經律異相 3.56

3.56

When the Buddha was wandering in the land of Aparājita, he would always expound the precepts for the śramaṇas on the fifteenth day, seated in meditation. The Buddha remained silent and did not speak. Ānanda said: “They are seated in meditation.” The Bhagavat then said: “Among the śramaṇas, there are those whose minds are corrupt and whose conduct is perverse; this is not something that such vile persons are able to uphold. The pure and the turbid are mutually opposed; I will not speak.” Maudgalyāyana entered samādhi, saw him with his vision, and immediately said to him: “Rise! This is not a place where you worldly persons should sit.” When he would not rise immediately, [Maudgalyāyana] pulled him by the arm to make him leave, saying: “You have no supreme virtue, and your mind harbours the six perversions. How dare you, with a body foul as a latrine, sit on the seat of heavenly fragrance? You are a discarded person, not a śramaṇa.” The Buddha told the śramaṇas: “Observe that great ocean; it has eight kinds of virtue. Its breadth is vast and boundless; its depth has an unfathomable bottom; as one enters, it gradually deepens without any obstacle in front. This is the first virtue. The tides do not exceed their time. This is the second virtue. The ocean contains myriad treasures, embracing everything; dead corpses, foul and rotten, the ocean will not tolerate. This is the third virtue. The ocean harbors all kinds of rarities, and nothing sought is unobtainable. This is the fourth virtue. Under all heaven there are five great rivers that flow into the ocean; they all cast off their former names and merge into the one ocean. This is the fifth virtue. The five rivers and myriad streams continually pour in with falling rain, yet the water in the ocean remains as before, never increasing or decreasing. This is the sixth virtue. In the ocean there are myriad fish whose bodies are towering: the first fish's body is four thousand li long; the second fish's body is eight thousand li long; the third fish's body is twelve thousand li long; the fourth fish's body is sixteen thousand li long; the fifth fish's body is twenty thousand li long; the sixth fish's body is twenty-four thousand li long; the seventh fish's body is twenty-eight thousand li long. This is the seventh virtue. The ocean water is uniformly salty, identical at the edges and in the middle. This is the eighth virtue” (from the *Sūtra on the Eight Virtues of the Ocean*).