If you enter this Dharma door, you may be equal with all the Buddhas. All good and evil, the conditioned and the unconditioned, are entirely like dreams and illusions.' Receiving his words, Jayata grasped their purport, at once gave rise to wisdom from past lives, and earnestly requested to take the pravrajyā. Having received the upasampadā, the venerable one told him: 'The time of my cessation has now arrived; you shall succeed me and carry on the trace of conversion.' He then transmitted the Dharma Eye and spoke a gāthā: 'In the nature there is fundamentally no arising; / For the sake of those seeking it, it is spoken. / Since in phenomena nothing is attained, / Why hold doubts of resolved or unresolved?' The patriarch said: 'These are the verses on seeing the purity of the nature spoken by the Tathāgata Wondrous Sound. You should disseminate them to later students.' Having finished speaking, he remained on his seat and with his fingernails scored his face, which opened like a red lotus. He emitted a great light that illuminated the four assemblies, and then entered cessation. Jayata erected a stūpa. This was in the fourteenth year of the Xin dynasty, the renwu year [22 CE].