經律異相 40.27

40.27

昔有婆羅門少出家學。至年六十不能得道。法應歸家。取婦為居士。生得一男。端正可愛。至年七歲卒得重病。一宿命終梵志憐惜。伏其屍上絕而復蘇。親族諫喻強奪殯殮埋著城外。梵志自念。我今啼哭計無所益。不如往至閻羅王所乞索兒命。沐浴齋戒齎持花香。發舍而去。所在問人。閻羅王所治為在何許。前行數千里至深山中。見諸梵志復問如前。答曰。卿問閻羅王所治處欲求何等。答言。我有一子近日卒亡。欲至閻羅王所乞索兒命。梵志愍其愚癡。即告之曰。閻羅王治處非生人所得到也。當示卿方。宜從此西行四百餘里。有大川其中有城。此是天神案行世間停息之城。閻羅王常以月四日案行必過此城卿持齋戒往必見之。歡喜而去。到其川中見好城郭宮殿屋宇。如忉利天。梵志詣門。燒香翹脚呪願求兒。閻羅王勅門見之。梵志啟言。晚生一男欲以備老。養育七歲近日命終。唯願大王垂恩布施還我兒命。王言大善。卿兒今在東園中戲。自往將去。即往見兒。與諸小兒共戲。前抱啼泣曰。我晝夜念汝食寐不甘。汝寧念父母辛苦以不。小兒喚逆呵之曰。癡騃老翁不達道理。寄住須臾名人為子。勿妄多言。不如早去。今我此間自有父母。梵志悵然涕泣而去。即自念言。我聞瞿曇沙門知人魂神變化之道。當往問之。即還佛所稽首作禮。具以本末向佛陳之。實是我兒不肯復反。謂我為癡騃老公。寄住須臾名他為子。永無父子之情。何緣乃爾。佛告梵志。汝實愚癡。人死神去便更受形。父母妻子因緣會居。譬如寄客起則離散。梵志聞之㸌然意解稽首委質。願為沙門。佛言善哉。鬚髮自落法衣在身。即成比丘。即於座上得羅漢道（出道行品法句經第四卷）。

In the past, there was a brāhmaṇa who went forth in his youth to study. Reaching sixty years of age, he was unable to attain the Way. According to custom, he returned home, took a wife, and lived as a householder. He had a son who was handsome and lovely. When the child reached the age of seven, he suddenly contracted a severe illness and died in a single night. The brahmacārin grieved for him; he threw himself upon the corpse, fainting and reviving. His relatives remonstrated with him, forcibly took the body for encoffining, and buried it outside the city. The brahmacārin thought to himself, ‘My weeping now is of no benefit. It would be better to go to King Yama and beg for my son’s life.’ After bathing and purifying himself, taking along flowers and incense, he left his house and departed. Wherever he went, he asked people, ‘Where is the domain ruled by King Yama?’ After traveling several thousand li into deep mountains, he saw several brahmacārins and asked them as before. They replied, ‘Why do you ask for the place ruled by King Yama, and what do you seek?’ He replied, ‘I had a son who suddenly died recently. I wish to go to King Yama to beg for my son’s life.’ The brahmacārins pitied his foolishness and said to him, ‘The realm ruled by King Yama is not a place that living people can reach. We shall show you the direction: you should go west from here for more than four hundred li. There is a great valley with a city within it. This is the city where the heavenly spirits stop and rest when they inspect the world. King Yama always passes through this city when he makes his rounds on the fourth day of the month. If you maintain purity and go, you will surely see him.’ He departed joyfully. Arriving in that valley, he saw a splendid city, palaces, and houses, like the Trāyastriṃśa heaven. The brahmacārin went to the gate, burned incense, stood on tiptoe, made vows, and pleaded for his son. King Yama instructed the gatekeeper to let him enter. The brahmacārin declared, ‘Late in life I had a son to support my old age. I raised him for seven years, and recently his life came to an end. I only beg the Great King to bestow his grace and charity to return my son’s life to me.’ The king said, ‘Very well. Your son is now playing in the eastern garden. Go and take him yourself.’ He immediately went and saw his son playing together with other small children. He stepped forward, embraced him, and wept, saying, ‘Day and night I thought of you, finding food and sleep tasteless. Do you think of your parents’ suffering or not?’ The child shouted back and rebuked him, saying, ‘Foolish old man, you do not understand the principles of things! Residing briefly together, you call someone else’s person your son! Do not speak wildly. You had better leave early. Now I have my own parents here.’ Dejected, the brahmacārin wept and left. He thought to himself, ‘I have heard that the śramaṇa Gautama knows the path of the soul’s transformations. I should go and question him.’ He immediately returned to the Buddha’s place, bowed his head in homage, and reported the whole matter from beginning to end to the Buddha: ‘He was truly my son, yet he would not return. He called me a foolish old man, saying that residing briefly together, I called another’s person my son, and that there was forever no father-son affection. Why has it come to this?’ The Buddha told the brahmacārin, ‘You are indeed foolish. When a person dies and their spirit departs, they immediately take on another form. Parents, wives, and children come together due to conditions, just like lodging travelers who scatter once they rise.’ Hearing this, the brahmacārin’s mind was illuminated with understanding. He bowed his head and offered himself, wishing to become a śramaṇa. The Buddha said, ‘Welcome!’ His hair and beard fell off of their own accord, and the Dharma robes appeared on his body; he immediately became a monk. Right upon his seat he attained the path of an arhat. (Extracted from the “Daoheng Chapter,” the fourth fascicle of the Dharmapada Sūtra.)