法苑珠林 26.22

26.22

The Buddha told the great king: 'If you wish to know who these eighty-four thousand golden monkeys are: in the past, during the time of Krakucchanda Buddha, in the two kingdoms of Vārāṇasī and Kauśāmbī, there were a total of eighty-four thousand bhikṣuṇīs who committed various unlawful acts and violated the heavy prohibitions. Mad, foolish, and devoid of wisdom like silly monkeys, when they saw a good bhikṣu they regarded him as a thief. At that time, there was an arhat bhikṣuṇī named Śubhakṣemā. Even when she expounded the Dharma fully for them, they harbored resentment. When the arhat nun saw that these evil people did not generate good thoughts, she gave rise to compassion, rose into the air, and performed eighteen transformations. When the evil people saw these transformations, they each took off their golden armlets and scattered them over the arhat nun, [vowing,] "May our bodies be golden in life after life! We now repent all the evils we committed before." When those evil people's bodies broke up and their lives ended, they fell into the Avīci hell, passing through it in succession; for ninety-two kalpas they constantly remained in the hells. Emerging from the hells, they were constantly hungry ghosts for five hundred lifetimes. Emerging from the hungry ghosts, they were constantly monkeys for one thousand lifetimes, with bodies of gold. Great King, you should know that the eighty-four thousand precept-breaking nuns who reviled the arhat nun at that time are the eighty-four thousand golden monkeys in this assembly today. The one who made offerings to those evil bhikṣuṇīs at that time is you, Great King, today. Because of past habits, these monkeys hold flowers and incense to make offerings to the Great King. Those who defiled those bhikṣuṇīs at that time are Kokālika and the king's five hundred eunuchs today. The Buddha told the great king: 'One cannot but be cautious regarding the karma of body, speech, and mind.'