傳法正宗記 4.16

4.16

Haklenayaśas was a native of the country of the Yuezhi. His surname was brāhmaṇa. His father was named Qiansheng, and his mother was named Jinguang. At first, because Qiansheng did not have an heir, he went to the True Banner of the Seven Buddhas in his country to pray for one. Upon returning, he said to his wife, “I have prayed for a son at the Banner of the Seven Buddhas.” That night Jinguang had a dream in which a young boy approached Mount Sumeru holding a jade ring in his hand and said to Jinguang, “I have come.” Soon she realized she was pregnant. Another day, an extraordinary monk suddenly came to her dwelling and said to Jinguang, “Protect your pregnancy; be careful not to defile it.” Jinguang said, “I have kept my body pure for ten months already.” She then asked the monk, “If this brings forth a son, will he have blessed virtue?” The monk said, “He will be born a boy. Moreover, in the fourth kalpa he was already able to preach the Dharma for the dragon palace. Therefore the Buddha once prophesied about him, saying that he would become a patriarch of the great Dharma.” When the Great Being was born, flowers rained down from heaven and gold coins emerged from the earth. The people of the country regarded this as an auspicious omen and reported it to their king. The king then took the child and had him nursed in the palace. The palace ladies, numbering hundreds of thousands, vied to nurture him. The child was immediately able to divide his body, becoming an individual son for each of them. The king marvelled at him as divine, yet could not distinguish his real son. He thereupon said, “I have no heir and raised you wishing to make you crown prince. Just now you transformed into many bodies, which bewilders me greatly. If you truly possess spiritual powers, you should transform supernormally again. If not, you will remain a thousand sons forever.” Having spoken these words, the child emitted light and suddenly vanished. Soon he was seen at his parents' house. When he reached the age of seven, he happened upon the people of his country performing excessive sacrifices to the deity Jula. He sighed on their account, saying, “The three realms are base and inferior, and those who attain the true Dharma are few, while perverse demons act at will.” He thereupon went there, and the shrine and its statues immediately collapsed. At the age of twenty, he went forth from the household under an arhat monk and received the precepts on that mountain. At first, his master had him recite the Great Wisdom [Sūtra] exclusively; he did so for thirty years. Later, he lived in the forests of the Yuezhi, and his presence moved flocks of cranes to gather around him; for this reason his present name was bestowed upon him. In his later years he met Manorhita, and in the royal palace he received his transmission of the Dharma; only then did he apply himself to wandering and converting others. When he arrived in Central India, he met the king of that country, named Fearless Ocean (Abhayārṇava), who had earlier dreamed that the moon shone upon his body. A minister interpreted it for him, saying, “Before long a worthy sage will come in response to this dream.” The king immediately informed the four gates. When the Great Being arrived, the gatekeepers reported it. The king quickly went out with ceremonial insignia to welcome him, returned to the palace, and paid homage to him in the main hall. Just after they sat down, two people in crimson and plain white garments suddenly stepped forward and bowed to Haklena. The king was secretly astonished: “Who are these people that they do not salute the host?” The Great Being knew this and said to the king, “These are the Devas of the Sun and Moon; they are not human. Because I have arrived here, they have come to pay their respects.” The king said, “How do you know them?” He replied, “In past kalpas I once preached the Dharma to them, and in consequence they gained rebirth in the palaces of the sun and moon.” Shortly afterward the persons suddenly vanished, leaving only an extraordinary fragrance perfuming the air for a long time. The king then asked, “How many such sun and moon realms are there in all?” The Great Being said, “In this realm of endurance, there are ten billion suns, moons, and kings of mountains. Beneath the Four Heavens, there are approximately four thousand and eight countries, yet their sizes are unequal.” The king asked, “Do these lands exist at the same time, or is there an earlier and a later?” He said, “They come into being and pass away according to the three kalpas of before and after.” The king asked, “Upon what do the three kalpas depend for their existence?” He said, “The three kalpas depend upon the six obscurities for their existence.” The king asked, “What are the six obscurities?” He said, “The two pneumas of above and below, and the four cardinal directions joining together—these are called the six obscurities. Within the six obscurities, the three kalpas alternate with one another. In the beginning there is a lord; that person is called the Field-Lord. After the Field-Lord, the lands are further divided. But those born within the six obscurities also have grades of lifespan: there are those of ten thousand years, those of a thousand years, those of a hundred years, and those who die young and those who do not. Since their retributions are not equal, their bodily forms and species also differ. Even the two bodhisattvas, the Young Scholar and Kāśyapa, cannot fully know them. What I have just briefly spoken is like picking out a single grain from a city full of mustard seeds.” Hearing this, the king felt all the more humble about his own view. The Great Being soon left the royal palace. Previously, the Great Being had a disciple named Longzi (Nāgaputra) who died young. His parents and elder brother, the monk Siṃha, all came to move and inter his remains, but the crowd could not lift them. The brother found it strange and asked the Great Being, “The crowd exerts all its strength to lift it, so why does it not move?” He said, “The fault lies with yourself.” Siṃha said, “What fault? I wish to hear the reason.” He said, “When you first went forth from the household under a brāhmaṇa master and departed, your younger brother longed for you day and night for two years, and so he wished to cultivate merit to support you. He then told your master and sculpted a Buddha statue, but after a long time the craftsmanship remained undecorated. You disliked it, so you threw it to the ground and remade it. If you now simply go and retrieve that discarded statue, this corpse will surely be lifted.” Siṃha did as he said and returned; his brother’s corpse indeed could be lifted. When the brāhmaṇa master died, Siṃha, finding the Great Being’s words verified, again sought him out as his master. He initially asked, “I wish to seek the Way; how should I apply my mind?” The Great Being said, “If you seek the Way, there is nowhere to apply your mind.” He said, “Since there is nowhere to apply one's mind, how does one perform the Buddha-work?” He said, “If you have something applied, it is not merit. If you have non-action, that is the Buddha-work. Thus the sūtra says: ‘The merit that I have performed is without my performing it.’” Upon hearing the Dharma, Siṃha immediately understood and stepped forward to join the ranks of disciples. At that time, one of his disciples followed up by asking, “The Master has practiced without self-possession and has obtained this knowledge of past lives. He must certainly know whether our assembly has blessed karma or not. We wish to hear you speak of it.” The Great Being then pointed to the northeast and said to them, “Do you see this?” The assembly said, “We do not see it.” He said, “You cannot even see these coarse forms, so how could you see subtle merit?” Siṃha stepped forward and said, “I have just seen it.” The Great Being said, “What do you see?” He said, “I see an extraordinary vapor, bright like a white rainbow piercing heaven and earth. Moreover, there is a black vapor spread across five paths, in front of which is something resembling the ladder to the Trāyastriṃśa heaven.” The Great Being said, “You see this vapor; do you know what it portends?” He said, “What it portends I do not yet know; I only ask the Master to explain it.” The Great Being said, “Fifty years after my extinction, a calamity will arise in North India. You should know this.” Siṃha then said, “I am about to travel abroad, and I venture to request your instruction, O Venerable One.” The Great Being said, “I am now old, and nirvāṇa is at hand. I entrust all of this great Dharma-eye treasury of the Tathāgata to you. You must go to another country, but that country will face calamity, and the burden will fall upon your person. Be careful to transmit it early, so that it is not cut off. Listen to my verse:”