經律異相 32.19

32.19

有一王子欲知宿命。乃以問佛。佛言。不用知之令人憂愁。王子故欲得知。如是至三。佛便授戒令知宿命。於是王子自視其事。十五應死憂愁不可言。至年十五便死。王家葬埋種柏長大。下根入地正當其心。識神故在體視柏根生。正貫我心為生貫其心。於是從根出柏葉之間復見羊來。自念。此羊噉柏當復害我。會羊來食。在羊腹中。從羊屎出依附羊屎。園家錄載取以糞韮。依韮葉間。會王后思韮。勅外令送。園師持刀欲割取韮。恐刀見害。事事愁憂彌不可言。園師割韮束送王家。在韮束中。王家得韮后便食之。隨韮入腹作子。月滿便生。遂年長大復識宿命。便詣佛所白言。我不復用知宿命。令我愁憂。今以知宿命還佛。佛語太子。我爾時不欲與汝。汝為欲得之。乃悔可聽（出雜譬喻經第八卷）。

There was a prince who wished to know his past lives, so he asked the Buddha about it. The Buddha said, "There is no need to know it; it will only make you grieve." The prince still wished to know it, asking as many as three times. The Buddha then conferred the precepts upon him and enabled him to know his past lives. Thereupon the prince looked at his own destiny: he was fated to die at age fifteen, and his grief was unspeakable. When he reached the age of fifteen, he indeed died. The royal house buried him and planted a cypress [over his grave], which grew large. Its lower roots penetrated the ground directly into his heart. His conscious spirit remained in his corpse and saw the cypress roots growing, piercing directly into his heart, piercing his heart as they grew. Then, emerging from the roots to the cypress leaves, he saw a sheep coming. He thought to himself, "If this sheep eats the cypress, it will harm me again." Then the sheep came and ate them. He entered the sheep's belly, and passed out with the sheep's dung, adhering to the sheep's dung. A gardener collected it and used it to fertilize leeks, and he resided between the leek leaves. Just then, the queen had a craving for leeks and ordered those outside to send some. The gardener held a knife and was about to cut and harvest the leeks; he feared being harmed by the knife. In every circumstance, his distress and grief were utterly unspeakable. The gardener cut the leeks, bundled them, and sent them to the royal palace, with him inside the leek bundle. When the royal house received the leeks, the queen ate them. Following the leeks into her womb, he became her child. When the full term was reached, he was born. As he grew up, he again remembered his past lives. He then went to the Buddha's presence and said, "I no longer have any use for knowing my past lives; it only causes me grief. Now I return the knowledge of past lives to the Buddha." The Buddha said to the prince, "At that time I did not wish to give it to you, but you insisted on having it. Only now do you regret it; you may be released from it." (Extracted from the eighth fascicle of the Samyuktāvadāna Sūtra.)