法苑珠林 92.24

92.24

At that time, the monk Saṅgharakṣita and his disciples went together to the Jetavana vihāra. Arriving at the Buddha's place, they bowed their heads in homage at his feet and withdrew to stand to one side. At that time, the World-Honoured One consoled the monks: "Were you not fatigued and distressed on the road? Was it easy to obtain almsfood?" At that time, Saṅgharakṣita addressed the Buddha: "We were not greatly fatigued or distressed on the road; it was easy to obtain almsfood without hardship, and we were able to see the World-Honoured One." At that time, the World-Honoured One preached the Dharma for the great assembly. The monk Saṅgharakṣita, amid the great assembly, proclaimed aloud the hell causes and conditions he had previously witnessed. The Buddha told Saṅgharakṣita: "The bathhouse of monks that you previously saw was not a bathhouse; they were hell beings. In the time of Kāśyapa Buddha, these sinful people were ordained monks who did not rely on the monastic precepts but indulged their own foolish desires, using the bathing utensils and vessels of the saṅgha as they pleased. Vinaya-holding monks constantly taught them the rules, yet they did not obey those instructions. Ever since the nirvāṇa of Kāśyapa Buddha, they have been enduring the torments of hell down to the present without cessation." The Buddha told Saṅgharakṣita: "The first monastery you saw was not a saṅgha monastery, nor were they monks; they were hell beings. In the time of Kāśyapa Buddha, they were renunciants who failed to accomplish the five virtues, and silently used the property of the saṅgha of the four directions together without sounding the gaṇḍī. Due to these causes and conditions, they have been suffering on flaming beds down to the present without cessation."