經律異相 38.10

38.10

When the Buddha was in the Jetavana, Anāthapiṇḍada's park, in the kingdom of Śrāvastī, there was a solitary mother who lost her only son. Distressed, sorrowful, and bewildered, she ran about weeping while holding the corpse, like a madwoman. She came out to the Jetavana. She had heard that the Buddha was a great sage whom gods and humans venerated, who preached the scriptural path to dispel sorrow and remove afflictions. When the bereaved mother saw the Buddha, she paid homage, knelt down, and wished to be released from her knot of grief. The Buddha said to the bereaved mother: "Go quickly into the city and walk through every street and lane; if there is a household where no one has died, beg for fire and bring it back." The bereaved mother searched but could not find one, and returned empty-handed. The Buddha told the bereaved mother: "For a human being dwelling in the world, there are four conditions that cannot long be maintained: first, what is permanent must be impermanent; second, wealth and nobility must end in poverty and lowliness; third, meeting must end in parting; fourth, robust health must end in death. Why do you not look into your own concerns now? Why do you not give broadly, maintain the precepts, observe the six fasts each month, and, according to your ability and capacity, provide for and give to the solitary and the destitute?" The bereaved mother addressed the Buddha: "My love for my child pierces to my bones and marrow; how could I spare even my own body and life?" At that time, wishing to transform her so that she might awaken, the Buddha conjured four great fire pits surrounding the bereaved mother. As the heat of the fire closed in on her body, she used her child's body to shield herself. The Buddha said to the bereaved mother: "You just stated that your love for your child was profound, piercing to your bones and marrow, and that you would rather forfeit your own life than let your child die. Now that the heat of the fire presses upon you and the sharp agony is hard to bear, you merely try to shield yourself with your child. The trifling fires of the human realm are hardly worth mentioning; the blazing fires of hell cause immense, swift agony. Animals endure the suffering of ignorance; hungry ghosts endure the suffering of hunger and thirst. One who is able to benefit oneself should cultivate giving, moral discipline, and patience, so as not to be born in hell, among hungry ghosts, and the like, but rather receive the blessings of gods and humans and gradually draw near to nirvāṇa." Thereupon, the bereaved mother reproached herself within her heart and grew revulsed with affection. Right before the Buddha, she eliminated all defilements and became a srotāpanna. (Clarified in the Udānavarga.)