經律異相 19.24

19.24

When the Buddha was in Śrāvastī, there was a monk named Nandi. Walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, his mind was constantly mindful of concentration. After seven years passed, he retrograded and lost his dhyāna concentration. Relying once more on the foot of a tree, he returned to practicing meditative attainment, wishing to seek his original concentration. Māra, watching for an opportunity, transformed into an incomparably beautiful woman, stood before him, and said, "Monk, come and engage in sexual intercourse with me." Nandi said, "Evil wicked one, perish quickly! Evil wicked one, perish quickly!" Although his mouth uttered the words, his eyes did not look at her. A second and third time it was also like this. The deva maiden then took off her clothes, exposed her body, and stood in front of Nandi. When Nandi saw her form, his lustful mind was tainted and attached. At that time, the deva maiden gradually stepped backward. Nandi called out, "You may stay a little!" The deva maiden rushed into the ditch of the Jetavana. In the ditch was a dead horse. There the deva maiden concealed her form and became invisible. Nandi's lustful mind was blazing; he immediately had intercourse with this dead horse. When his lustful mind subsided, he reflected on his unwholesome deed, took off his Dharma robes, went to the Jetavana, and told the monks, "I have committed a grave offense." The monks asked him the circumstances, and Nandi related them in detail. The monks reported the matter to the Buddha, and the Buddha ordered him expelled. The monks said to the Buddha, "Nandi cultivated brahma-faring for a long time; why was he deluded by a woman?" The Buddha said, "Nandi was not only deluded by a woman today; in the past it was also so. In a past life, in the southern country of Avanti, there was a non-Buddhist renunciant of the Kāśyapa clan, intelligent and learned, who assisted the king in governing the country. The king upheld the state laws to torture and punish scoundrels and bandits. The non-Buddhist thought, 'I have already gone forth from home; why am I deliberating and judging these matters together with the king?' He immediately said to the king, 'I wish to go forth from home.' The king said, 'The master has already gone forth from home; why do you now say you wish to go forth from home?' He answered, 'I am now participating in these various penal laws; how can this be called going forth from home? I now wish to go forth from home according to the way of the rṣis.' The king said, 'Very well.' He then built a monastery on the Hundred-Cliff Mountain, cultivated the rṣi's way, and attained the five supernormal powers. Suddenly, while urinating, impure fluid flowed forth. At that time, there was a doe that drank this urine and licked her birth canal; she then became pregnant and gave birth to a young child. The ṛṣi went to look, saw that the deer had given birth to a child, and, wondering, thought, 'How could a beast give birth to a human?' Entering concentration to observe, he knew it was his son, took him, and raised him. Because he was born from the mother, his body had spots like a deer, and he was therefore named Fawn-Spotted (Mṛgaśṛṅga). The ṛṣi thought, 'Nothing ruins rectitude and destroys virtue more than women.' Thereupon he taught him dhyāna concentration and transformed him with the five supernormal powers, reciting a verse for him: