雜譬喻經 1.68

1.68

Formerly, there were five hundred merchants who boarded a ship and entered the ocean, desiring to seek precious jewels. They encountered a makara fish that stuck its head out and opened its mouth, desiring to devour living beings. At that time the wind had subsided, yet the ship went forward like an arrow. The master merchant said to the crowd, “The ship is going too fast; we can drop the sails and lower the anchor.” They immediately followed his words, dropping the sails and lowering the anchor, yet the ship moved ever swifter and could not be stopped. The master merchant asked the man on the observation tower, “What do you see?” “I see two suns rising above, a white mountain below, and a black mountain in between.” The master merchant said in terror, “This is a great fish! What is to be done? We are now in dire distress; if we enter this fish’s belly, there is no principle by which we may live again. Each of you, according to what you worship, single-mindedly pray to it.” Thereupon the crowd, each according to what they revered, single-mindedly took refuge and sought escape from this peril. The more fervent their prayers, the swifter the ship traveled; in an instant without stopping, it would enter the fish’s mouth. Thereupon the master merchant told the crowd, “I have a great spirit named the Buddha. You should each abandon what you originally revered and single-mindedly recite his name.” At that time, the five hundred people together raised their voices and chanted, ‘Namo Buddhāya.’ Hearing the name of the Buddha, the fish thought to itself: “In the world today there is once again a Buddha! How can I bear to harm living beings?” Just as it finished thinking this, it closed its mouth; the water all flowed backward, turning further away from the fish’s mouth, and the five hundred merchants escaped at once. In a previous life this fish had been a practitioner of the Way; because of bad karma it received this fish’s body. Having heard the sound of the Buddha’s name, it immediately remembered its past lives, and therefore, upon reflecting, a wholesome mind arose at once. This illustrates that for the five hundred merchants, merely single-mindedly being mindful of the Buddha and briefly reciting his name, they immediately obtained liberation from a peril as vast as the heavens. How much more so for those who receive and uphold the samādhi of mindfulness of the Buddha: heavy offenses are made light, and light offenses are extinguished; such a response cannot be considered small.