經律異相 11.22

11.22

Formerly, when the Buddha was in the Deer Park of the Ṛṣis in the kingdom of Vārāṇasī, ṛṣis endowed with the five supernatural powers all roamed and studied in this kingdom, and it was not a place where ordinary mortals dwelt. The king went out to hunt and came upon a herd of a thousand deer, all of which fell into his nets. The king deployed foot soldiers to surround them completely. The herd of deer was terrified; some cried out and dashed blindly against the snares, while others prostrated themselves on the ground to conceal their forms. When Śākyamuni Buddha was formerly a bodhisattva, he was the king of the deer herd. The Buddha himself told the herd of deer, 'Calm your minds and do not be afraid. I will devise an expedient means to beg for mercy from the king, and our lives will surely be saved; each of you will remain unharmed.' The Deer King came before the human king, knelt on his knees, and begged for mercy. Seeing him from afar, the human king ordered his attendants not to harm the deer. The deer said, 'Observing the king's intention now, you wish to kill a thousand deer in one day to supply the kitchen. It is intensely hot now, and the meat cannot keep long. May the king take pity, and kill one deer each day to supply the kitchen butchery. Without troubling the king's messengers, a deer will come of its own accord to the kitchen to undergo death. The supply of meat will be uninterrupted, and the deer will be able to multiply.' The king asked the deer, 'Are you the leader among the herd of deer?' He replied, 'Yes.' The king again asked the deer, 'Is this genuinely true?' He replied, 'It is genuinely true.' The king thereupon released the deer, withdrew his ranks, and entered the city. At that time, the Bodhisattva led five hundred deer, and Devadatta also led five hundred deer, each day assigning one deer to go to the king to supply the kitchen. When it was Devadatta's turn to send a deer to the king, it fell upon a mother deer who had been pregnant for several months and was next in turn to supply the kitchen. The mother deer said to the king [Devadatta], 'Now I am about to give birth. My turn has come, but my offspring's turn has not yet come. May you adjust the order and permit me to be placed a little later.' Devadatta said angrily, 'Why do you not go quickly? Who could die ahead of you on your behalf?' The mother deer wept with grief, crying out and lamenting, and immediately went to the Bodhisattva and explained this herself: 'May the king show leniency and permit me to be later in turn.' The Bodhisattva asked the deer, 'Did your master permit you to explain this yourself?' She replied, 'My master did not grant permission.' The Bodhisattva comforted that deer: 'Do not be afraid for now; I will now take your place to supply the kitchen butchery.' The Bodhisattva Deer King then summoned the thousand deer and earnestly admonished them: 'Do not harbor laxity or arrogance, and do not encroach upon the king's autumn crops and grain.' Devadatta was angry at the mother deer, saying, 'Your turn has come; what excuse do you have?' The Bodhisattva said to Devadatta, 'Stop, stop! Do not utter such words. The mother deer indeed ought to die in turn, but out of pity for her unborn fawn, she should not yet die. I will take her place to save the life of the unborn fawn.' The herd of deer declared themselves: 'We wish to undergo death on behalf of the King. While our King is here, we survive, finding water and grass to eat, roaming freely at will without fear or dread.' The King thereupon went to the kitchen, and the herd of deer pursued and followed him to the royal palace. The Deer King went to the kitchen and offered himself for slaughter. When the kitchen master saw the Deer King, he went to inform the king: 'The Deer King has entered the kitchen; it is his turn to supply the butchery. I do not know, Great King, whether he may be killed or not.' The king ordered his ministers, 'Quickly bring the Deer King here.' The king asked the deer, 'Are the thousand deer exhausted? Why have you come?' The deer said to the king, 'The thousand head have bred and multiplied, growing into a great herd; each day they increase and do not decrease.' He explained the previous matter in full. The king earnestly reproached himself and lamented his own inadequacy: 'I am as a beast, unable to distinguish the genuine from the false, wrongfully killing living beings to such an extent.' The king told his ministers, 'Let it be proclaimed universally throughout the realm that whoever hunts and slaughters deer shall be executed.' He immediately sent the Deer King back and commanded that no one in the country eat deer meat; if anyone ate the meat, his head would be cut off and displayed on a pole. Because of this, it was named the Deer Park. (Extracted from Fascicle 9 of the Chuyao jing)