經律異相 9.31

9.31

If I do not pour the blood of my body into the ocean to disgust the mind of the ocean spirits, the shipmen will never reach the shore." He told the crowd: "Hold fast to each other and support my body!" The crowd obeyed his command. The Bodhisattva then drew his knife and took his own life. The ocean spirits, repulsed by it, drifted the boat onto the shore, and the crowd was completely saved. Embracing the corpse, the shipmen wailed, saying: "This was surely a bodhisattva, not an ordinary person!" Stamping their feet, leaping and crying out to heaven, [they said]: "Better that our lives be lost here than that a man of supreme virtue should perish!" Their words, being sincere, moved the heavens above. Śakra Devānām Indra beheld the Bodhisattva's vast compassion. Descending, Śakra said: "This bodhisattva of supreme virtue shall become a holy hero; now I myself shall revive him." With divine heavenly medicine, he poured it into his mouth and also smeared it all over the corpse. The Bodhisattva was immediately revived, suddenly sat up, and consoled the crowd. Śakra filled their boat with famous treasures, a thousand times more than before. They then returned to their native land, and all of the nine degrees of kin rejoiced to see each other. They relieved the poor, aided the destitute, and extended charity to all sentient beings, expounding the Buddhist scriptures and converting the ignorant. The king of that land, submitting to the Bodhisattva's virtue, went to receive his pure transformation. The ruler was benevolent, the ministers loyal, the whole land upheld the precepts, and every household had filial sons. The kingdom grew abundant, evils ceased, and the common people rejoiced, eventually being born in the heavens and forever leaving all suffering behind. The Bodhisattva was vigorous and unceasing through successive kalpas, ultimately attaining Buddhahood. The one who sacrificed his body to save the multitude was myself; Śakra Devānām Indra was Maitreya; and the five hundred merchants are the five hundred arhats now seated among the assembly. (From the Shashen jishangren jing and also from the Liudu ji jing.)