經律異相 6.24

6.24

When the Buddha was in the city of Rājagṛha, he dispatched an arhat named Sumana, bearing the Buddha's hair and nails, to build a stūpa in the southern mountains of Kaśmīra. Five hundred arhats constantly resided in the monastery, burning incense and circumambulating the stūpa morning and evening in worship. Five hundred monkeys saw the monks making offerings, went to the side of a deep ravine, carried mud and stones, and erected a Buddha stūpa. Setting up a wooden pole as a mast, they tied tattered banners to it, bowing morning and evening. A flash flood swept over them, and they were all drowned at once. They were born in the Trāyastriṃśa heaven. Immediately, using their divine eyes, they saw their own past and present. Each holding flowers, incense, and musical instruments, they approached their former corpses and circumambulated them seven times. While the devas were seen from afar scattering flowers, playing music, and circumambulating the monkeys' corpses, five hundred brāhmaṇas with heterodox views from outside traditions asked the devas: 'Why do you deign to make offerings here?' They answered: 'These are our former bodies. Formerly in the world, we imitated the śramaṇas and playfully erected a stūpa and monastery. Relying on this, we were born in heaven; we are now repaying their kindness. You of heterodox views have toiled for a hundred kalpas without gaining a single thing. It would be better to go together to Mount Gṛdhrakūṭa to worship and serve [the Buddha]; its merit is limitless.' Thereupon, the brāhmaṇas were all filled with joy, went together to the Buddha's abode, cast their five limbs to the ground, and scattered flowers in offering. (Extracted from the Dharmapada-avadāna Sūtra, fascicle 1)