經律異相 2.9

2.9

'The reasons I entered your robe to come out are: First, so as not to thwart the god’s wish. If a wish is not fulfilled, great distress arises; and if one causes distress to others, wherever one is born, one will not obtain what one seeks. Second, because the gods wished to hear the Dharma. If a person is stingy with the Dharma, then life after life wherever he is born, he will be deaf, blind, mute, with his faculties blocked, born in borderlands, and stupid and ignorant; or if born in a good place, his cognitive faculties will be dull and obtuse, his studies will fail, and he will bring distress upon himself. Third, in order to propagate the Dharma’s transformation and awaken gods and humans, which is the gift of the Dharma. The benefit of the gift of the Dharma can enable sentient beings to know that after death there is rebirth, that doing good brings blessings, that doing evil incurs calamity, and that practicing the Way leads to attaining the Way. Wherever they are reborn, their wisdom will be luminous and clear, and they will constantly remember their past lives. If born in heaven, they will be teachers to the gods; if born among humans, they will be wheel-turning kings who transform the world through the ten wholesome deeds. Their light of wisdom will gradually grow, they will accomplish the bodhisattva practices, and they will reach the forbearance of the non-arising of phenomena. The gift of material goods is like a lamp that illuminates only a small room; the gift of the Dharma is like the sun, shining far across the world.' At that time, Śakra Devānām Indra, together with eighty thousand devas, received the teaching of the ten wholesome deeds from him, first subduing the sensory faculties with the ten expedients—namely, the six pāramitās and kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. Then the god asked, 'We are now returning to the heavenly palace. When will the upādhyāya cast off this retribution of sin and be born in heaven?' The jackal said, 'Exactly seven days from now, I will cast off this body and be born in the Tuṣita heaven. You all should make the aspiration to be born in that heaven, where there are many bodhisattvas who preach the Dharma to transform beings.' After seven days, his life ended, and he was born in the royal palace of Tuṣita, again remembering his past lives and practicing the path of the ten wholesome deeds (From the first fascicle of the Sūtra of What Has Never Occurred Before).