諸經要集 5.55

5.55

For instance, of old there was the elder Jyotiṣka, who made a sandalwood bowl, placed it in an openwork net bag, hung it high on an ivory peg, and said: 'If any śramaṇa or brāhmaṇa can obtain it without using a ladder or staff, I shall give it to him.' The various Buddhist and non-Buddhist practitioners, knowing he wished to see supernormal powers, all shook their heads and walked away. When Piṇḍola heard of this, he asked Maudgalyāyana: 'Is it really so?' He replied: 'It is really so. You are foremost among those who roar the lion's roar; go and take it.' Maudgalyāyana feared the Buddha’s instruction and was unwilling to take it. Piṇḍola then went to his house and entered meditative absorption; right from his seat, he extended his hand and took the bowl. According to the Dharmaguptaka-vinaya, at that time he was sitting on a square rock of immense breadth, which followed his body and flew through the air; having obtained the bowl, he departed. When the Buddha heard this, he rebuked him: 'A monk, for the sake of a non-Buddhist’s bowl, has displayed supernormal power before an unordained person! From this day until the end of your life, you are expelled; you may not dwell in Jambudvīpa.' Thereupon, Piṇḍola, in accordance with the Buddha’s injunction, went to Western Aparagodānīya to teach and transform the fourfold assembly and broadly propagate the Buddha's Dharma. When the four groups of disciples in Jambudvīpa yearned to see Piṇḍola, they addressed the Buddha. The Buddha permitted his return to his seat, but because he had displayed supernormal faculties, he was not permitted to enter nirvāṇa, and was commanded to serve as a field of merit for the fourfold assembly of the latter age. He also made a vow himself: wherever invited in the three continents, he would go. Furthermore, in the Aśokāvadāna, the monk Samudra flew into the air from a caldron and spoke a verse for the king: