諸經要集 16.74

16.74

Furthermore, the Dà zhìdù lùn says: There was a venomous dragon of great strength. If he looked at people with his eyes, the weak died immediately; if he blew his breath upon people, the strong also died. Once, the dragon took the one-day precepts, left the household life, and entered among the forest trees. Having sat in contemplation for a long time, he grew weary and fell asleep. According to the nature of dragons, when sleeping his form was like a snake, variegated with the seven precious substances. A hunter saw him and said in pleasant surprise: 'With this rare and hard-to-find skin, to present it to the king to use as a boat ornament, would that not be fitting?' He then pressed his head down with a stick and flayed his skin with a knife. The dragon thought to himself: 'My strength can overturn the realm; how could this single small thing distress me? Because I am now upholding the precepts, I do not begrudge this body. I must follow the Buddha's words.' He endured it, closing his eyes without looking and holding his breath without panting, having pity for this person. For the sake of upholding the precepts, he single-mindedly endured the flaying without giving rise to regret. After losing his skin, his red flesh lay on the ground. The sun was very hot, and he tossed and turned in the dirt, wishing to head toward the great water. Seeing many small insects come to feed on his body, for the sake of upholding the precepts he did not dare move again. He reflected to himself: 'Now I offer this body of mine in dāna to the insects for the sake of the Buddha-Way. Now I offer my flesh in dāna to fill their bodies; later I will offer the Dharma in dāna to benefit their minds.' When his body dried up and his life ended, he was immediately born in the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven. If an animal can still uphold the restrictive precepts firmly, not violating them even unto death, how much more so for a human being—how could one willfully violate them? Furthermore, the Mahīśāsaka-vinaya says: The Buddha said: In the past, there was a black snake that stung a calf and went back into its hole. There was a spell-master who chanted a mountain-goat spell to make it come out of the hole, but could not make it come out. The spell-master then made a fire before the calf, chanted spells over it, and transformed it into fire-bees, which entered the snake's hole and burned the snake. Unable to bear the pain, the snake then came out of the hole. The mountain goat hooked it with its horns and placed it before the spell-master. The spell-master spoke to it, saying: 'Take back your venom! If not, I will throw you into this fire.' The black snake then spoke a verse, saying: