三寶感應要略錄 3.69

3.69

過去不可思議阿僧祇劫有佛。號覺花定自在王如來。像法之中。有婆羅門。宿福深厚。眾所欽敬。其母信邪輕三寶。是時聖女。廣說方便。勸誘其母。令生正見。而此女母未令生信。不久命終。魂神墮在地獄。時聖女遂賣家宅。廣求香花及諸供具。於先佛塔寺。大真供養瞻禮尊容。私自念言。佛名大覺。若在世時我母死。後儻來問佛。必知生處。時彼佛以聲造空中言。女勿致悲哀。我今示汝母之去處。但早返舍。端坐思惟吾名號。即當知母所生去處。時聖女即歸其舍。以憶母故。端坐念彼佛名。經一日一夜。忽見自身。到一海邊。其水湧沸。多諸惡獸。盡復鐵身。飛走海上。見諸男女。百千萬出沒海中。被諸惡獸爭取飡噉。又見夜叉其形容異。時聖女問一鬼名無毒言。此是何處。無毒答言。此是大鐵圍山西面第一重海。聖女言。我聞此山內地獄在中。是事實否。無毒答言實有。聖女又問。此水何緣而沸。多諸罪人。鬼言。此是閻浮提造惡眾生新死之者。經四十九日。後無人繼嗣為作功德拔苦難。生時又無善果。當據本業所感地獄。自然先渡此海。海東去萬由旬。又有一海。其苦倍此。彼海之東。又有一海。其苦復倍。三業惡果之所招感。苦號三塗業海。聖女又問。地獄何在。答曰。三海之內是大地獄。其數百千。各各差別。聖女又問。我母元來未久。不知生處何趣。鬼言。菩薩之母。在生習何行業。女言。我母邪見。譏毀三寶。設或暫信。旋又不敬。鬼言。母姓氏何。女言。我父我母。俱婆羅門種。父號尸羅善見。母號悅帝利。鬼言。聖者却返。無致憂惱悲戀。悅帝利罪。女生天以來。經今三日。承李順之子為母設供修福。非唯菩薩之母得脫。此日罪人。悉等受樂。俱同生天訖。聖女如夢。歸悟此哀已。便於覺花定自在王如來塔像之前。立誓願。願我盡未來劫。有罪苦眾生。廣設方便。使令解脫。時鬼王無毒者。今財首菩薩是。婆羅門女者。即地藏菩薩是也。

Incalculable asaṃkhyeya kalpas in the past, there was a Buddha named Tathāgata Awakening-Flower-Samādhi-Sovereign-King. During his semblance Dharma age, there was a brahman woman with profound and abundant past merits, respected and venerated by the multitude. Her mother had faith in heterodoxy and made light of the Three Jewels. At that time, the holy maiden extensively expounded skillful means to persuade and guide her mother, seeking to bring about right view in her; yet her mother had not yet developed faith when soon her life came to an end, and her spirit fell into hell. Thereupon, the holy maiden sold her house and widely sought out incense, flowers, and various offering utensils. At the stūpas and temples of the past Buddha, she made grand and sincere offerings, gazing in reverence at the venerable countenance. She secretly reflected: "A Buddha is called the Great Awakened One. If he were present in the world when my mother died, were I to come and ask the Buddha, he would surely know the place of her rebirth." At that time, the Buddha produced a voice in the air, saying: "Maiden, do not give way to sorrow. I will now show you the place to which your mother has gone. Just return home quickly, sit upright, and contemplate my name; then you will know the place to which your mother has been reborn." The holy maiden immediately returned home. Longing for her mother, she sat upright and recited that Buddha's name. After a day and a night, she suddenly saw herself arriving at the shore of an ocean whose waters were surging and boiling, with many ferocious beasts, all with bodies of iron, flying and running above the sea. She saw hundreds of thousands of men and women surfacing and submerging in the sea, fiercely seized and devoured by the ferocious beasts. She also saw yakṣas of bizarre forms. The holy maiden asked a ghost named Wudu (No-Poison): "What place is this?" Wudu replied: "This is the first ocean on the western face of the Great Iron Ring Mountain." The holy maiden said: "I have heard that the hells are within this mountain. Is this truly so?" Wudu replied: "It is indeed so." The holy maiden asked again: "Why are these waters boiling, with so many sinners?" The ghost said: "These are the newly dead among the sentient beings of Jambudvīpa who committed evil deeds. After forty-nine days have elapsed, there has been no successor to perform meritorious deeds to rescue them from suffering and calamity, nor did they have good karmic results when alive; according to the hells called forth by their original karma, they naturally must cross this ocean first. Ten thousand yojanas east of this ocean, there is another ocean where the suffering is twofold. East of that ocean, there is yet another ocean where the suffering is twofold again. These are what the evil fruits of the three karmas bring about; in terms of their suffering, they are called the ocean of karma of the three wretched realms." The holy maiden asked again: "Where are the hells?" He replied: "Within the three oceans are the great hells, numbering hundreds of thousands, each different from the others." The holy maiden asked again: "It has not been long since my mother passed away; I do not know to what realm she has been reborn." The ghost said: "What deeds did the bodhisattva's mother practice while alive?" The maiden said: "My mother held heterodox views and ridiculed and slandered the Three Jewels. Even if she believed for a moment, she soon became disrespectful again." The ghost said: "What was the mother's surname and clan?" The maiden said: "My father and mother were both of brahman lineage. My father's name was Śīlaviśuddha (Śīla-Śikṣa-Dṛṣṭi), and my mother's name was Yuedili (Yuedili)." The ghost said: "Holy one, please return; do not harbor sorrow, grief, or longing. It has now been three days since the sinner Yuedili was reborn in heaven. Through the filial child's arranging offerings and cultivating merits on her mother's behalf, not only was the bodhisattva's mother delivered, but on this day all the sinners [there] equally received joy and were all reborn in heaven together." The holy maiden was as if [waking from] a dream; having returned and realized this sorrowful matter, she then made a vow before the stūpas and images of the Tathāgata Awakening-Flower-Samādhi-Sovereign-King: "May I, through all future kalpas, extensively devise skillful means to bring about the liberation of all sinful and suffering sentient beings!" The ghost king Wudu at that time is now Bodhisattva Caishou (Cintāmaṇi / Ratnacūḍa); the brahman maiden was none other than Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva.