法苑珠林 6.104

6.104

如菩薩處胎經云。佛告智積菩薩。吾昔一時無央數劫為金翅鳥王。七寶宮殿後園浴池皆七寶成。心得自在如轉輪王。乃能入海求龍為食。時彼海中有化生龍子。於其齋日奉持八禁。時金翅鳥王身長八千由旬。左右兩翅各長四千由旬。以翅斫海取龍。水未合頃飛銜龍出。鳥欲食龍時。先從尾而吞。到須彌山北有大鐵樹。高下六萬里。銜龍至彼欲得食噉。求龍尾不知處。以經日夜明日龍始出尾語金翅鳥。化生龍者我身是也。我不持八齋法者汝即灰滅。時金翅鳥聞悔過自責。佛之威神甚深難量。我有宮殿。去此不遠。共我至彼以相娛樂。龍即隨鳥至宮觀看。今此眷屬不聞如來八關齋法。唯願指授禁戒威儀。若壽終後得生人中。爾時龍子具以禁戒法便讀誦之。即於鳥宮而說頌曰。

As the Pusa chutai jing says: The Buddha told Bodhisattva Jñānākara, “Once, in the past, countless kalpas ago, I was a garuḍa king. My palace of the seven precious things, its rear garden, and its bathing pools were all composed of the seven precious things. In mind I attained sovereignty like a cakravartin, and so I could enter the ocean seeking nāgas for food. At that time, in that ocean, there was a spontaneously born nāga prince who observed the eight prohibitions on the upoṣadha days. At that time, the garuḍa king's body was eight thousand yojanas in length, and each of his left and right wings was four thousand yojanas long. He cleaved the sea with his wings to seize the nāgas; before the waters could close, he flew off bearing a nāga in his beak. When the bird wished to eat a nāga, he would swallow it tail first. North of Mount Sumeru there was a great iron tree, sixty thousand li in height. Bearing the nāga, he arrived there wishing to devour it, but sought the nāga's tail and could not find where it was. After a day and a night had passed, on the next day, the nāga first stuck out its tail and addressed the garuḍa: ‘The spontaneously born nāga—I am he! Had I not been upholding the practice of the eight upoṣadha [precepts], you would instantly have been reduced to ashes.’ Hearing this, the garuḍa repented and reproached himself: ‘The Buddha's majestic spiritual power is profound and immeasurable! I have a palace not far from here; come with me thither to rejoice together.’ The nāga then followed the bird to the palace to look around. [The bird said,] ‘My present retinue has not heard the Tathāgata's practice of the eightfold upoṣadha precepts. I pray only that you instruct us in the prohibitive precepts and deportment, so that after our lives end we may obtain birth among humans.’ At that time, the nāga prince recited the precepts in full, and thereupon in the bird's palace he spoke a verse, saying: