經律異相 18.38

18.38

When the Buddha was at the Jetavana vihāra, the monks diligently cultivated the practice of the Way, getting rid of the mental coverings. There was one monk who, having eaten his fill, entered his room, shut the door, and slept peacefully, indulging his body in pleasure without contemplating impermanence, heedless of day and night. Seven days later his life was to end. The Buddha, feeling pity for him, entered his room, snapped his fingers to awaken him, and spoke an exquisite verse for him. Startled awake, he bowed his head and paid homage. The Buddha told the monk, “In your past life, during the time of Vipaśyin Buddha, you once renounced household life. Coveting the body, gain, and offerings, you did not keep the sūtras and precepts in mind; eating your fill and then sleeping, you did not contemplate impermanence. When your life ended, your soul was born among the weng-insects for fifty thousand years; when that lifespan ended, you were reborn as a conch or clam insect, and then as a wood-boring insect in trees, for fifty thousand years each. These four kinds of creatures are born and grow in darkness, coveting their bodies and cherishing their lives; they delight in dark, hidden places as their homes and dislike light. When they sleep once, they only awaken after a hundred years; entangled in nets, they do not seek a way of escape. Only now has your retribution ended and you have obtained birth as a śramaṇa. Why do you still indulge in sleep without knowing satiety?” Hearing this, the monk was ashamed and terrified, reproaching himself; the five hindrances were immediately eliminated, and he became an arhat (from the third fascicle of the *Dharmapada-avadāna-sūtra*).