菩薩從兜術天降神母胎說廣普經 7.4

7.4

"At that time, the master earnestly wished to detain me, but having no other scriptures for me to learn, I took leave of the master, went down the mountain, and proceeded to a village to beg. I saw more than five thousand non-Buddhist brahmacārins gathered in a great settlement to offer sacrifice to the heavens together. Their custom of sacrificing to the heavens was to slaughter five hundred cows, five hundred wethers, five hundred camels, five hundred horses, and among the elephants the robust ones possessing six tusks, along with five hundred women, one gold staff, one gold washing pitcher, one thousand pieces of white fine cotton cloth, and fifty thousand each of gold and silver coins. After the sacrifice to the heavens was finished, all these treasures were to go to the master. At that time, I shook off the dust and grime from my clothes. Having previously practiced austerities in the mountains for years, I wore deer-skin clothing. Hearing that this group of non-Buddhist brahmacārins, a congregation of five thousand led by their master, was holding a great sacrificial assembly, I went over there. At that time, their leader said to me: 'The one who knows many scriptures and techniques shall take the upper seat, while the one with few scriptures shall occupy the lower seat.' That master's knowledge could not penetrate the secret prognostications, so they made me take the upper seat. That master was enraged: 'What sort of man is this? The rare treasures and sundry goods should now belong to me! This man has snatched them away. If we are reborn and encounter each other again, I will surely take revenge, just as he has now snatched them from me!' At that time, I said: 'Wrong views and inversions are neither real nor true. I distinguish between existence and non-existence to expound nirvāṇa for you: free of birth, old age, sickness, and death; free of that and free of this; the intermediate contemplation of the purity of inherent characteristics; the four fearlessnesses; that merit leads to birth in heaven, and sin leads to hell; stinginess and greed lead to hungry ghosts; defaulting on debts leads to animals; and the retribution of good and evil follows like a shadow following a form.' At that time, the minds of the five thousand were awakened, and they immediately invited me to be their master. At that time, the elephants, horses, cows, sheep, and camels were all meant to be slaughtered, but I did not slaughter them. I was supposed to take the gold staff and the washing pitcher, but I gave them to the angry one in the upper seat. The five hundred women were returned to the host of the sacrifice. Of the fifty thousand gold coins, I took five hundred; of the fifty thousand silver coins, I took five hundred; and the remainder was entrusted to the sacrificial host."