諸經要集 9.30

9.30

如法句喻經云。昔佛在世時。有賈客。名弗迦沙王。入羅閱城分衛。於城門中有新產牸牛。被所觝殺。牛主怖懼。賣牛轉與他人。其牽牛欲飲水。牛從後復觝殺其主。其主家人瞋恚。取牛殺之。於市賣肉。有田舍人。買取牛頭貫擔持歸。去舍里餘坐樹下息。以牛頭掛樹枝。須臾繩斷牛頭落下。正墮人上。牛角刺人即時命終。一日之中凡殺三人。瓶沙王聞之。怪其如此。即與群臣往詣佛所。具問其意。佛告王曰。往昔有賈客三人。到他國內興生。寄住孤獨老母舍。應與雇舍直。見老母孤獨。欺不欲與。伺老母不在。默去不與。母歸不見客。即問比居。皆云已去。老母瞋恚。尋後逐及疲頓索直。三客逆罵。我前已與云何復索。同聲共觝不肯與直。老母單弱不能奈何。懊惱罵呪。我今窮厄何忍欺觝。願我後世所生之處。若當相值要當殺汝。正使得道。終不相置。佛語瓶沙王。爾時老母者今此牸牛是也。三賈客者弗迦沙等三人。為牛所觝殺者是也。於是世尊即說偈言。

As the Dharmapada-avadāna-sūtra says: In the past, when the Buddha was in the world, there was a merchant king named Pukkusāti who entered the city of Rājagṛha to beg for alms. At the city gate, there was a newly calved cow by which he was gored to death. The cow's owner was terrified, so he sold the cow to someone else. As that person was leading the cow to drink water, the cow again gored its master to death from behind. The master's family was enraged; they seized the cow and killed it, selling the meat in the market. A rustic bought the cow's head, hung it on a carrying pole, and carried it home. A little over a li from his home, he sat down under a tree to rest, hanging the cow's head from a tree branch. After a moment, the rope snapped, the cow's head fell down right onto the man, and the cow's horns pierced the man, who died on the spot. In a single day, it had killed a total of three people. King Bimbisāra heard of this, marveled at it, and immediately went with his ministers to the Buddha's presence to ask the meaning of it in detail. The Buddha told the king, "Long ago, there were three merchants who went to another country to engage in trade and lodged at the house of a solitary old woman. They were supposed to pay her the rent for the room. Seeing that the old woman was alone, they cheated her and did not wish to pay. Waiting until the old woman was away, they quietly left without paying. When the old woman returned and did not see the guests, she asked the neighbours, who all said they had left. The old woman was enraged, pursued them, caught up with them exhausted, and demanded the payment. The three guests reviled her, saying, 'We already paid you before; why do you demand it again?' With one voice they denied it and refused to pay the rent. The old woman, solitary and weak, could do nothing; in distress and anger, she cursed them, saying: 'I am now in poverty and distress; how can you bear to cheat and deny me? I vow that wherever I am born in future lives, if I meet you, I must kill you! Even if you have attained the Way, I will never let you be!'" The Buddha said to King Bimbisāra: "The old woman of that time is now this cow. The three merchants are the three men, Pukkusāti and the others, who were gored to death by the cow." Thereupon, the Bhagavat spoke this verse: