釋門自鏡錄 1.80

1.80

Anciently, nearly five hundred years after the Tathāgata entered extinction, there was an arhat who traveled from the country of Kaśmīra to the town of Śālātura in the country of Gandhāra. He saw a brāhmaṇa beating and instructing a young child, and asked: “Why do you distress this child?” The brāhmaṇa said: “I am having him study the science of grammar (śabdavidyā), but he does not progress in due time.” The arhat smiled broadly. The brāhmaṇa said: “A śramaṇa takes compassion as his sentiment, pitying and sorrowing for living beings. As for what you, benevolent sir, are smiling at now, I would hear the reason.” The arhat said: “Have you ever heard that Pāṇini composed a treatise on grammar to hand down instruction to the world?” He replied: “I have heard it all.” The arhat said: “Your son is none other than that sage. Because he still obstinately studies and amuses himself with worldly texts, only discussing non-Buddhist doctrines without plumbing the true reality, his divine wisdom has been expended in vain and his transmigration has not ceased. In ancient times, beside the Southern Sea, there was a withered tree in which five hundred bats lived in a hollow. At that time, a caravan of merchants stopped under the tree. Encountering wind and cold, the men were all starving and freezing. They gathered brushwood and firewood, building a fire underneath, and the smoke and flames gradually grew fierce, setting the withered tree naturally ablaze. Among the merchants, there was a trader who, after midnight, recited the Abhidharma-piṭaka. Although those bats were distressed by the fire, they loved the sound of the Dharma and endured it without leaving. Thereupon their lives ended, and taking rebirth according to their karma, they all obtained human bodies. Leaving home to practice and learn, by virtue of having heard the sound of the Dharma, they had sharp and acute wisdom and all realized the holy fruit. When King Kaniṣka and the Venerable Pārśva assembled five hundred sages and saints in Kaśmīra to compose the *Vibhāṣā-śāstra*, these were none other than the five hundred bats from the withered tree! Unworthy as I am, I am one among their number. Thus, their superiority and inferiority are indeed different, far apart as flying and prostrating. Now, regarding your beloved son, you should allow him to leave home; the greatness of the merit cannot be described in detail.” When the arhat had finished speaking these words, he displayed miraculous powers and suddenly disappeared. The brāhmaṇa was filled with great wonder, and thereupon allowed his son to leave home.