經律異相 43.13

43.13

In the country of Rājagṛha there were merchants, two brothers who lived together in one place. The elder brother sought the daughter of an elder wishing to make her his wife. The girl was young and not yet of age to be married off. The elder brother, together with a company of merchants, travelled far to another country. Years passed, and he was delayed and did not return on time. The girl grew older, and [her father] said to the younger brother, “Your elder brother went on a distant journey and was lost there, never to return. You should now take my daughter.” The younger brother answered, “How could such a thing be?” The elder urged him repeatedly, but the younger brother's resolve was firm and he never wavered. The elder falsely forged a letter from afar, entrusting merchants to say that the elder brother had died. He again told him, saying, “Your elder brother is already dead. What will you do?” The younger brother married the girl. After some time passed, the woman became pregnant. The elder brother returned from afar. The younger brother harboured fear in his heart and fled to Śrāvastī. Wandering from place to place in this way, he came before the Buddha and asked to leave home. The Buddha granted permission at once, and he became a śramaṇa named Upasena. Upholding the precepts and practice, he attained arhatship. When the elder brother learned of this, he was filled with resentment and wished to kill him, going to the country of Śrāvastī. He immediately offered a heavy bounty, a reward of five hundred ounces of gold. Those who answered the call advanced together. Seeing the younger brother seated in meditation, [one of them] suddenly gave rise to thoughts of compassion: “How could I kill this monk? Yet if I do not kill him, he will take back my gold.” Intending to shoot the monk, he struck the elder brother instead. The elder brother harboured resentment and fury, and his life abruptly ended. He took the form of a venomous snake, born within the door-pivot of this man of the Way. As the door opened and closed repeatedly, his body was crushed to death. He then vowed to become a small venomous insect, dwelling upon the man of the Way's house. Falling down from the house onto the monk’s crown, its vicious poison blazed violently, and [the monk] immediately died. [The Buddha] told Śāriputra: “Long ago in the past, a pratyekabuddha appeared in the world, dwelling in the mountain forests. At that time there was a hunter who constantly caught birds and beasts, laying traps and schemes, waiting and watching hoping to catch them. The pratyekabuddha startled his birds and beasts so that he waited and hunted in vain. He then harboured anger and shot the pratyekabuddha with a poisoned arrow. At that time, the pratyekabuddha took pity on this man, wishing to cause him to repent, and manifested his spiritual powers. At that moment the hunter harboured reverence and admiration; terrified, he reproached himself, turned back with sincerity, and apologised for his fault. The pratyekabuddha accepted his repentance, and as the poison attacked him, he died. When that man’s life ended, he fell straight into hell. After emerging from hell, throughout five hundred lifetimes he was constantly killed by poison. Even down to this day, having attained the way of an arhat, he was still stung to death by a venomous insect.” (From the tenth fascicle of the Damamūka-nidāna-sūtra.)