眾經撰雜譬喻 2.32

2.32

昔有一人兩婦。大婦無兒，小婦生一男，端正可愛，其婿甚喜。大婦心內嫉之，外徉愛念劇於親子，兒年一歲許，家中皆知大婦愛重之無復疑心。大婦以針刺兒囪上令沒皮肉，兒得病啼呼不復乳哺，家中大小皆不知所以，七日便死。大婦亦復啼哭，小婦摧念啼哭晝夜不息，不復飲食垂命，後便知為大婦所傷，便欲報讐。行詣塔寺問諸比丘：「大德！欲求心中所願，當修何功德？」諸比丘答言：「欲求所願者，當受持八關齋，所求如意。」即從比丘受八戒齋便去，却後七日便死。轉身來生大婦，為女端正，大婦愛之，年一歲死。大婦端坐不食，悲咽摧感劇於小婦。如是七返，或二年或三年，或四、五年，或六、七年，後轉端正倍勝於前，最後年十四已許人，垂當出門即夜便卒死。大婦啼哭憂惱，不可復言不復飲食，晝夜啼哭垂淚而行，停屍棺中不肯蓋之，日日看視死屍，光顏益好勝於生時。二十餘日有阿羅漢，見往欲度脫，到其家從乞。令婢持一鉢飯與之。不肯取，語婢：「欲得見汝主人。」婢還報云：「欲見大家。」答言：「我憂愁垂死，何能出見沙門？汝為持物乞與令去。」婢持物與沙門，故不肯去。沙門言：「欲見主人。」婢如是數反，沙門不去。婦愁憂無聊，沙門正住不去，亂人意不能耐之，便言：「呼來！」沙門前，見婦顏色憔悴，自掩面目不復櫛梳，沙門言：「何為乃爾？」婦言：「前後生七女，黠慧可愛便亡。此女最大，垂當出門便復死亡，令我憂愁。」沙門言：「櫛梳頭拭面，我當語汝。」婦故哭不肯止，沙門謂言：「汝家小婦今為所在？本坐何等死？」婦聞此言意念：「此沙門何因知之？」意中小差。沙門語言：「汝梳頭，逮我當為汝說之！」婦即斂頭訖。沙門言：「小婦兒為何等死？」婦聞此語默然不答，心中慚愧不敢復言。沙門言：「汝殺人子，令其母愁憂懊惱死，故來為汝作子前後七反，是汝怨家，欲以憂毒殺汝。汝試往視棺中死女，知復好不？」婦往視之，便爾壞爛臭不可近。問：「何故念之？」婦即慚愧便藏埋之，從沙門求哀欲得受戒。沙門言：「明日來詣寺中。」女死便作毒蛇，知婦當行受戒，於道中待之欲嚙殺之。婦行蛇遂遮前不得前去，日遂欲冥，婦大怖懅心念言：「我欲至沙門許受戒，此蛇何以當我前，使我不得行？」沙門知之，便往至婦所。婦見沙門大喜便前作禮，沙門謂蛇曰：「汝後世世更作他小婦，共相酷毒不可窮盡，令現世間大婦一反殺兒，汝今懊惱已七返，汝前後過惡皆可度。此婦今行受戒，汝斷其道，汝世世當入泥犁中無有竟時。今現蛇身，何如此婦身？」蛇聞沙門語，乃自知宿命，煩怨詰屈，持頭著地不喘息，思沙門語。沙門呪願言：「今汝二人宿命更相懊惱，罪過從此各畢，於是世世莫復惡意相向。」二俱懺訖，蛇即命終便生人中。於時聽沙門語，即心開意解歡喜得須陀洹道，便隨沙門去受戒作優婆夷。是故罪業怨對如此，不可不慎之。

Formerly, there was a man who had two wives. The senior wife had no children, while the junior wife gave birth to a boy, who was handsome and lovely, and the husband was greatly delighted. The senior wife was inwardly jealous of him, but outwardly feigned loving affection more intense than if he were her own child. When the child was about one year old, everyone in the household knew that the senior wife loved and cherished him, and they no longer had any suspicions. The senior wife pierced the child's fontanelle with a needle, driving it into the flesh. The child fell ill, cried and screamed, and would no longer nurse. No one in the household, young or old, knew the cause, and after seven days he died. The senior wife also wept and wailed. The junior wife, heartbroken with grief, wept and wailed day and night without ceasing, no longer eating or drinking, on the verge of death. Later, she learned that he had been harmed by the senior wife, and she wished to take revenge. She went to a stūpa monastery and asked the bhikṣus, "O Venerables! If I wish to seek the desire in my heart, what merit should I cultivate?" The bhikṣus replied, "If you wish to obtain what you seek, you should observe the eight precepts of the poṣadha; whatever you seek will be as you wish." She immediately received the eight precepts of the poṣadha from the bhikṣus and departed. Seven days later, she died. Turning her body, she came to be reborn to the senior wife as a handsome daughter, and the senior wife loved her; at the age of one, she died. The senior wife sat upright without eating, her weeping and sorrowful grief more severe than that of the junior wife had been. In this way it went on for seven cycles: sometimes living for two or three years, sometimes four or five years, or six or seven years. Later, she became increasingly beautiful, twice as splendid as before. In the final life, when she was fourteen years old and already promised to someone in marriage, on the very eve of leaving to wed, she suddenly died that night. The senior wife wept and was distressed beyond words; she no longer ate or drank, weeping day and night with streaming tears as she walked. She kept the corpse in the coffin, refusing to cover it, looking at the dead corpse day after day; its radiant complexion was even more beautiful than when she was alive. After more than twenty days, an arhat, seeing this, wished to deliver her, and arrived at her house to beg for alms. She ordered a maidservant to take a bowl of rice and give it to him. He refused to take it, telling the maidservant, "I wish to see your master." The maidservant returned and reported, "He wishes to see the mistress." She answered, "I am distressed to the point of dying; how could I go out to see a śramaṇa? Take some food and give it to him to make him leave." The maidservant gave the food to the śramaṇa, but he still refused to leave. The śramaṇa said, "I wish to see the master." The maidservant went back and forth like this several times, but the śramaṇa would not leave. The woman was distressed and miserable, and with the śramaṇa standing there refusing to leave, disturbing her peace of mind so that she could not bear it, she said, "Call him in!" The śramaṇa came forward and saw the woman's complexion haggard and emaciated, covering her face and eyes and no longer combing her hair. The śramaṇa said, "Why have you come to this?" The woman said, "One after another I gave birth to seven daughters, clever and lovely, but then they died. This daughter was the oldest, and on the very verge of marriage she died again, plunging me into sorrow." The śramaṇa said, "Comb your hair and wipe your face, and I will explain it to you." The woman still wept and would not stop. The śramaṇa said to her, "Where is the junior wife of your household now? Originally, what was the cause of her death?" Hearing these words, the woman thought to herself, "How does this śramaṇa know of this?" Her distress subsided slightly. The śramaṇa told her, "Comb your hair, and when you are done, I will explain it to you!" The woman immediately finished tidying her hair. The śramaṇa asked, "Why did the junior wife's child die?" Hearing these words, the woman remained silent and did not reply, feeling ashamed in her heart and not daring to speak again. The śramaṇa said, "You killed another person's child, causing his mother to die in grief and vexation. Therefore, she came to be your child seven times in succession; she was your enemy, seeking to kill you with the poison of grief. Just go and look at the dead girl in the coffin to see whether she is still beautiful or not!" The woman went to look at her, and she had instantly decomposed and rotted, so foul-smelling that one could not approach. He asked, "Why do you long for her?" The woman was filled with shame and immediately buried her, begging the śramaṇa for mercy, wishing to receive the precepts. The śramaṇa said, "Come to the monastery tomorrow." When the girl died, she turned into a venomous snake. Knowing that the woman would go to receive the precepts, it waited for her along the road, intending to bite and kill her. As the woman walked, the snake blocked her way so that she could not proceed forward. The sun was about to set, and the woman was terrified, thinking to herself, "I wish to go to the śramaṇa to receive the precepts; why is this snake blocking my way, preventing me from going?" Knowing this, the śramaṇa went to where the woman was. Seeing the śramaṇa, the woman rejoiced greatly, stepped forward, and bowed. The śramaṇa said to the snake, "In later lives, you will repeatedly become another junior wife to one another, inflicting cruelty and poison on each other without end. In this present world, the senior wife killed your child once, but you have now caused her distress seven times. Your past faults can both be delivered. This woman is now going to receive the precepts, and you are obstructing her path; throughout lives you will fall into Naraka with no end. Compared to your present snake body, how much better is this woman's body?" Hearing the śramaṇa's words, the snake came to know her former lives; coiled in grief and resentment, it laid its head on the ground without breathing, contemplating the śramaṇa's words. The śramaṇa recited a blessing, saying, "Now the two of you have brought distress to each other throughout former lives; let your sins and faults end from this point, and from now on throughout lives never turn evil intentions toward one another again." Both having completed their repentance, the snake immediately died and was reborn among humans. At that time, hearing the śramaṇa's words, the woman's mind opened and understood; rejoicing, she attained the fruit of srotaāpanna, and followed the śramaṇa to receive the precepts and become an upāsikā. Therefore, sinful karma and hostile retribution are like this: one cannot fail to be cautious!