法苑珠林 10.47

10.47

如佛本行經云。其淨飯王共多釋種。并將太子出外野游觀看田種。時彼地內所有作人。赤體辛勤而事耕墾。飛鳥共相殘害。即復唱言。嗚呼嗚呼。世間眾生極受諸苦。所謂生老病死。兼復受於種種苦惱。展轉其中不能得離。云何不求捨是諸苦。時淨飯王觀田作已。共諸童子還入一園。是時太子安庠矚盻。處處經行欲求寂靜。忽見一處有閻浮樹。蓊欝扶疏人所樂見。見已即語左右。汝等諸人各遠離我。我欲私行。是時太子發遣左右。悉令散已漸至樹下。即於草上結跏趺坐。諦心思惟。眾生有生老病死種種諸苦。發起慈悲即得定心。離於諸欲棄捨一切諸不善法。欲界漏盡即得初禪。一切諸天帝釋等。見太子在樹蔭坐。飛來到太子所禮敬說偈讚已還去。時淨飯王須臾之間不見太子。心內即生不喜不樂。而問人言。我之太子今在何處。忽然不見。是時諸臣東西南北交橫馳走。尋覓太子莫知所在。時一大臣遙見太子在彼閻浮樹蔭之下思惟坐禪。復見一切樹影悉移。唯閻浮陰獨覆太子。時彼大臣見太子有是希奇難思議事。即大歡喜踊躍不能自勝。急疾奔馳走詣王所。至已長跪依所見事。即說偈言。

As the Abhiniṣkramaṇa-sūtra says: King Śuddhodana, together with many Śākyas, took the Crown Prince out to the countryside on an excursion to observe the ploughing and planting of the fields. At that time, all the labourers in that land were stripped to the waist, working diligently at tilling and plowing; birds were preying upon one another. He then cried out: 'Alas, alas! Sentient beings in the world undergo extreme sufferings—namely birth, old age, sickness, and death—and further suffer various types of affliction, revolving among them unable to escape. Why do they not seek to abandon these sufferings?' When King Śuddhodana finished observing the work in the fields, he returned with the youths into a garden. At that time, the Crown Prince looked about leisurely and walked to and fro in various places, seeking quietude. Suddenly he saw a place where there was a jambu tree, luxuriant and spreading, delightful for people to behold. Seeing it, he said to his attendants: 'All of you, move far away from me; I wish to walk in private.' Thereupon the Crown Prince dismissed his attendants, and having made them all disperse, he gradually approached beneath the tree. He sat cross-legged upon the grass and contemplated with focused mind: 'Sentient beings suffer the various pains of birth, old age, sickness, and death.' Giving rise to loving-kindness and compassion, he immediately attained a concentrated mind; separated from desires and having cast aside all unwholesome phenomena, his outflows of the desire realm were exhausted and he immediately attained the first dhyāna. All the devas, Śakra, and the like, seeing the Crown Prince sitting in the tree's shade, flew down to the Crown Prince's place, paid homage, spoke verses of praise, and departed. When King Śuddhodana did not see the Crown Prince for a brief moment, he felt displeased and unhappy in his heart, and asked people: 'Where is my Crown Prince now? Suddenly he is nowhere to be seen.' At that time, the ministers ran back and forth in all four directions, searching for the Crown Prince without knowing where he was. Then a minister saw the Crown Prince from afar beneath the shade of that jambu tree, contemplating and sitting in dhyāna. He also saw that all the tree shadows had shifted, but the jambu shade alone still covered the Crown Prince. When that minister saw this rare and inconceivable event of the Crown Prince, he was overjoyed and leaped with irrepressible delight. Hurrying at full speed, he ran to the King's place; having arrived, he knelt down and, according to what he had seen, spoke a verse: