經律異相 34.10

34.10

In the past, there was a city in a foreign country named Toujialuo. In it was a householder who invited a śramaṇa every day to come to his home to eat. The śramaṇa was an arhat. While the śramaṇa was seated and eating, there was a dog within the house. Whenever the śramaṇa ate, he always made a ball of food and shared it with the dog. Having obtained the food and eaten it, the dog gave rise to a good thought toward the śramaṇa. The śramaṇa came daily, and the dog grew accustomed to waiting for him. When it was time for the śramaṇa to eat, the dog longed to see the śramaṇa. When the śramaṇa arrived, he again took a ball of food and gave it to the dog. The dog held a good thought toward the śramaṇa. After many years, its life came to an end, and it became a daughter of the king of Parthia (Anxi). At birth she remembered her past lives and knew that she was originally a dog, saying, "I cast off a dog's body and attained a king's daughter's body." In that country there were no Buddhist monasteries or śramaṇas at all. At that time, the king of the Yuezhi sent an envoy to the king. Seeing that the envoy was virtuous and intelligent, [the king] wished to give his daughter to him as his wife. The envoy took the daughter away. When the woman saw śramaṇas, her heart was filled with great joy. She recalled that previously, when she had been a dog, a śramaṇa gave her food and she turned toward the śramaṇa with goodwill, and now she had obtained a human body: "Now I must greatly support the śramaṇas." In the country of the Yuezhi there were very many śramaṇas. Every day, the woman regularly fed three to five hundred people, serving them with her own hands and never employing servants. As soon as the meal was finished, she swept the floor with her own hands. The women, slaves, and maidservants in the household all gave rise to good thoughts, saying, "This woman is indeed a king's daughter. Having come here, she always sweeps and cleans to make offerings to the śramaṇas. We too should apply our minds." The slaves and maidservants then hid the brooms away, wishing to sweep the ground themselves. The mistress searched for a broom and could not find where it was at all; she then took the clothes she had worn when she first arrived, rolled them up out of the basket, and used them to sweep the floor. When her husband saw his wife sweeping the floor with fresh clothes, he said, "Although you revere the Buddha's teaching, why must you sweep the floor with fresh clothes? You should look for a broom." The wife said, "It was merely by directing a good thought toward a single śramaṇa that after two years I obtained these clothes. If I just sweep with these clothes, what hardship is there? In my previous life, at the beginning, I had nothing with which to practice generosity; it was only by having a good thought and faith that the Buddha's teaching exists that I obtained this blessing. Nor did I obtain these clothes by making a living." The husband said to the wife, "Although you have faith in the Buddha's teaching and make offerings to the śramaṇas, I have never seen a śramaṇa give you a single coin or two coins. The clothes were all obtained through my own physical toil." The wife then recounted her past life to her husband herself, saying, "In my previous life, I was born among dogs. The master of the house frequently invited a śramaṇa, and the śramaṇa made a ball of food and gave it to me. Because I had a good thought toward the śramaṇa, I cast off that dog's body and was born as a king's daughter." Hearing this, the husband was joyful and said to his wife, "Merely by directing a good thought toward a single śramaṇa did you attain such blessing!" The husband was originally stingy and greedy, but upon hearing what his wife said, he immediately performed great generosity without stinting or regretting anything. He observed the fasts, kept the precepts, practiced vigorously, and founded Buddhist monasteries. The husband thought to himself, "Merely by having a good thought does one obtain such merit." The wife then replied, "The mind can cause one to attain Buddhahood, to be born in heaven, to become a pratyekabuddha, or to attain arhatship—these are all the power of the mind. If the mind thinks evil thoughts, it causes one to fall into hell." (Extracted from the Sūtra on the Dog Whose Life Ended, Becoming a King's Daughter, and Remembering Her Past Lives, and also from the Sūtra on Karmic Retribution).