諸經要集 20.66

20.66

Also, the Damamūka-nidāna-sūtra states: Formerly, when the Buddha was in the world, there was a poor man in Śrāvastī named Nidhi. Extremely poor and lowly, he was always hired to remove excrement. Knowing that he was ready for deliverance, the Buddha took Ānanda and went to his location. It coincided with Nidhi carrying excrement out of the city intending to discard it; the jar broke and soiled his body. Seeing the Bhagavat from afar, he felt deep shame and could not bear to see the Buddha. The Buddha arrived at his location and expounded the Dharma extensively for him; he immediately gave rise to faith and wished to leave household life. The Buddha sent Ānanda to take him to the river, and after giving him water to wash, brought him to the Jetavana. The Buddha expounded the Dharma for him, and he attained the fruit of srotāpanna; immediately upon leaving household life, he attained the fruit of arhat. The people and the king of the country, hearing of his renunciation, all harbored resentment: ‘How could the Buddha permit this person to leave household life?’ King Prasenajit went to the Buddha's place wishing to overturn this matter. It happened that Nidhi was at the gate of the Jetavana, sitting upon a large stone mending old robes, with seven hundred devas making offerings of incense and flowers. Seeing this, the king rejoiced and asked to be announced to the Buddha. The bhikṣu Nidhi submerged his body into the stone, entering and exiting freely. After announcing him, the king arrived at the Buddha's place and first asked about this matter: ‘What is the family name and personal name of that bhikṣu just now?’ The Buddha told the king: ‘He is the lowly man in Your Majesty's kingdom, the excrement-remover Nidhi.’ Hearing the Buddha's words, the king's slanderous thoughts were immediately eliminated; he went to Nidhi's location, clasped his feet in homage, and repented with apologies. The king addressed the Buddha, saying: ‘What karma did the bhikṣu Nidhi perform in the past to receive this lowly body?’ The Buddha told the king: ‘Formerly, after Kāśyapa Buddha entered nirvāṇa, there was a bhikṣu who had left household life and freely managed the affairs of the Saṅgha. His body being temporarily indisposed, he was too lazy to get up to go out, and relieved himself in a vessel, sending a disciple to carry it away and discard it. However, that disciple was a srotāpanna. By this cause and condition, he drifted in saṃsāra and was constantly lowly, removing excrement for others for five hundred lifetimes. Due to his past merit of renouncing the household and keeping the precepts, he has now met the Buddha, left household life, and attained the Way.’ (For this reason, one must not relieve oneself inside a room, which brings about the aforementioned retribution. One frequently sees worldly people who, being negligent and unable to move themselves, place foul vessels in their rooms to relieve themselves, causing others to carry them away and discard them day after day. In the future they will certainly fall into hell; even if they emerge from hell, they will still become pigs, dogs, dung beetles, or foul excrement-eating worms in privies.)