眾經撰雜譬喻 2.44

2.44

In the past, Śakra Devānāmindra was on close terms with the seventh Brahmā heaven. At that time, Brahmā descended to the Trāyastriṃśa heaven to converse and amuse themselves together. Śakra was sorrowful and unhappy. Brahmā asked Śakra, "Why are you unhappy?" Śakra said, "Do you see that the people in my heaven are growing fewer? People in the world below no longer do good; they all enter the evil paths, and none are reborn up here anymore. When gods descend to be reborn among humans, they also do not return. That is why I am sorrowful!" Brahmā said to Śakra, "You should feign death and transform yourself into an exceedingly majestic lion, and I will transform myself into a brāhmaṇa. Together we will descend to Jambudvīpa to teach the world and cause them to do good. If they do good, upon death they will all be born in heaven." Thereupon, each according to their transformation, they descended to a kingdom. The lion stood at the city gate and said, "I want to get humans to eat." When the people of the kingdom saw him, none were not terrified. They kowtowed and begged for mercy, but he was completely unwilling to leave. The transformed brāhmaṇa said to the people of the kingdom, "This lion is vicious. If you give him thirty condemned criminals who ought to die, he will surely depart on his own!" The king then released thirty prisoners from jail who ought to die and gave them to the lion. Having obtained the humans, the lion drove them forward into deep mountains. Before he ate them, the transformed god said to the people, "If you can observe the five precepts and be mindful of the ten paths of wholesome action, aligning body, speech, and mind, this lion will not eat people." The people said, "We were going to die anyway, so why would we hesitate at this? We can certainly observe them." They then received the precepts from the transformed person, and the lion did not eat them. The lion said, "Let them go. Even so, I know your hearts; if you do not observe the Buddha's five precepts, I will still eat you." The thirty people then returned to the kingdom. Seeing them, the people of the kingdom were all astonished and asked, "How were you able to return?" They replied, "There was a person who taught us to receive the Buddha's five precepts, and the lion no longer ate us; that is how we were able to come back!" The lion again stood at the city gate. The people of the kingdom were terrified, and all received the five precepts from the thirty people. The lion then departed and went to another kingdom. In this way, they traversed eighty thousand kingdoms everywhere, causing them all to do good. Those who died were born in heaven, and heaven became even more joyful, flourishing, and abundant with people. The bodhisattva used such upāya to save people, until he attained Buddhahood. The Buddha said to Ānanda, "The god Śakra who transformed into the lion was myself; Brahmā who transformed into the brāhmaṇa is Kāśyapa today. At that time he assisted me in transforming and saving the people of the world, enabling me to attain Buddhahood. For this reason, I sit side by side with him, in recompense for that past kindness."