付法藏因緣傳 4.6

4.6

Having spoken this verse, he immediately commanded a minister: "Take this fruit to the Kukkuṭārāma monastery, and speak as I say: 'King Aśoka pays homage at the feet of the Saṅgha. Only over this half an āmalaka fruit do I now have mastery; all that I had has been lost. Though this fruit is small, it is my final gift. I pray only that the Saṅgha, pitying my poverty and suffering, will accept it.'" The Elder Yaśas addressed the monastic community: "You should observe: King Aśoka enjoyed blessed joy and governed the whole world, yet now he has been stripped [of power] by his ministers, having mastery only over half a fruit. Know that cyclic existence is profoundly loathsome! Wealth, rank, and the five desires soon decay; authority and mastery are extinguished in an instant. Alas! The three realms of existence are difficult to dwell in long." He then instructed the monastery steward to crush this fruit and place it in the broth, so that all the monks might universally receive this offering. When King Aśoka was on the verge of breathing his last, he asked Radhagupta: "Who holds mastery over this Jambudvīpa?" Radhagupta said: "Only you, Great King." Having heard these words, he sat up, joined his palms, looked in all four directions, and spoke these words: "Excluding only the treasury, I now bestow all the great earth within the four seas upon the Buddha and the Saṅgha; and by the merit I have performed from the past to the present, I do not seek the cyclic rebirth of a cakravartin or Śakra, but vow that in my next place of birth I may swiftly realize the fruit of the Way." He placed the letter in a box, stamped the seal, addressed it, and entrusted it to Radhagupta. Thereupon his breath ceased, and he passed away. He was adorned and buried in the manner of a cakravartin. In this way, the venerable Upagupta awakened the king's mind and increased his faith; he possessed skillful means to teach and transform sentient beings. Later, at another time, in the city of Śūra, there was a merchant chief named Devagupta, who had great reverence and faith. Intending to enter the great ocean to gather rare jewels, [he made a vow]: "If I return safely from the sea, I will hold a pañcavārṣika assembly for the Saṅgha." Having gone to the sea, gathered the jewels, and returned safely, he set his mind on hosting this great gathering of giving. A bhikṣuṇī who was an arhat observed who in the assembly served as a field of merit, and further considered who held the head of the Saṅgha. She saw that the arhats and trainees had severed the defilements and impurities and were worthy of receiving offerings. Observing a bhikṣu named Āṣāḍha, who had not yet attained liberation but sat at the very head of the Saṅgha, the bhikṣuṇī went to him and said: "Bhadanta, you should now adorn yourself." At that time, this bhikṣu did not grasp her meaning, so he put on clean robes, shaved his hair, and bathed. Later, this bhikṣuṇī again spoke to Āṣāḍha, instructing him to adorn himself. Āṣāḍha became extremely enraged: "Following your words, I have thoroughly cleansed and adorned myself. What ugliness is there that you repeatedly utter such words?" The bhikṣuṇī said: "Bhadanta, you should know that this is a worldly adornment, not that of the Buddhadharma. The adornment of the Buddhadharma refers to attaining the four fruits. How strange, bhadanta, that you are so frivolous and base! The elder Devagupta wishes to host a great assembly; those receiving the offerings are mostly worthy and noble ones. Yet you, as the head of the Saṅgha, have not escaped cyclic existence, and with a mind subject to outfluxes you would be the first to receive the offering. Therefore, I now wished to awaken you." When Āṣāḍha heard this, he wept mournfully and thought to himself: "Old and decrepit as I am, how can I exhaust the outfluxes?" The bhikṣuṇī said: "The Buddhadharma has no [fixed] time—how could it depend on youth, vigor, or old age? You should go and pay homage to Upagupta; he will surely cause you to be freed from all suffering." The bhikṣu immediately went to Upagupta. He arrived just as the monks were bathing and jointly manifesting supernormal transformations. Delighted, Āṣāḍha spoke a verse: