法苑珠林 99.43

99.43

As the Fu fazang jing says: At that time there was a king named Kaniṣka. He was greedy, tyrannical, and unprincipled, repeatedly launching military campaigns and wearing out the people without knowing satiety. Seeking to rule the four seas, he garrisoned the frontiers, causing relatives to be separated. [His subjects thought,] 'When will such suffering ever cease? We should unite in mind to eliminate him together; only then will we find happiness.' Taking advantage of the king's illness and suffering, they smothered him with a quilt; people sat upon it, and in an instant his breath was cut off. Because he had listened to the monk Aśvaghoṣa preach the Dharma, he was reborn in the great ocean as a thousand-headed fish. A wheel of swords circled and severed his heads, but as soon as they were cut off they grew again and were severed once more in succession; this rotated unceasingly to an immeasurable extent, and within an instant heads filled the great ocean. At that time, an arhat was serving as the monastic karmadāna. The king addressed him, saying, 'Now, whenever this wheel of swords hears the sound of the ghaṇṭā, it immediately halts, and during that interval my pain briefly ceases. I only pray that the Venerable One will take pity and show compassion: if you strike the ghaṇṭā, prolong it for a long time.' Out of pity, the arhat struck it for an extended duration. After seven days had passed, his suffering was ended. At this monastery, because of that king, the practice of striking the ghaṇṭā for a long duration was passed down in succession, and even down to the present day it remains as it was originally."