景德傳燈錄 2.20

2.20

The nineteenth patriarch was Kumāralata, the son of a Brahmin of the Great Yuezhi country. In the past, he was a devaputra in the Heaven of Sovereignty over Others' Transformations (the sixth heaven of the desire realm). Seeing a bodhisattva's necklace, he suddenly gave rise to attachment and fell to be born in Trāyastriṃśa (the second heaven of the desire realm). Hearing Kauśika expound the Prajñāpāramitā, because the Dharma was supreme, he ascended to the Brahmā Heaven (the form realm). Because his faculties were sharp, he was skilled at explaining the essentials of the Dharma. The devas revered him as a guide to succeed the patriarchs. When the time arrived, he descended to Yuezhi. Later he arrived in Central India. There was a great being named Jayata who asked: 'The parents of my family have always had faith in the Three Jewels, yet they often suffer from illness and wasting disease, and whatever they undertake turns out badly. Meanwhile, my neighbour has long engaged in the conduct of a caṇḍāla, yet his body is always robust and healthy, and all that he does flourishes. Why is he so fortunate while I am so blameless?' The Venerable One said: 'Why should you doubt? The retribution of good and evil occurs in three periods of time. Ordinary people always see the benevolent dying young and the violent living long, the rebellious meeting fortune and the righteous meeting misfortune; then they claim that cause and effect are absent, and sin and merit are empty. Little do they know that retribution follows like shadow and echo, without the slightest error. Even after hundreds of thousands of myriads of kalpas, it is never obliterated.' At that time, hearing these words, Jayata instantly resolved his doubts. The Venerable One said: 'Although you already have faith in the three karmas, you have not understood that karma arises from delusion, delusion exists on account of consciousness, consciousness relies on non-enlightenment, and non-enlightenment relies on mind. The mind is fundamentally pure, without arising or ceasing, without fabrication, without retribution, without victory or defeat, tranquil and luminous. If you enter this dharma-gate, you can be equal to all Buddhas. All good and evil, conditioned and unconditioned, are like dreams and illusions.' Receiving his words and grasping the purport, Jayata at once brought forth innate wisdom and earnestly sought to leave the household life. After he received the full precepts, the Venerable One told him: 'The time of my extinction has now arrived. You should succeed to the traces of teaching and conversion.' He then transmitted to him the correct Dharma eye, uttering a gāthā: