經律異相 14.16

14.16

Formerly, in the kingdom of Śrāvastī, blood suddenly rained down one morning over an area of forty square li. The king and his ministers were all greatly shocked and bewildered. They immediately summoned various practitioners of occult arts and diviners to determine whether it boded good or ill. The diviner replied, 'Old records state that the calamity of raining blood portends the birth of a human python, a venomous and harmful creature. You should investigate within the kingdom to identify the calamity.' The king said, 'How can it be identified?' The diviner said, 'Because it is a human python, it is difficult to identify. Issue an order throughout the kingdom that all newborn infants must be brought. Take an empty jar and have all the children spit into it; if among them there is a child whose spit immediately turns into flame, you should know that this child is indeed the human python.' They deliberated, saying, 'This [child] cannot be placed among humans.' They immediately relocated him to a quiet, secluded place where there were no people, [saying,] 'If there are those in the kingdom who are condemned to die, they may be sent to him.' The human python breathed out venom to kill people in this way, and seventy-two thousand people were killed by his poison first and last. Later, a lion appeared and let out a thundering roar; people and animals within forty li were terrified into submission. It wandered about causing violent harm, and no one could control it. Thereupon the king recruited within the kingdom anyone who could repel the lion, offering one thousand catties of gold and the fief of a large county, but no one responded. The ministers addressed the king, 'Only the human python can repel it.' An order was issued to summon the human python. When the human python met the approaching lion, he went and stood before it and blew his venomous breath; the lion died immediately, and the kingdom attained peace. Later, when the human python grew old, fell sick, and was about to die, the Buddha took pity on his heavy sins, [knowing that] once he fell into the evil destinies there would be no time of release. He said to Śāriputra, 'Go and instruct him, so that he may escape grave disasters.' Śāriputra suddenly appeared before him. The python grew furious and thought, 'I have not yet died, but people slight me and make no announcement, coming directly before me!' He then emitted his poisonous breath, thinking he could harm him. Śāriputra warded it off with compassionate wisdom; his radiant face was relaxed and joyful, not a single hair stirring. [The python] emitted poisonous breath three times but could not harm him. He then recognized his venerability; his resentment dissolved, and goodness arose in him. With a mind of compassion, he looked up and down at Śāriputra seven times. Śāriputra then returned to the vihāra. The venom-breathing human python died on that very day, and heaven and earth shook violently. Utmost goodness can shake heaven and earth, and utmost evil can also shake them. At that time, the king of Magadha went to the Buddha's place, touched his head to the ground, and asked the Bhagavat, 'To what destiny will the human python go upon the end of his life?' The Buddha said, 'He is now born in the first heaven.' Hearing the Buddha's words, the king was astonished and asked again, 'How could a person of great sin be born in heaven?' The Buddha said, 'Because he saw Śāriputra and looked at him up and down seven times with a compassionate mind, by the merit of this he was born in the first heaven. When that merit is exhausted, he will be born in the second heaven, and after seven turns he will become a pratyekabuddha and enter parinirvāṇa.' The king addressed the Buddha, saying, 'Will he not repay the sin of [killing] seventy-two thousand people?' The Buddha said, 'At the end, when he becomes a pratyekabuddha, his body will be like refined jambūnada gold. At that time, he will be sitting in meditative concentration beneath a tree beside the road. There will be a great army of more than seventy thousand men who, encountering the pratyekabuddha, will think he is a golden man. They will immediately strike and cut him to pieces, each taking a portion. But when it settles into their hands, they will look at it and see that it is flesh, and they will put it back together and depart. Through this he will enter parinirvāṇa. The sins of his present life will be paid for so lightly, and then they will be finished.' The Buddha told the king, 'One who meets a good spiritual friend can cause sins piled up like mountains to be eliminated and can also attain the way' (from the Piyulu jing, fascicle 9).