經律異相 32.15

32.15

In the past, there was a king named Mahāratha. He cultivated wholesome conduct, and his state was free of enemies. The king had three sons: the eldest was named Mahāpraṇāda, the second Mahādeva, and the youngest Mahāsattva. They went out together to sightsee and wander, arriving at a bamboo grove where they halted their carriage to rest. Moving further forward, they saw a tigress that had given birth seven days prior, surrounded by seven cubs. Exhausted and emaciated from starvation, its body was weak and frail, on the verge of death. The first prince said: “How strange! This tigress is unable to seek food; pressed by hunger, it will certainly turn to devour its cubs.” The third prince said: “What does this tiger customarily eat?” The first prince said: “It eats hot blood and flesh.” The third prince said: “Who could give food to this tigress?” The second prince said: “Its remaining life is short; even if someone were to seek [meat] elsewhere, it would certainly not arrive in time to save it. Who could begrudge neither body nor life?” The first prince said: “Of that which is difficult to relinquish, none surpasses one’s own body.” The third prince said: “Those whose wisdom is shallow and meager, whose greed and clinging are profound and heavy, cannot sacrifice their bodies and are terrified upon hearing of it. Only a Great Being who cherishes loving-kindness and compassion within his heart, for the sake of benefiting others, would not consider it difficult to sacrifice this body and life.” All harboring sorrowful thoughts, they gazed intently at it and walked away. The third prince thought in his heart: “The time for me to sacrifice my body has arrived. From the past until now, I have cast away this body in vain, achieving nothing at all. Constantly protecting dwellings, clothing, food, and drink, I have nourished and tended it in various ways so that it lacked nothing; yet it knows no gratitude or love, producing instead enmity and harm. In the end it returns to impermanence, offering no benefit whatever; it is detestable like a bandit and like a walking privy. Now let this body of mine serve as a great bridge upon the ocean of birth and death! Beset with countless ulcers, boils, and virulent diseases, and a hundred thousand terrors, it is held together by excrement, urine, tendons, blood, skin, and marrow. I shall now cast it away to seek tranquil cessation, unsurpassable nirvāṇa, boundless meditative stabilization, wisdom, and meritorious virtue, fully realizing the wondrous and subtle Dharma-body and providing all living beings with the various joys of the Dharma.” Fearing that his two elder brothers would hinder him, he promptly addressed his brothers: “You may proceed ahead with your retinue and return to where we halted.” Mahāsattva returned to the tigress's location, took off all his garments, and hung them upon the bamboo: “For the sake of bodhi-wisdom, I permanently leave behind the three realms of existence!” He then cast himself down, lying before the starving tigress. The tigress was unable to eat him. He pierced his neck with a dry bamboo stalk and threw himself down from a high cliff. The great earth shook, the sun lost its brilliant radiance, and the heavens rained assorted flowers and various wondrous perfumes, while voices praised him from midair, saying: “Unprecedented!” The tigress then licked the blood and gradually became able to eat the flesh, regaining strength to consume it until only the bones remained. (Extracted from the fourth fascicle of the Suvarṇaprabhāsa Sūtra).