法苑珠林 59.23

59.23

The *Xingqixing jing* states: The Buddha told Śāriputra: “In the past, during an age long gone, there was an elder in the city of Rājagṛha named Sudhana. He was very wealthy, possessing abundant treasures and fully endowed with property. He had a son named Sumati. His father, Sudhana, suddenly passed away. Sumati had a younger half-brother by a different mother named Suyaśas. Sumati thought to himself: ‘How can I devise a plan not to give Yaśas his share of the wealth? Only by killing him can I manage not to give it to him.’ Sumati said to Yaśas: ‘Elder brother, let us go up together onto Mount Gṛdhrakūṭa to converse and debate.’ Yaśas said: ‘Very well.’ Sumati then took his younger brother by the hand and went up the mountain. Leading him to the very highest point, he pushed him down to the bottom of the cliff and crushed him with stones, whereupon his life immediately ended. The Buddha told Śāriputra: “Do you know that the elder Sudhana at that time was none other than the present royal father, Śuddhodana? The son Sumati at that time was none other than myself. The younger brother Suyaśas was none other than the present Devadatta. The Buddha told Śāriputra: “At that time, out of greed for wealth, I harmed my younger brother. On account of this sin, for countless thousands of years I was burned and boiled in hell, crushed and pressed by iron mountains. Owing to a residue of karmic conditions from that time, even though I have now attained buddhahood, I could not escape this past retribution. While I was walking mindfully on Mount Gṛdhrakūṭa, Devadatta lifted a cliff boulder sixty feet long and thirty feet wide to hurl at the Buddha's head. A mountain spirit named Kumbhīra caught the stone with his hands. A small fragment from the edge of the stone flew off and struck the big toe of the Buddha's foot, which broke and bled.”