諸經要集 20.67

20.67

又佛說除災患經云。佛告阿難。乃前世過去迦葉佛時。人壽二萬歲。佛事終竟。復捨壽命。爾時有王名曰善頸。供養舍利。起七寶塔高一由延。一切眾生然燈燒香。香華繒綵供養禮事。時有眾女欲供養塔。便共相率掃除塔地。時有狗糞污穢塔地。時有一女人手撮除棄。復有一人。見其以手除地狗糞。便唾笑之曰。汝手已污不可復近。彼女逆罵。汝弊婬物。水洗我手便可復淨。佛天人師敬意無已。手除不淨已便澡手。繞塔求願。令掃塔地污穢得除。令我世世勞垢消滅清淨無穢。時諸女人掃塔地者。今此會中諸女人是。爾時掃地。願滅塵勞服甘露味。爾時以手除狗糞女者。今柰女是。爾時發願不與污穢會所生清淨。以是福報。不因胞胎臭穢之處。每因華生以其爾時。發一惡聲罵言婬女。故今受是婬女之名。值佛聞法得須陀洹。

Furthermore, the Sūtra on Dispelling Calamities and Disasters states: The Buddha told Ānanda, 'In a past life during the time of Kāśyapa Buddha, when the human lifespan was twenty thousand years, after the Buddha’s deeds were completed, he relinquished his lifespan. At that time, there was a king named Good Neck (Subhakaṇṭha) who made offerings to the relics and erected a seven-jeweled stūpa one yojana high. All sentient beings lit lamps, burned incense, and made offerings and obeisance with fragrant flowers and patterned silks. At that time, a group of women wished to make offerings to the stūpa, so they led one another to sweep the ground of the stūpa. Then dog dung defiled the ground of the stūpa. One woman picked it up with her hand and discarded it. Another person saw her removing the dog dung from the ground with her hand, spat, and laughed at her, saying: “Your hand is already defiled; you may not come near again!” The woman retorted with an insult: “You wretched harlot! When I wash my hand with water, it will be clean again. The Buddha is the teacher of gods and humans; my reverence has no end.” Having removed the impurity with her hand, she washed her hands, circumambulated the stūpa, and made a vow: “May sweeping the stūpa grounds and removing the defilements cause the defilements of toil in my lifetimes to be eradicated, remaining pure and unstained.” The women who swept the ground of the stūpa at that time are the women now in this assembly. In sweeping the ground back then, they vowed to extinguish the dust of toil and partake of the taste of amṛta. The woman who removed the dog dung with her hand at that time is now Āmrapālī. Because she made the vow back then not to meet with defilement and to be born pure, by the karmic reward of this merit, she was not born from the foul womb, but was always born from a flower. And because back then she uttered one harsh word, scolding her as a harlot, she now received this name of harlot. Encountering the Buddha and hearing the Dharma, she attained the fruit of srotāpanna.'