諸經要集 9.30

9.30

As the Dharmapada-avadāna-sūtra says: In the past, when the Buddha was in the world, there was a merchant king named Pukkusāti who entered the city of Rājagṛha to beg for alms. At the city gate, there was a newly calved cow by which he was gored to death. The cow's owner was terrified, so he sold the cow to someone else. As that person was leading the cow to drink water, the cow again gored its master to death from behind. The master's family was enraged; they seized the cow and killed it, selling the meat in the market. A rustic bought the cow's head, hung it on a carrying pole, and carried it home. A little over a li from his home, he sat down under a tree to rest, hanging the cow's head from a tree branch. After a moment, the rope snapped, the cow's head fell down right onto the man, and the cow's horns pierced the man, who died on the spot. In a single day, it had killed a total of three people. King Bimbisāra heard of this, marveled at it, and immediately went with his ministers to the Buddha's presence to ask the meaning of it in detail. The Buddha told the king, "Long ago, there were three merchants who went to another country to engage in trade and lodged at the house of a solitary old woman. They were supposed to pay her the rent for the room. Seeing that the old woman was alone, they cheated her and did not wish to pay. Waiting until the old woman was away, they quietly left without paying. When the old woman returned and did not see the guests, she asked the neighbours, who all said they had left. The old woman was enraged, pursued them, caught up with them exhausted, and demanded the payment. The three guests reviled her, saying, 'We already paid you before; why do you demand it again?' With one voice they denied it and refused to pay the rent. The old woman, solitary and weak, could do nothing; in distress and anger, she cursed them, saying: 'I am now in poverty and distress; how can you bear to cheat and deny me? I vow that wherever I am born in future lives, if I meet you, I must kill you! Even if you have attained the Way, I will never let you be!'" The Buddha said to King Bimbisāra: "The old woman of that time is now this cow. The three merchants are the three men, Pukkusāti and the others, who were gored to death by the cow." Thereupon, the Bhagavat spoke this verse: