法苑珠林 59.32

59.32

Furthermore, the Mahāyāna-upāyakauśalya-sūtra says: For what reason did the Tathāgata and the saṃgha eat horse-fodder barley during the three months in the Brahmin village of Verañjā? The Buddha said: "Good sons, in the past I knew that this Brahmin would surely abandon his initial intention to invite the Buddha and the saṃgha and would fail to provide drink and food; yet I went deliberately to accept his invitation. Why? For the sake of those five hundred horses. In their former lives, these five hundred horses had already trained in the Bodhisattva Vehicle and had made offerings to past Buddhas. Because they associated with bad spiritual companions and created karmic conditions of evil deeds, they fell into the animal realm. Among the five hundred horses, there was a great horse named Sūryagarbha, who was a great bodhisattva. Formerly, while among humans, he had exhorted the five hundred small horses to generate the aspiration for awakening. In order to liberate these five hundred horses, he manifested birth among horses. Due to the majestic virtue of the great horse, he caused the five hundred horses to recall their own past lives; the mind they had originally lost, they now regained. Pitying those five hundred bodhisattvas who had fallen into the midst of horses, and desiring to enable them to gain release and be separated from animal rebirth, the Tathāgata knowingly accepted the invitation. At that time, the five hundred horses reduced their own eaten barley by half to offer it to the saṃgha, while the great horse offered half of his to the Tathāgata. Then the great horse, for the sake of the five hundred horses, preached the Dharma using the voice of a horse, teaching them to repent of their transgressions and causing them to pay homage to the Buddha and the saṃgha of monks. Having spoken of this, he further spoke thus: 'You should take half of the barley you eat and make offerings to the saṃgha.' At that time, after the five hundred horses had repented of their faults, they gave rise to pure faith in the Buddha and the saṃgha. After three months had passed, shortly thereafter those five hundred horses ended their lives and were reborn in Tuṣita Heaven. Those five hundred devaputras immediately came from heaven to the Buddha's abode, and having heard the preaching of the Dharma, they were determined to attain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi. The five hundred horses in a future life will become pratyekabuddhas. That great horse Sūryagarbha in a future life will also become a Buddha, named Suviśodhita Tathāgata. Although he ate grass, wood, clods of earth, tiles, and gravel, in the great trichiliocosm there was no flavor comparable to it. At that time Ānanda felt distress and sorrow in his heart: '[The Buddha], born of the lineage of a wheel-turning king, went forth from home to cultivate the Way, yet like a base and lowly person he eats this horse-fodder barley.' At that time I saw Ānanda's thought and immediately gave him a grain of barley, saying to Ānanda: 'Taste this barley; what is its flavor like?' After Ānanda had tasted it, he gave rise to a rare and wondrous thought: 'Since my birth into the royal family, I have never attained a flavor such as this.' After Ānanda had eaten this barley, for seven days and seven nights he had no thought of hunger or thirst. The Tathāgata also knew that if the five hundred monks ate fine food, it would increase their desires, but if they ate coarse food, their minds would not be covered by lustful craving. After the three months had passed, those monks were freed from lustful desires and realized the fruit of arhatship. Good sons, in order to tame the five hundred monks and liberate the five hundred horse bodhisattvas, the Tathāgata through the power of skillful means took upon himself the condition of eating horse-fodder barley for three months; it was not a karmic retribution."