法苑珠林 76.12

76.12

The *Damamūka-nidāna-sūtra* also states: In the past, when the Buddha was in the world, he set out with the monks toward Vaiśālī. Arriving at the River Liyue, they saw fishermen who had netted a fish with a hundred heads. Five hundred people pulled at it, but could not draw it out of the water. At that time there were five hundred people grazing cattle by the river, so [the fishermen] borrowed their aid to pull it; only with the united strength of a thousand people was it finally brought out of the water. Astonished at the sight, the crowd vied with one another to look. The Buddha and the monks went to where the fish was, and [the Buddha] asked the fish, saying, 'Are you Kapila or not?' The fish answered, saying, 'I am.' He further asked the fish, saying, 'Where is the teacher who instructed you now?' The fish answered the Buddha, saying, 'He has fallen into the Avīci hell.' When Ānanda saw this, he asked about its karmic causes and conditions. The Buddha told Ānanda: Long ago in the past, at the time of Kāśyapa Buddha, there was a brahman who had a son named Kapila, who was intelligent, broadly learned, and foremost in erudition. After his father died, his mother asked the boy, 'You are now so brilliant; is there anyone in the world who surpasses you or not?' The boy answered his mother, saying, 'The śramaṇas are superior. Whenever I have doubts, I go to question the śramaṇas, and they explain them to me, bringing me to understanding; but if they question me, I cannot answer.' The mother then told him, 'Why do you not now study their teachings?' The boy answered his mother, saying, 'If I wish to study them, I must become a śramaṇa. I am a white-robed layman; by what means could I study them?' The mother told the boy, 'For now, you may falsely become a śramaṇa, and once you have mastered the studies, return home.' The boy complied with his mother's instruction and became a bhikṣu. In a short time he thoroughly mastered the tripiṭaka and returned home. His mother asked him again, 'Have you now surpassed them or not?' The boy answered his mother, saying, 'I still have not surpassed them.' The mother told the boy, 'From now on, whenever you debate with them, if you happen to be unequal to them, you may simply revile and insult them, and then you will prevail.' The boy complied with his mother's instruction. Later, when he was bested in debate, he reviled them, saying, 'You śramaṇas are stupid and ignorant, with heads like the heads of beasts!' There were no heads among the hundred beasts to which he did not compare them. Because of this reviling, he has now received the body of a fish—a single body with a hundred heads, possessing all the heads of beasts, including camels, donkeys, cattle, horses, pigs, sheep, and dogs. Ānanda asked the Buddha, 'When will it be able to escape this fish's body?' The Buddha told Ānanda, 'Even after the thousand Buddhas of this Bhadrakalpa have passed, it will still not have escaped this fish's body.' By these causes and conditions, one cannot fail to be cautious in the actions of body, speech, and mind! Also, Wang Xuance's *Xiguo xingzhuan* states: When the Buddha was in the world, he traveled to the city of Vaiśālī. Observing all sentient beings who suffered, he wished to rescue them. He then observed that in this country there were two groups of fishermen (kaivarta), numbering five hundred in all, who had netted a great makara fish in the River Vālumatī that had eighteen heads and thirty-six eyes, its heads mostly resembling beasts (the rest is the same as above). The Buddha preached the Dharma for it. Having heard the Dharma, the fish immediately died and was reborn in heaven as a devaputra. Looking back, he saw that his original body had been a great fish, and that thanks to the Buddha's preaching of the Dharma he had attained rebirth in heaven. He then took various incense, flowers, necklaces, and precious gems, descended from heaven, and came to make offerings to the Buddha. At that time, both groups of people gave rise to the mind [of faith] and repented their faults. Thereupon, over one hundred paces north of the River Vālumatī, they burned the fishing nets, put the ashes in bronze jars, and buried them at the place where the Dharma had been preached, erecting a stūpa above it. The venerable image stands dignified and still exists today, carved and adorned in accord with the Dharma, inspiring goodness in all who see it.