法苑珠林 49.18

49.18

As the Sūtra on the Requital of Kindness states: The Buddha told Ānanda: Long ago in the past, immeasurable, boundless asaṃkhyeya kalpas ago, a Buddha appeared in the world named Vipaśyin. After his entry into nirvāṇa, during the Semblance Dharma, the king of the country of Vārāṇasī was named Rāja. That king ruled over sixty lesser kingdoms. The king had a crown prince who ruled as a king of a lesser kingdom. There was a minister named Rāhula who conceived an evil rebellion, murdering the great king as well as the two princes. The king's youngest son was the ruler of a frontier kingdom; he was gentle, kind, well-tamed, and virtuous, respected and loved by the heavenly deities. He fathered a prince named Sujāti, who was only seven years old, intelligent, loving, and filial, deeply cherished by the king. At that time, a deity said to the king, 'The minister Rāhula has plotted to seize the royal throne, executing your royal father and killing your two elder brothers. His troops and cavalry will soon arrive to kill you, O King. You should flee now.' Hearing these words, the king was terrified and his hair stood on end. Looking up, he asked, 'Who are you, sir? I hear only your voice but do not see your form. Is what you proclaim true or not?' [The deity] immediately replied to the king, 'I am the palace-guarding deity of the great king. Because the king possesses merit, rules the kingdom with the correct Dharma, and does not oppress the people, I have come ahead to inform you. The king should depart swiftly; calamity is not far off and will arrive right now.' Having heard this, the king went into the palace and pondered, wishing to seek refuge in another kingdom. At that time, there were two roads leading to the neighboring kingdom: one road was estimated to take seven days to reach it, and one road was estimated to take fourteen days to arrive. The king immediately prepared seven days of provisions, carried his child, and departed, with his queen following behind. At the time of departure, in their haste and confusion, their minds were bewildered, and by mistake they took the fourteen-day road. The road was treacherous and difficult, lacking water and grass. When they first set out, they had brought provisions for only one person, but now three people were eating together. After several days, the provisions were exhausted, yet the road ahead was still far. The king and queen wept aloud, crying, 'How strange! How bitter! From our birth onward, we have never heard of such suffering and distress. Why do we personally undergo this today? Utter calamity has arrived all at once!' Throwing his entire body to the ground, he reproached himself, saying, 'What evil deeds did we perform in past lives to receive this disaster today?' Having thought this, he wept aloud, fainted, and fell to the ground. Then he thought to himself, 'It is impossible for all three of us to perish here together. I should kill the queen, take her flesh to preserve our lives, and prolong our child's life.' Having thought this, he drew his sword, intending to kill the queen. Seeing that the king intended to kill his mother, the child stepped forward, grasped the king's hand, and asked the reason. The king wept, his eyes filled with sorrowful tears, and in a faint voice told the child, 'I wish to kill your mother and take her flesh and blood to prolong our remaining lives. If I do not kill her, she will die on her own anyway, and so will I. As matters stand, where will life or death lie? To preserve your life, I wish to kill your mother.' The child addressed his father, saying, 'If the king kills my mother, neither of us will eat. Where is there a child who eats his mother's flesh? Since I will not eat her flesh, I shall die along with her. The king should now rather kill me, your child, and take my flesh to save my parents' lives.' When the king heard the child's words, he fainted, writhing and collapsing to the ground, and said to the child, 'You are like my own eyes. Where is there a person who gouges out his own eyes and eats them? I would rather lose my life than ever kill my child and eat his flesh!' The child said to his father again, 'If you end your child's life, the flesh will rot and stink within a few days. My only wish is that my parents daily cut three catties of flesh from your child's body, divide it into three portions, offer two portions to my parents, and leave one portion for myself to eat, so as to sustain our lives.' The father followed the child's words, cut three catties of flesh, sustained their lives, and proceeded on the road. Before two days had passed, the flesh on his body was completely gone, his bones and joints were linked together, and his remaining life was not yet extinguished, whereupon he collapsed to the ground. Seeing this, the parents immediately rushed forward, embraced him, and wept aloud, saying, 'We are wretched and have wrongly eaten your flesh, causing you such agony. The road ahead is still far, and we have not reached our destination. Your flesh is exhausted; now let us perish together, gathering our corpses in one place.' The child admonished his father, saying, 'You have already eaten your child's flesh and progressed on the road to this point. Calculating the distance ahead, there remains only one day left. Your child will now give up his life here. I earnestly request that my parents do not perish together in one place like ordinary people. You may cut all the remaining flesh from between the joints of your child's limbs to sustain my parents so that you may reach your destination.' The parents followed his words, cut a little flesh, divided it into three portions, gave one portion to the child, and ate two portions themselves. Having eaten, they parted. The child stood up and watched his parents leave. The parents at that time wept aloud and went on their way. When the parents were far away and could no longer see the prince, he longed for his parents and did not take his eyes off them for a moment. After a long while, he fell to the ground; blood flowed from his body, and mosquitoes and horseflies bit and ate him, the torment and pain being beyond description. Before his remaining life was cut off, he raised his voice and made a vow: 'May the calamities and evils of past lives be completely eradicated from this. From this day forward, I will never dare commit them again. Now I offer my body's flesh to my parents; may my parents always obtain residual blessings, sleeping in peace and waking in peace, seeing no nightmares, protected by deities and loved by people, with officials, thieves, and sinister plots eradicated, and all affairs auspicious. May the remaining flesh and blood of my body be given to these insects, causing them all to be satisfied, and may I attain the Buddha's path in a future life, giving them the Dharma food to eliminate their hunger, thirst, and the grave illness of birth and death!' When he made this vow, the earth shook greatly, and the sun lost its brilliant light. Seeing this, Śakra transformed himself into a lion, tiger, and wolf, terrifying the prince and coming as if to bite and gnaw him. The prince said, 'If you wish to eat me, take and eat as you please. Why try to frighten me?' Śakra then said, 'I am not of the kind of lions, tigers, or wolves; I am Śakra, king of the devas, and have come purposely to test you.' When the prince heard this, he rejoiced boundlessly. Śakra asked the prince, 'You have now renounced what is difficult to renounce, being able to feed your parents with your own flesh. For such merit, what do you wish to become? A heavenly king, a human king, a Brahmā king, or a Māra king?' The prince answered, 'I do not wish for these; I wish to seek the Buddha's path to liberate all beings.' King Śakra said, 'The Buddha's path is long and distant, attained only after undergoing toil and suffering for a long time. How could you endure such suffering?' The prince answered, 'Even if a burning iron wheel were upon my head, I would never retreat from the Buddha's path because of suffering.' Śakra, king of the devas, said, 'These are merely empty words; who will believe you?' The prince immediately made a vow, saying, 'If I am deceiving Śakra, king of the devas, may the wounds on my body never close from beginning to end. If it is not so, may I be restored as before, and my blood turn into milk.' After the prince made this vow, his body was immediately restored as before, his blood became white milk, and his appearance was twice as handsome as usual. Śakra then praised him, saying, 'When you attain the Buddha's path, I pray you will deliver me first.' At that time, when the parents arrived in the neighboring kingdom, they recounted the above matter in full to that king: 'Our son's filial devotion and his offering of his own flesh were like this.' When the neighboring king heard this, he was moved by his loving filial piety, and at once provided troops and sent them back to their kingdom to attack Rāhula. The father, leading the troops, passed along the road by the place where he had parted from his child. He thought to himself, 'My child is dead; I must gather his bones and return to our original kingdom.' Weeping sorrowfully aloud, he searched along the road. From afar he saw the prince, his body fully restored and twice as handsome as usual. He immediately stepped forward, embraced him, mixed with grief and joy, and said to the prince, 'My child, are you alive now?' Then the prince recounted the above events in full to his parents. The parents rejoiced, and together they rode a great elephant and returned to their native kingdom. Due to the power of the prince's merit and loving filial piety, they conquered their native kingdom, and the father king immediately established the prince as king. The Buddha told Ānanda, 'The father at that time was my present father, Śuddhodana. The mother at that time was my present mother, Lady Māyā. The prince was myself. Śakra of that time was Ājñātakauṇḍinya.'