法苑珠林 97.9

97.9

Furthermore, the Sūtra of Avadānas of the Dharmapada says: In the past, the Buddha was staying at the Jetavana monastery preaching the Dharma for devas and humans. There was an elder living beside the road with boundless wealth. He had only one son, aged twenty, who had newly taken a wife. Less than seven days had passed, and husband and wife respected each other. Desiring to go to the rear garden, during the third month of early spring, they went to stroll and play in the garden. There was a crabapple tree, tall and large with lovely flowers. The wife wished to have the flowers, but there was no one to fetch and give them to her. The husband climbed the tree for her, going even out onto the slender branches; the branch snapped, and he fell to his death. The entire household, old and young, ran to the son's place, crying out to heaven and wailing loudly, fainting and reviving again. None who heard it failed to be heartbroken. Encoffining him, they escorted him back to the house, weeping incessantly. The World-Honoured One, pitying their folly, went to inquire after them. When the elder's household, old and young, saw the Buddha, they bowed down with sorrow and emotion, fully narrating their bitter pain. The Buddha said to the elder: "Cease, and listen to the Dharma. All things are impermanent and cannot be preserved for long. Where there is birth, there is death; offenses and blessings follow upon one another. For this boy, people in three places are weeping, broken by sorrow and anguish beyond endurance. Whose son is he after all? Who are his real kin?" Thereupon the World-Honoured One spoke a gāthā: