經律異相 8.60

8.60

In the past, when the Bodhisattva was once an ordinary human, he was just sixteen years of age. His dedication to learning was vast and profound, and he mastered the various classics. He sighed and lamented: "Only the Buddhist scriptures are the truest and most wonderful. I should embrace their truth and abide in self-contentment." His parents wished to take a wife for him. Feeling sorrowful, he said: "Of all calamities and disasters, none is greater than sensual beauty. If seductive bewitchment once arrives, morality and virtue are lost. If I do not flee and journey away, will I not be swallowed by wolves?" Thereupon he went to another country, sustaining himself by hiring out his labor. At that time there was an old farmer who was elderly and had no heir. While walking in the grasslands, he found a girl. Her countenance was peerless in the kingdom, and he joyfully raised her to be his heir. He sought a young man to be her mate, but in the whole country none suited the old man. He said: "Young man, my estate has plenty. I will give my daughter as your wife, and you shall be my heir." The girl possessed a divine power that bewitched the Bodhisattva's mind. Not long after marrying her, he realized on his own, saying: "I observe the bright teachings of the Buddhas: sensual desire is fire, and humans are flying moths. The moth covets the color of the fire, and its body is burned and boiled. This old man uses the fire of sensual desire to burn my person; using the bait of wealth he hooks my mouth; and this family affliction destroys my virtue." In the night he quietly traveled down the road, walking more than a hundred li. He lodged at a vacant pavilion. The pavilion-keeper said: "Who are you, sir?" He said, "I only wish to lodge for the night." Entering and seeing the matting, there was already a woman there, whose countenance resembled his own wife. Bewitching the Bodhisattva's mind, she lived with him. After another five years passed, his mind clearly awoke, and he said: "Lust is a parasitic worm, crippling and endangering one's body and life." He quietly and swiftly traveled away. Again he encountered a woman and lived with her for ten years. Again he clearly awoke, saying: "My disaster is heavy! I fled but could not escape." He swore a deep vow to himself: "Never again will I lodge anywhere." Again he fled. Seeing a large house in the distance, he avoided it and walked through the grass. The gatekeeper said, "Who is walking in the night?" He replied, "I am heading to the settlement ahead." The gatekeeper said again, "There is someone inside who calls for you." Looking forward, the woman was just like the one before, saying: "From countless kalpas ago, we swore to be husband and wife; where are you running to?" The Bodhisattva thought: "The root of desire is so hard to uproot, is it like this?" Thereupon he gave rise to contemplation on the four impermanences, extinguishing all afflictions of the three realms: "How could any remaining defilements not be destroyed?" The ghost-wife immediately vanished. Thereupon he saw the Buddhas standing before him, preaching the samādhi of non-conception, bestowing the śramaṇa precepts, and making him the Bodhisattva Victorious Master, saving all infinitely. (From the Dumu ji ji, fascicle 8).