法苑珠林 71.46

71.46

Second is reprimanding the fault of the desire for sounds. The characteristics of sound do not abide; the moment they are heard, they perish. Foolish people do not understand that the characteristics of sound are impermanent, mutable, and fleeting; hence they give rise to deluded fondness for sounds and develop attachment by longing for sounds that have already passed. For instance, five hundred ṛṣis were residing in the mountains. A kinnarī was bathing in a pool on the Snow Mountains (Himālaya). Upon hearing her singing, they instantly lost their meditative absorption, became intoxicated and frantic, could not contain themselves, lost their merits, and later fell into the evil destinies. A wise person observes the arising and perishing of sounds: the preceding and succeeding [moments] do not coexist and have no characteristics that reach one another. Knowing this, they are not defiled or attached. To such a person, even heavenly music cannot bring distraction, much less human voices. Various causes and conditions such as these are called reprimanding the faults of the desire for sounds. Thus the treatise says: It is like the five hundred ṛṣis flying through the air who heard the song of a kinnarī; with hearts deeply attached and intoxicated, they all lost their supernormal feet and simultaneously fell to the ground. Or again, when the śrāvakas heard the kinnara king Druma playing the lute and singing in praise of the Buddha through the real mark of all dharmas, Mount Sumeru and all the trees shook at that moment, and Mahākāśyapa and the other great disciples all danced on their seats, unable to compose themselves. The bodhisattva Celestial Garland asked Mahākāśyapa: 'You are the most senior elder and foremost in dhūta practices; why are you now unable to control your mind and keep still?' Mahākāśyapa replied: 'My mind does not waver before any human or heavenly desires. But this is the sound of the retribution of a bodhisattva's limitless merit, and furthermore produced through the transformations of wisdom; I cannot resist it. It is like the winds arising from the eight directions, which cannot move Mount Sumeru; but when the kalpa comes to an end, the vairambha wind arrives and blows Mount Sumeru away as if it were rotten grass.'