法苑珠林 8.75

8.75

Having spoken this verse, they each returned to the Brahma world. Bhadrapāla, you should know that the king of that country who transformed people through the ten virtuous deeds long ago attained buddhahood: he is Vipaśyin Tathāgata. The bhikṣu Good Fame is Śikhin Tathāgata. How could those thousand youths have been other people? They are Kakusandha Buddha up to the final one, Rocana Tathāgata. Bhadrapāla, you should know that I, together with the thousand bodhisattvas of the Bhadrakalpa, first gave rise to the mind of anuttarasamyaksaṃbodhi upon hearing the names of the Three Jewels in the presence of that Buddha. Such was that matter.

The Buddha told Bodhisattva Bhadrapāla, 'Countless asaṃkhyeya kalpas in the past, in this Sahā world there was a great kingdom named Vārāṇasī. The king was named Brahmaguṇa. He constantly transformed the people with wholesome dharmas. Handing over the state to his son, he left home to study the Way and became a pratyekabuddha. Leaping into the empty sky, he manifested eighteen transformations. At that time, a thousand Brahmā kings, each holding wonderful flowers in the folds of their garments, came into the udumbara grove to make offerings to the pratyekabuddha and said to him: "O Great Virtuous One, preach the Dharma for us!" The pratyekabuddha then leaped into the sky and manifested eighteen transformations, stretching out his hands and showing his feet. Among them, one Brahmā king named Wisdom Vision told the other Brahmās: "I see the pratyekabuddha upholding the five precepts; through the rules of precepts and fasts, one should practice the ten virtues and contemplate the links of dependent origination. Directing these roots of goodness toward the profound anuttarasamyaksaṃbodhi, may I become a Buddha, surpassing pratyekabuddhas a hundred thousand myriads of koṭīs [of times]!"

After their lives ended, the thousand Brahmā kings became a thousand cakravartins over the four continents of the Sahā world, with a lifespan of eighty-four thousand years. When their lives were about to end, in the Snowy Mountains there was a brahman of great intelligence and wisdom whose lifespan was half a kalpa. In a previous scripture, he had heard of a past Buddha named Candana-alaṃkāra Tathāgata, who had preached the profound dānapāramitā for him—not seeing giver or recipient, his mind practicing impartiality. Having heard of this matter, the great seer came out from the Snowy Mountains, went to the thousand holy kings, and praised and explained the practice of giving. The thousand holy kings each entrusted their realm to their crown prince, left home to study the Way, and built grass huts in the Snowy Mountains to seek the unexcelled Way. They immediately obtained the five supernormal knowledges, flew and soared in the sky, and their lifespan was one kalpa.

At that time, in the Snowy Mountains there was a great yakṣa four thousand li in height, with sharp fangs protruding upward eighty li high, a face twelve li wide, and eyes spouting blood that gleamed like molten copper. Holding a sword in his left hand and a trident in his right hand, he stood before the holy kings and called out in a loud voice: "I am now hungry and thirsty with nothing to eat! May the kings take pity and bestow a little drink and food!" The thousand holy kings told the yakṣa: "We have vowed to give away everything." They each washed the yakṣa's hands with water, gave him immortal fruits, and told him to eat them. Receiving the fruits, the yakṣa angrily cast them to the ground and said to the holy kings: "My father is a yakṣa who devours the vitality of humans; my mother is a rākṣasī who constantly devours human hearts and drinks warm human blood! I am now in urgent hunger and need only human heart and blood—what use are fruits to me?" Then the thousand holy kings said to the yakṣa: "Among all things hard to relinquish, none surpasses one's own body. Today we cannot relinquish our hearts and give them to you." Thereupon the yakṣa spoke a verse:'