釋氏要覽 3.186

3.186

When the Buddha was in the Jeta Grove, he saw that the ground was unclean. Wishing to cause living beings who delight in merit to plant pure karma in the supreme field of merit, the Buddha personally took a broom and wished to sweep. When the great śrāvakas saw this, they all took brooms and swept together. The Buddha said: 'Sweeping the ground has five supreme benefits: first, one's own mind becomes pure; second, it causes the minds of others to become pure; third, the devas are pleased; fourth, it plants karma of handsome appearance; fifth, at the end of life, one will be reborn in the heavens.' The Āgama sūtras state: 'The Buddha taught Cūḍapanthaka to recite the words 'broom' (sao-zhou), and also taught him to hold a broom. The Buddha said: "When you recite these words, what do they refer to? This broom is also named 'remover of dirt'." Panthaka contemplated thus: "Dirt refers to dust, earth, tiles, and stones; removal refers to purity. The Buddha instructed me with this to make me contemplate that fetters are dirt and wisdom is removal. Now I can use the broom of wisdom to remove the dirt of fetters." Because of this, he immediately became an arhat.' The Ekottarika-āgama states: 'Sweeping the ground has five things whereby one does not obtain merit: namely, not knowing against the wind, not knowing with the wind, not making heaps, not removing dung, and not making it clean.' The Dharmaguptaka states: 'Sweeping against the wind, not obliterating footprints, not removing dung, and not returning the broom to its original place.' The Saddharmasmṛtyupasthāna-sūtra states: 'If one sweeps a Tathāgata stūpa, at the end of life one will be born into a mind-pleasing deva body, and its fragrance will perfume a hundred yojanas.'