經律異相 9.10

9.10

In a past kalpa, there was a Buddha named Vast Radiance (the Pusa xing jing calls him Free of Defilement and Radiant). The king's son was named Guṇavitta (the Pusa xing jing calls him Karmapradhāna) and was sixteen years old at the time. Relying on his handsome appearance, he gave rise to arrogance and would never turn toward the Buddha to pay reverent homage. The Buddha then distributed casting tallies, asking who would be able to convert him. Among the eighty-four thousand bodhisattvas, none took the tally. There was one bodhisattva named Śuddhavīrya who said, "I can." At that moment, the great trichiliocosm quaked in six ways. He then went and stood at the king's gate. When the prince saw him, he reviled and insulted him with harsh words, threw dirt in his face, and attacked his body with swords, staves, tiles, and stones. The bodhisattva at that time did not grow angry, did not leave, and his mind felt no fatigue or aversion. For one thousand years he endured such suffering. After twenty thousand years, he finally reached beneath that second gate. Before the eighty-four thousand years and seven days were fulfilled, he finally reached beneath his seventh gate. At that time, the prince saw this bodhisattva and said, "Man of the Dao, what do you come seeking now?" He immediately gave rise to an inconceivable thought regarding the bodhisattva: "How can this man have spent so much time enduring many sufferings without his mind ever feeling weary?" At that time, the bodhisattva knew the prince's mind had naturally been subdued, and he spoke a verse directing him to go to the Buddha. At that time, the prince immediately renounced the royal throne, went forth from the household life in the Buddha's Dharma, listened to the Dharma, dwelt in accordance with the Dharma, and attained the patience of non-arising. The Śuddhavīrya of that time was my own person, and Guṇavitta was Maitreya. (Extracted from the twenty-sixth fascicle of the Mahāsaṃnipāta Sūtra; also appearing in the Sūtra on Subduing the Prince's Mind for the Dao and the Pusa xing jing, which are mostly the same.)