經律異相 38.18

38.18

The Buddha was staying at the Anāthapiṇḍada Hermitage. King Prasenajit made offerings to the Buddha and the great assembly of his retinue. The Jetavana was one hundred and sixty li in extent; King Prasenajit lit lamps all around it, and the populace competed to watch. The poor woman Nandā had no home or house. Asking passers-by on the road, she learned that King Prasenajit was lighting lamps for the Buddha with a thousand hu of oil. Nandā reproached herself: 'For what reason am I alone so poor as this?' She immediately went into the streets and lanes, begging from house to house, and obtained a little mixed rice. She thought to herself: 'I will sell this to pay for a lamp.' Selling it, she got one coin and took it to an oil dealer. The oil dealer asked the woman: 'What meritorious deed will you perform with one coin's worth of oil?' Nandā replied: 'I wish to light a lamp for the Buddha.' Hearing this, the oil master rejoiced with her in sympathy, took out oil for one lamp, and gave it to her as a gift. The poor woman rejoiced and carried it to the Jetavana. The Buddha said to Ānanda: 'There is a great elder who has aroused unsurpassed merit, but cannot enter by herself; open the door and let her come forward.' Hearing this instruction of the Buddha, King Prasenajit immediately pondered to himself: 'I am the most honoured in this state of Śrāvastī; in initiating this offering to the Way, could anyone surpass me? Why does the Buddha not praise me, but instead call someone an elder?' In a short while, the poor woman arrived before the Buddha. She lit the lamp she had brought before the Buddha, and now made a great vow: 'Together for all beings, I seek the knowledge and vision of the Buddha; may this radiant light penetrate the ten directions, and may the dark and evil realms all find cessation!' Having done so, she withdrew. When the next morning came, the worthy Maudgalyāyana went around inspecting the various lamps. Only the lamp lit by Nandā shone just as before. Maudgalyāyana blew on it, but blowing could not extinguish it. He then used his supernormal power to bring the waters of five Gaṅgās to douse it, but still it was not extinguished. He blew on it with the great Vairambha wind, but drifting and buffeting could not extinguish it. He exhausted his supernormal power, but in the end could not extinguish it, and was filled with dread in his heart. The Buddha said to Maudgalyāyana: 'The one who lit this lamp did so with a sincere mind; for this reason the lamp shines constantly. Even if arhats such as Śāriputra and pratyekabuddhas, with their supernormal transformations and merit, were together to extinguish this lamp, they could not extinguish it. Even if the Garuḍa King were to beat the great ocean waters, or the Lion King were to roar and stampede, and together they were to extinguish this lamp, the lamp could not be extinguished.' At sunrise, the woman Nandā went of herself to inspect the lamp she had lit yesterday; the lamp was still unextinguished, its light not diminished. She rejoiced greatly and bowed her head to the Buddha's feet. The Buddha knew that the woman's mind sought the unsurpassed Way, and emitted five-coloured light from his mouth. Whenever the Buddha preaches the Dharma on the works of the three vehicles, when conferring a prophecy on a śrāvaka, the light enters through the crown of his head; when conferring a prophecy on a pratyekabuddha, the light enters between his two eyebrows; when conferring a prophecy on a bodhisattva, the light enters through his mouth. The Buddha's vast light reached upward to the Thirty-three Heavens, penetrating everywhere; having done so, it returned, circled the Buddha three times, and entered through his mouth. At that time Ānanda arose and questioned him. The Buddha said: 'Ānanda, did you see the woman who lit the lamp last night? When this woman's life ends, through this merit she will turn her woman's body and become a man. For twenty kalpas hereafter she will not fall into evil realms, but will be born in the heavens and as a gold-wheel-turning king. After twenty kalpas, she will become a buddha named Samantaprabhāsa.' (From the Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish; it is also said in the Sūtra of the Poor Woman Nandā that she became a bhikṣu.)