經律異相 38.14

38.14

裴扇闍國。有一女人。名曰提韋。婆羅門種。其家大富喪婿無兒。守寡孤窮無所恃怙。婆羅門法。若不如意便生自燒。諸婆羅門共往教化。令其願生那羅延天。請婆羅門足一百人。施設大會食畢。各襯牸牛。并從犢者家中。所有諸物。施五百婆羅門。於恒水邊積薪自燒。婆羅門為汝呪願。令汝輕重諸罪一時滅盡。後世生時六親眷屬壽命無量快樂無窮。提韋從之。即伐藮薪。欲擬自燒。國內沙門名鉢底婆（梁言辯才）。精進持戒多聞智惠。常以慈心教化天下。令改邪就正捨惡修善。往問提韋言何用薪火。答曰。自欲燒身滅除殃罪。辯才曰。夫先身罪業隨逐精神。不與身合。徒自焚燒安能滅罪禍隨心生。心念善法受報亦善。心念惡法受報亦惡。餘報亦然。云何於苦惱中。求欲滅罪望善報也。幸爾不須於理不通。如困病人為苦所逼。復遭惡人呵罵聳搏。時此病人寧有善心無忿惱不。提韋曰。但生忿惱。辯才曰。汝今如是。先身罪故今若燒身。猛炎起時身體燋爛氣息未絕。心未壞故。當爾之時身心被煮。識神未離故受苦毒煩悶心惱。從是命終生地獄中。苦惱尤劇千百萬倍。又如車牛厭患於車。欲使車壞前車若壞後車復枙。罪業未盡假令燒壞。百千萬身罪業因緣相續不絕。猶如阿鼻一日之中八萬過死八萬過生。終過一劫其罪方畢。況復如汝一過燒身欲求滅罪。問曰。願聞滅罪方法。辯才答曰。前心作惡如雲覆月。後心起善如炬消闇。起罪之源由身三口四意地業行。今當一心丹誠懺悔改邪就正。捨身受身至成佛道。辯才授十善禁。提韋歡喜。設種種飲食及諸珍寶。請留教化。辯才曰。汝受十善法即為法器。復以化人則為報効。汝已得度。我不宜留。復化餘處。物無所受。於是而去（出未曾有經下卷）。

In the kingdom of Paiśanja, there was a woman named Devi of the brāhmaṇa caste. Her family was very wealthy, but having lost her husband and having no sons, she was a widow, solitary and destitute, with nothing to rely upon. According to brāhmaṇa customs, if things do not go as one wishes, one burns oneself alive. The brāhmaṇas went together to instruct her, causing her to vow to be reborn in the heaven of Nārāyaṇa, to invite fully one hundred brāhmaṇas, arrange a great feast, and upon finishing the meal, give each of them a cow with its calf, and donate all the goods in her household to five hundred brāhmaṇas, then stack firewood by the banks of the Gaṅgā and burn herself alive. [They said:] "The brāhmaṇas will chant prayers for you, so that your sins, both heavy and light, will be extinguished all at once; when you are reborn in future lives, your relatives of the six kinships will have limitless lifespans and boundless joy." Devi complied with them and immediately gathered firewood, intending to burn herself. A śramaṇa in that kingdom named Pratibhāna (which means "Eloquence" in the Liang language), who was vigorous, observant of the precepts, broadly learned, and possessed of wisdom, always transformed the world with a compassionate heart, leading people to change from the heterodox to the orthodox and abandon evil to cultivate good. He went and asked Devi: "What are you using this firewood for?" She replied: "I wish to burn my own body to eliminate calamity and sin." Pratibhāna said: "The sinful karma of past lives pursues the consciousness and does not coalesce with the physical body. To burn yourself in vain—how could that eliminate sin? Misfortune arises in accordance with the mind. When the mind contemplates wholesome phenomena, it receives a wholesome retribution; when the mind contemplates unwholesome phenomena, it receives an unwholesome retribution. Remaining retributions are likewise. How could you seek to eliminate sin and expect wholesome retribution from within anguish and torment? Even if it were so, it is unnecessary and unreasonable. It is like a gravely ill patient who is oppressed by suffering, and who is further reviled and beaten by evil people: at that moment, would that patient have a wholesome mind free of anger and distress?" Devi said: "There would only be anger and distress." Pratibhāna said: "You are just like that now. Because of sins of past lives, if you burn your body now, when the fierce flames arise, your body will be scorched and festered while your breath has not yet ceased. Because the mind is not yet destroyed, at that moment your body and mind will be boiled; because your conscious spirit has not departed, you will endure bitter torment, vexation, and mental anguish. Dying from this, you will be born into hell, where the suffering and distress will be a hundred, thousand, or ten thousand times more severe. It is also like an ox pulling a cart that grows weary of the cart and wishes for the cart to break: if the previous cart breaks, it is yoked to a subsequent cart. When sinful karma is not yet exhausted, even if you burn and destroy [your body], through the causes and conditions of sinful karma across hundreds, thousands, and myriads of bodies, continuity will not cease—just as in the Avīci hell, where one dies eighty thousand times and is born eighty thousand times in a single day, and only after a kalpa has passed is the sin finally exhausted. How much more so for one like you, who wishes to seek the elimination of sin by burning the body a single time?" She asked: "I wish to hear the method for eliminating sin." Pratibhāna replied: "When a previous thought commits evil, it is like clouds covering the moon; when a subsequent thought gives rise to good, it is like a torch dispelling darkness. The origin of sinful karma arises from the three bodily actions, four vocal actions, and the karmic deeds of the mental ground. Now you should, with single-minded sincerity, repent and change from the heterodox to the orthodox, casting off bodies and receiving bodies until you realize the Buddha Path." Pratibhāna conferred the ten wholesome prohibitions. Devi was filled with joy; preparing various kinds of food, drinks, and rare jewels, she invited him to remain and teach. Pratibhāna said: "Having received the ten wholesome teachings, you are now a vessel of the Dharma; if you again transform others, that will be your repayment. You have already crossed over; it is not fitting for me to stay. I must go on to transform other places." He received none of the goods, and thereupon departed. (Extracted from the second fascicle of the Sūtra on What Has Never Existed Before.)