法苑珠林 53.9

53.9

The Biography of Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna and the Fu fazang zhuan state: There was a great being named Nāgārjuna (According to the biography, he appeared in the world within seven hundred years after the Buddha's passing. According to the biography of Master Xuanzang, the correct Sanskrit pronunciation is Nāgārjuna, translated as Longmeng [Dragon-Valiant]. The old translation was corrupted and abbreviated, hence he was called Longshu [Dragon-Tree]. He appeared in the world three hundred years after the Buddha's passing and lived to seven hundred years of age; thus people mistakenly say he appeared seven hundred years after the Buddha's demise). He was endowed with natural genius and extraordinary awakening; he never needed to ask about anything twice. He raised the banner of the Dharma and crushed the heterodox traditions. He took birth in South India into a brāhmaṇa family of great wealth and nobility. When he was first born, he was under a tree, and because he attained the Way through a nāga, he was called Nāgārjuna. From his youth he was intelligent and wise, and his talents and learning surpassed the world. When he was still a child in swaddling clothes, he heard brāhmaṇas reciting the four Veda treatises. Those scriptures were vast and profound, consisting of forty thousand verses, each with thirty-two syllables, yet he immediately understood them and penetrated their phrasing and purport. Coming of age at twenty, his fame spread, and he walked unchallenged through the various states. In astronomy, geography, the constellations, charts and prognostications, and all other esoteric arts, there was nothing he had not mastered. He had three friends of extraordinarily refined natural talent. They discussed among themselves, saying, "The principles and doctrines under heaven awaken the spirit and brilliance, penetrate the arcane purports, and increase wisdom. In matters such as these, we have already mastered everything. By what other means shall we amuse ourselves?" They also said, "In the world, only pursuing fair beauties and indulging passion to the utmost desire is the supreme, wondrous pleasure of a lifetime. We should together seek an invisibility elixir. If this matter succeeds, this wish is sure to be fulfilled." They all said, "Splendid! These words are most delightful!" They immediately went to the place of a sorcerer to seek the method of invisibility. The sorcerer thought, "These four brāhmaṇas have lofty and far-reaching talent and wisdom, and have conceived great arrogance, treating all living beings like weeds. Now, because of this art, they humble themselves to approach me. Yet among what these men have exhaustively studied and broadly penetrated, the only thing they do not know is this lowly art. If I teach them the formula, they will abandon me forever. I shall give them the medicine without letting them know its formula. When the medicine is exhausted, they will surely return, and their consulting me as master can last long." He then gave each of them a blue pill, instructing them, "Take this medicine, grind it with water, and smear it on your eyelids; your forms will naturally disappear." Promptly following the master's instruction, each ground the medicine. When Nāgārjuna smelled its fragrance, he immediately recognized it, without mistaking its proportions, weights, or measures in the slightest. Returning to the master, he related the matter in full: "This medicine contains fully seventy ingredients; their names and weights are all in accordance with the formula." Hearing this, the master was astonished and asked how he knew. Nāgārjuna answered, "The great master should know: all medicines inherently have their distinctive aromas. By this I knew it; what is there to wonder at?" Hearing his words, the master sighed at this unprecedented feat. He then thought, "Hearing of such a man is already difficult, so how could I, having personally met him, begrudge this art?" He then taught the four men the method in full. The four men compounded the medicine according to the formula, concealed their bodies, and roamed about at will. Thereupon they went together into the king's inner palace. The beauties in the palace were all violated. After more than a hundred days, many were pregnant. Soon they went to report this to the king in the hope of avoiding punishment. Hearing this, the king was greatly displeased: "What inauspicious omen is this, to be so monstrous?" He summoned his wise ministers to confer on the matter. At that time, a minister addressed the king, "Generally, in matters like this, there must be two kinds: one is ghosts and spectres, and the other is magical arts. We can place fine soil in all the gates and set guards to cut off passers-by. If it is magical arts, their footprints will naturally appear; if ghosts or spectres enter, there will surely be no footprints. Humans can be eliminated with weapons; ghosts should be destroyed by incantations." The king adopted his plan and carried it out according to the method. They saw four men's footprints entering through the gate. The guards quickly reported this to the king. The king led several hundred valiant warriors, swinging their swords in the air, and severed the heads of three men. Within seven feet of the king, the blades did not reach. Nāgārjuna drew in his body and stood close beside the king. Thereupon he first awakened to the truth that desire is the root of suffering, ruining virtue, endangering the body, and defiling pure conduct (brahmacarya). He then made a vow to himself: "If I escape and am spared this calamity, I shall go to a śramaṇa and receive the rules of renunciation." Once he escaped, he entered the mountains, arrived at a stupa, renounced desire and attachment, and went forth as a monk to practice the Way. Within ninety days, he recited all the sūtras and treatises in Jambudvīpa, completely mastering them all. When he searched further for other scriptures, there were none to be found anywhere. Thereupon he proceeded toward the Snow Mountains (Himālaya), where he met a bhikṣu who transmitted the Mahāyāna to him. He read, recited, delighted in, revered, and made offerings to it. Although he had penetrated its true meaning, he had not yet obtained realization of the Way. His eloquence was inexhaustible and he was skilled in debate; all heterodox outsiders and divergent schools were crushed and subdued, and requested him to be their teacher and model. He thereupon considered himself an omniscient person, conceiving arrogance and immense pride, and wished to enter the gate of Gautama. At that time, the gate deity told Nāgārjuna, "Your wisdom now is like that of a mosquito or gnat; compared to the Tathāgata, it cannot even be spoken of. It is no different from a firefly matching its light with the sun and moon, or equating Mount Sumeru with a mustard seed. As I observe you, virtuous one, you are not an omniscient person. Why do you wish to enter this gate?" Hearing these words, he felt ashamed and embarrassed. At that time, a disciple said to Nāgārjuna, "Master, you always call yourself an omniscient person; now you have come humbly to become a disciple of the Buddha. The way of a disciple is to consult and receive instruction from a master; if consulting and receiving instruction are insufficient, one is not an omniscient person." Thereupon Nāgārjuna was at a loss for words and his arguments were exhausted. He thought to himself, "In the methods of the world, paths are limitless. Although the Buddha's scriptures are wondrous, their phrasings and meanings are not yet exhausted. I should now further expound them to awaken later students and benefit living beings." Having said this, he stayed alone in a quiet room, a crystal chamber. The great nāga Bodhisattva took pity on his state, and by supernatural power brought him into the great ocean, led him to his palace, opened the seven-jewel casket, and showed him profound Vaipulya sūtras. Having transmitted immeasurable wondrous dharmas to Nāgārjuna, within ninety days he thoroughly understood a great many. His mind penetrated deeply and he personally attained real benefit. Knowing his thoughts, the nāga asked him, "Have you now read all the scriptures completely?" Nāgārjuna answered, "Your scriptures are immeasurable and cannot be exhausted. What I have read is already fully ten times greater than all that is in Jambudvīpa." The nāga king asked, "The scriptures possessed by Śakra Devānām Indra in the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven surpass this palace by hundreds of thousands of myriad times; those in other places, compared to this, are easily counted." At that time, having obtained the various scriptures, Nāgārjuna had a breakthrough of complete understanding, skillfully penetrated the single characteristic, penetrated deeply into the non-arising of dharmas, and was fully endowed with the two kinds of forbearance. Knowing he had awakened to the Way, the nāga escorted him back out of the palace. At that time, the king of South India originally held deeply wrong views, serving heterodox paths and slandering the saddharma. Seeing that Nāgārjuna was an omniscient person, whom great masters of debate could not match in refutation, he bowed his head in homage, shaved his hair and beard, and went forth as a monk. In this manner, Nāgārjuna converted immeasurable numbers of people with wrong views. The royal house often sent ten cartloads of robes and bowls, which within a single day were completely exhausted. In this manner, spreading continuously even without limit, he extensively opened up and analyzed the meaning of the Mahāyāna. He composed the Upadeśa-śāstra in one hundred thousand verses to adorn the Buddha's path, and treatises such as the Great Compassion and Upāya, each in one hundred thousand verses, causing the Mahāyāna to be proclaimed first in the world. He composed the Fearless Treatise (Akutobhayā) in a full one hundred thousand verses; the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā came out of this Fearless collection, totaling five hundred verses. What he expounded had profound meaning and flavor, crushing all the banners of victory of the heterodox traditions. At that time, there was a Hīnayāna Dharma master who, seeing his loftiness and brilliance, constantly harbored resentment and jealousy. Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna, his work already accomplished, was about to leave this land, and asked the Dharma master, "Do you now wish for me to remain long in the world?" He answered, "Virtuous one, I truly do not." Nāgārjuna then entered a quiet room and did not appear for days. His disciples all found it strange, broke through the door to look, and saw that their master had sloughed off his mortal coil like a cicada and departed. The states throughout India all erected temples for him, making various offerings and revering him like a Buddha.