諸經要集 7.34

7.34

Also, the Fajubiyu jing says: In the past there was a brāhmaṇa who left home in his youth to study the way. When he reached sixty he had still been unable to attain the way. According to the brāhmaṇa custom, if one does not attain the way by sixty, one then returns home, takes a wife, and lives as a householder. He fathered a son who was handsome and lovely. When the boy reached seven years of age, he was clear-sighted in his studies, and talents and eloquence poured from his mouth; his conduct surpassed other men. Suddenly he contracted a grave illness and died in a single night. The brahmacārin pitied him and could not bear it; prostrating himself over the corpse, he fainted and revived. His kinsmen admonished and reasoned with him, took away the corpse, placed it in a coffin, and buried it outside the city. The brahmacārin thought to himself: ‘My weeping now serves no purpose whatsoever. It would be better to go to King Yama's abode and beg for my son's life.’ Thereupon the brahmacārin bathed, purified himself, took flowers and incense, and departed from his home. Wherever he went he asked people: ‘Where is King Yama's domain located?’ Moving forward from place to place, he traveled several thousand li and reached deep mountains, where he saw brahmacārins who had attained the way. He asked them as before. The brahmacārins asked: ‘Sir, why do you ask for King Yama's domain? What are you seeking?’ He replied: ‘I had a son whose eloquence and wisdom surpassed other men. Recently he died suddenly. Plunged into sorrow and distress, I cannot find relief. I wish to go to the king's abode to beg for my son's life, and bring him back home to support me in my old age.’ The brahmacārins, pitying his foolishness, said to him: ‘The place where King Yama governs is not somewhere living people can reach. We shall show you the direction: you should travel west from here for more than four hundred li, where there is a great valley with a city inside it. This is the city where the heavenly spirits stay overnight when inspecting the world. On the fourth day of the fourth month, King Yama always passes through this city on his inspection tour. If you observe the purificatory precepts and go there, you will certainly see him.’ The brahmacārin rejoiced, followed their instructions, and went. Arriving in the valley, he saw fine city walls, with palaces and houses like those in the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven. The brahmacārin arrived at the gate, burned incense, stood on one foot, and uttered vows seeking to see King Yama. The king ordered the gatekeeper to usher him in. The brahmacārin said: ‘Late in life I had a son to provide for my old age. I raised him for seven years, but recently his life ended. I pray only that the Great King will bestow his grace and give me back my son's life.’ King Yama said: ‘What you ask is very good. Your son is now playing in the eastern garden; go take him yourself.’ The brahmacārin went at once and saw his son playing together with other young boys. He rushed forward, embraced him, and wept, saying: ‘I have thought of you day and night, finding no savor in food or sleep. Do you not remember the hardships of your parents?’ The boy cried out in alarm and scolded him, saying: ‘You foolish old man, you do not understand the truth! I lodged there only for a moment; you call another person your son! Do not speak reckless words—you had better leave early! Now I have my own parents here. By mere chance encounter you pointlessly take me in your arms!’ The brahmacārin departed dejectedly in tears. He thought to himself: ‘I have heard that the śramaṇa Gautama knows the path of transformations of the human spirit. I should go and ask him.’ Thereupon the brahmacārin returned to where the Buddha was. At that time the Buddha was at the Jetavana in Śrāvastī, expounding the Dharma for the great assembly. Seeing the Buddha, the brahmacārin bowed his head in homage and related the matter from beginning to end to the Buddha: ‘He was truly my son, yet he would not acknowledge me; instead he called me a foolish old man, saying I lodged there for a moment and claim him as my son, showing no affection between father and son at all. What is the cause of this?’ The Buddha told the brahmacārin: ‘You are truly foolish. When a person dies and the spirit departs, it takes another bodily form. Parents, wives, and children come together by causes and conditions, just as lodgers assemble and disperse upon rising. Deluded fools are bound by attachment, reckoning them to be their own; in sorrow, grief, and distress they do not know the root. Drowning in birth and death, they never rest. Only the wise do not crave affection; realizing suffering, they abandon its origin, diligently practice the scriptures and precepts, extinguish consciousness and conception, and put an end to birth and death.’ When the brahmacārin heard this, his mind was opened in understanding, and right upon his seat he attained the path of the arhat.”