諸經要集 2.105

2.105

Also, the Sūtra on the Transmission of the Dharma Pitaka says: In the past, one hundred years after the Buddha's nirvāṇa, there was King Aśoka, who faithfully revered the Triratna. He constantly held the great pañcavārṣika assembly. When the day of the assembly arrived, the king bathed in perfumed water, put on fresh, clean robes, ascended a high tower, bowed in homage to the four directions, and invited the Saṅgha from afar. Twenty myriad holy beings flew to attend. The king's faithful devotion was deep, vast, and hard to measure. Seeing the śramaṇas—whether old or young, common or holy—he went out to greet them, inquired after them, and reverently paid homage. At that time, there was a minister named Yaśa whose wrong views flared fiercely, and he had no faithful reverence in his heart. Seeing the king paying homage, he said, 'The king lacks wisdom immensely, lowering his exalted virtue to bow down to young children.' Having heard this, the king ordered his ministers, sending each to search for the heads of a hundred beasts that had died of themselves, requiring one head per person, while dispatching Yaśa alone to seek a human head. Once acquired, he ordered each of them to go to the market and sell them. All the other heads were sold, but anyone who saw Yaśa's human head despised it as vile, and absolutely no one bought it. After a few days, it began to rot. When the crowd saw it, they all reviled him together, saying to him, 'You are not a caṇḍāla, a yakṣa, or a rākṣasa—how can you hold up a dead person's head to sell?' Having been reviled, Yaśa went to the king and reported, 'Your minister tried to sell the human head, but was reviled instead. None even wished to look at it, let alone buy it.' The king further told him, 'If no one buys it, just give it away for free.' Yaśa, receiving the instruction, brought it into the market again and announced to the people, 'Those who have no money to buy it, I shall now give it to you for free.' Hearing this, the market people reviled him even more harshly, and none was willing to take it. Ashamed, Yaśa returned to the king, joined his palms, and said to the king, 'This head is difficult to sell; even given for free, no one takes it, and I was reviled instead—how could anyone buy it?' The king asked Yaśa, 'What thing is the most noble?' Yaśa answered the king, 'A human being is the most noble.' The king said, 'If it is noble, why was it not sold?' Yaśa answered the king, 'Although a person is noble when alive, in death they are vile and base.' The king asked Yaśa, 'If my head dies, will it be as base as this?' Terrified, Yaśa was afraid and did not dare reply. The king said, 'I grant you fearlessness; you must answer truthfully.' Frightened, Yaśa bowed his head and answered the king, 'If the king's head dies, it will also be as base as this.' The king said to Yaśa, 'If my head in death is as base as this, why do you fault me for bowing in reverence to the Saṅgha? If you were my true good friend, you should encourage me to exchange a fragile head for an indestructible head. Why do you now stop me from paying homage?' When Yaśa heard these words of the king, he only then reproached himself, abandoned the wrong and followed the right, and took refuge in and revered the Triratna. Because of this cause and condition, any living beings who hear this, whenever they see the Triratna, should reverently pay homage with the utmost sincerity.