釋氏要覽 2.148

2.148

雜譬喻經云。昔有一國。五穀豐熟。絕兵無疫。人民常樂。其王忽問群臣曰。我聞四方有禍何似。對曰臣亦未識。王遣求覓要見。臣遂推求。是時天神化作一物似猪。賣於市中。其臣問名曰是禍母。四方之禍。皆由此生也。問食曰日食針一升。遂買進王。勅令畜養。飼針國乏。乃率於民。民輸不堪。逃移他土。有智臣請殺。乃至斫刺。無能傷害。遂焚之身亦同火。躍走入城。一切燒盡。此買禍母所致也。喻比丘不護戒身。欲火所燒。身名俱失。

The Samyukta-avadāna Sūtra says: In the past, there was a country where the five grains were abundant, wars had ceased, and there were no pestilences; the people were always joyful. The king suddenly asked his ministers, 'I hear there is calamity in the four directions; what does it look like?' They replied, 'Your ministers do not know either.' The king sent them to search for it, insisting on seeing it. The ministers then investigated and searched. At that time, a deva transformed into an animal resembling a pig and sold it in the marketplace. The ministers asked its name, and [the vendor] said, 'This is the Mother of Calamity. The calamities of the four directions all arise from this.' They asked what it ate, and he said, 'It eats one sheng of needles a day.' They then bought it and presented it to the king, who ordered it to be raised. Feeding it with needles depleted the state, so levies were imposed upon the people. The people could not bear the payments and fled to other lands. A wise minister requested that it be killed, yet even when hacked and stabbed, it could not be harmed. They then burned it, but its body became fire itself; it leapt up, ran into the city, and burned everything to the ground. This was caused by buying the Mother of Calamity. It is a metaphor for a monk who does not protect his body of precepts: burned by the fire of desire, both his body and reputation are lost.