釋迦譜 2.4

2.4

The Buddha returned to the kingdom of Kapilavastu. Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī bowed her head in homage and addressed the Buddha, saying, "I have heard that if a woman makes energetic progress, she can attain the four stages of the śramaṇa's path. I wish to be allowed to receive the Buddha's Dharma and Vinaya. Having faith while dwelling in household life, I desire to leave home to cultivate the Way." The Buddha said, "Stop! Do not delight in having women enter my Dharma and Vinaya and wear the robes of the Dharma; for their entire lives they will not be completely pure and thoroughly consummate the brahma-practice." Gautamī then pleaded again, doing so up to three times. The Buddha did not grant permission, so she paid homage and withdrew.

At a later time, the Buddha was again traveling in Kapilavastu. Gautamī sought to leave home as before, and the Buddha again did not permit it. The Buddha, having stayed in this kingdom with the bhikṣus to retreat from the rains for three months, finished [the retreat] and departed the kingdom. Mahāprajāpatī, together with elderly women and others, set out together in pursuit of the Buddha, stopping at the riverside. Mahāprajāpatī then stepped forward, paid homage, and again sought to leave home. The Buddha said, "Stop, stop!" As before, he did not permit it. She then stepped forward, paid homage, circumambulated the Buddha, and withdrew. She stood outside the gate wearing worn and ragged clothes, barefoot, her face covered in grime, her clothes soiled with dust, sighing and weeping.

Ānanda saw her and immediately asked, "Why are you like this?" She replied, "Now, because I am a woman, I cannot leave home; I am merely grieving for myself." Ānanda said, "Stop, stop, and ease your mind for now. Wait for me to address the Buddha." Ānanda immediately entered, bowed his head, and addressed the Buddha, saying, "I have heard from the Buddha that if a woman makes energetic progress, she can attain the four paths. Now Mahāprajāpatī with an utmost mind desires to receive the Dharma and Vinaya. I pray that the Buddha grant permission." The Buddha said, "Stop, stop! Do not delight in letting women enter my Dharma and Vinaya to become śramaṇas. Why is this? Just as when a family bears children with many daughters and few sons, you should know that this family will thereby decline, so too, if women are permitted to leave home, it will cause the Buddha's pure brahma-practice not to endure for long. Just as when weeds are mixed among the crops in a paddy field, they will damage and ruin the fine grain, so too, if women are made to enter my Dharma and Vinaya, it will surely cause the pure Great Way not to flourish for long."

Ānanda said again, "Mahāprajāpatī had much good intent toward you. When the Buddha was first born, she personally nurtured and raised you until you grew up." The Buddha said, "It is so. Mahāprajāpatī truly had much good intent and was kind to me. Now that I have attained buddhahood, I am also of great kindness to Mahāprajāpatī. It is solely due to me that Mahāprajāpatī has been able to take refuge in the Three Jewels, have no doubts regarding the Four Noble Truths, establish faith in the five faculties, and receive and uphold the five precepts. Thus, Ānanda, even if someone were to provide clothes, food and drink, bedding, and medicines for illness for their entire life, it would not equal this kindness and virtue of mine." The Buddha told Ānanda, "If a woman wishes to become a śramaṇa, the eight dharmas of respect must not be transgressed; she must study and practice them for her entire life. Just as with water defense, one skillfully repairs the dikes and dams so as not to let it leak and be lost—one who is able to be like this may enter the Dharma and Vinaya."

Ānanda received this attentively, paid homage, and went out. He informed Mahāprajāpatī, saying, "Gautamī, you need no longer grieve." He then explained the Buddha's words to her one by one: "If you can be like this, you may leave home." Mahāprajāpatī was immediately delighted and said, "Indeed! Ānanda, hear my words: just as a daughter of the four castes, having bathed, applied perfumed ointment, and adorned herself in fine clothes, when someone further takes fine flowers, fragrances, and precious gems to make a buyao hairpin and offers it to that girl, would she not gladly receive it upon her head? Now, concerning the eight dharmas of respect instructed by the Buddha, I too with a joyful mind wish to receive them upon my head." At that time, Mahāprajāpatī then left home, received the full precepts, became a bhikṣuṇī, and upholding the Dharma and Vinaya, subsequently attained arhatship.

Later, at another time, Mahāprajāpatī, together with the senior nuns, went together to Ānanda and said, "The senior nuns have all long cultivated the brahma-practice and have already seen the truths. How could they be made to pay homage to young and junior bhikṣus?" Ānanda said, "Wait a moment. I will ask the Buddha now." Ānanda immediately went and addressed the Buddha. The Buddha said, "Stop, stop! You should be cautious with such words and must not speak them. Moreover, what you know does not equal what I know. If women were not to leave home, non-Buddhists of heterodox study and all worthy ones would make various offerings of the four necessities, spreading their hair upon the ground and requesting [the monks] to step upon it, serving them as they serve the sun and moon, as they serve the heavenly spirits. My True Dharma would flourish for a thousand years. Because women have been delivered, it will gradually decline at five hundred years. Why is this? There are five states that a woman cannot attain. What are the five? First, she cannot become a Tathāgata; second, she cannot become a wheel-turning sage king; third, she cannot become the heavenly king of the second [heaven], Trāyastriṃśa; fourth, she cannot become the māra-king of the sixth heaven; fifth, she cannot become the Brahmā heavenly king of the seventh [heaven]." Having heard this, Mahāprajāpatī and the others rejoiced and practiced accordingly.