佛說心明經 1

English (machine translation) 1

Language: English

1.1

Translated by Zhu Fahu, Tripiṭaka Master of the Yuezhi nation, under the Western Jin

At one time, the Buddha was staying on Mount Gṛdhrakūṭa in Rājagṛha, accompanied by a great assembly of five hundred monks and the fourfold assembly. In the early morning, the Buddha put on his robes, took his alms bowl, and went to a district to make his alms round. Heavenly beings, dragons, and spirits followed above, attending him. He arrived outside the gate of a brahma-cultist's residence and stood there, and the Buddha emitted a great light that illuminated the ten directions everywhere.

1.4

At that time, the brahma-cultist's wife was tending the stove and cooking rice. Seeing the light shine upon her body, her body became peaceful and secure, and an immeasurable joyful ease arose within her. She thought to herself: “This radiant light is not like the brightness of the sun, the moon, Śakra, Brahmā, or the devas of the Four Heavenly Kings. I am so filled with joy and delight that I cannot contain myself.” Looking back, she saw the Buddha, upright, dignified, and extraordinary—like the moon amid the stars, with wondrous marks grand and towering, endowed with all the handsome features, his sense faculties tranquil and serene, free from any decline, abiding in the supreme stillness, and having attained the foremost samādhi. He was like the sun first rising above a mountain peak, or like a wheel-turning king gracing his great palace, flanked and followed by his assisting ministers; or again like Śakra openly presiding over Trāyastriṃśa, or like the Brahmā King supreme among the seven heavens, or like snow upon a high mountain brilliantly and universally manifest. Her joy doubled, and she reflected further: “Now to behold the Buddha and the Buddha's disciples truly fulfills my past aspiration! I wish to present and offer food to the Fully Awakened One. Yet when I quietly consider my foolish husband, who has no faith in the Way and virtue and whose mind is set upon wrong doubts and the sixty-two views, if he sees what I give, he will surely harbor resentment. Owing to faults in past lives, I lost my valiant male form and fell into this female guise, held under another’s restraint. Wishing to make an offering to the Holy Honoured One, I am not free to do as I wish. How should I act while accommodating and guarding his mind?” She then took a strainer of rice, took a single ladle of rice broth, and offered it to the Buddha. By the Buddha's spiritual power, the bowl naturally filled with food of a hundred flavors. The Buddha then performed the dakṣiṇā and, chanting in praise, spoke this verse:

1.5

“Though one were to give a hundred horses, / with saddles and bridles adorned in gold and silver, / and bestow them in charity upon others, / it would not equal a single ladle of rice broth. / If one were to give seven-jeweled carriages, / filled with all kinds of precious treasures, / offering a ladle of rice broth to the Buddha / produces merit far exceeding that. / If one were to give a hundred white elephants, / decorated with bright pearls and necklaces, / offering a single ladle of broth to the Buddha / produces merit surpassing them all. / Even like a holy wheel-turning king, / or the wondrous Queen of the Jade-Maiden Jewel, / beautiful beyond compare, / her body adorned with the seven jewels and necklaces— / if one had a hundred of such marvelous things / and gave them all away to people, / it would not equal a single ladle of broth.”

1.6

At that time, the brahma-cultist, who had been quietly standing and listening, heard the Buddha's praise and became doubtful in his heart. He stepped forward and asked the Buddha: “What is a single ladle of rice broth worth, that you praise it so? These various gifts of treasures, elephants, horses, and carriages are beyond reproach, yet you say they do not equal the gift of a ladle of rice broth! This rice broth is not worth a single coin, yet you praise it as many hundreds of millions of times greater. Who could believe this?”

1.7

Thereupon, the World-Honoured One immediately displayed his broad and long tongue, which covered his face and reached up to the Brahmā heaven. He told the brahma-cultist: “For countless hundreds of thousands of millions of kalpas, I have constantly practiced absolute sincerity and the six perfections, bestowing all that brings peace, giving without stinginess whatever I possessed. Only through this did I obtain such a tongue—could it possibly be acquired through false speech? I wish to ask you a question; answer me with absolute sincerity. Have you ever traveled back and forth between Śrāvastī and Rājagṛha, where along the road there is a tree called nyagrodha that provides shade for a crowd of people and five hundred carriages?”

1.8

He answered: “Indeed, there is such a tree; I have seen it.”

1.9

The World-Honoured One asked again: “How large are its seeds?”

1.10

He answered: “In size, like a mustard seed.”

1.11

The Buddha told the brahma-cultist: “You are truly speaking with a double tongue. If it is truly like a mustard seed, how could the tree be so immense?”

1.12

He answered: “It is truly so; I would not dare deceive you.”

1.13

The Buddha told him again: “The seed is like a mustard seed, yet it grows into a vast tree; the earth's generative power has nowhere it cannot accommodate, and what it covers is exceedingly broad. How much more so the Tathāgata, the Unsurpassed, Truly Real, and Completely Awakened One, who universally excels through an immeasurable assembly of merits? In morality, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and the knowledge and vision of liberation, through his great benevolence and vast compassion there is none he does not deliver; the meritorious reward of offering him food is difficult to calculate.” The brahma-cultist was silent, having nothing further to reply.

1.14

Then the Buddha smiled, and a five-colored light emerged from his mouth, illuminating the ten directions. The beings of the five destinies—the desires of the devas ceased, the hearts of humans rejoiced, the hungry ghosts were satisfied, the pains of hell ceased, and the minds of animals opened—having had their sins removed, followed the light and came to the Buddha's location. The smiles of all Buddhas have constant auspicious portents: when bestowing a prophecy upon a bodhisattva, the light shines everywhere throughout the ten directions and enters the crown of the head; when bestowing a prophecy upon a pratyekabuddha, the light enters the face; when bestowing a prophecy upon a śrāvaka, the light enters the shoulders; when speaking of rebirth in heaven, the light enters the navel; when speaking of descent into the human realm, the light enters the knees; when speaking of falling into the three states of suffering, it enters the soles of the feet. The joy of the Buddhas is not a smile born of desire, nor of anger, nor of delusion, nor of heedlessness, nor of profit and gain, nor of honor and rank, nor of wealth and abundance. Now the Buddha, with universal equanimity, took pity on all sentient beings, and this smile of great benevolence was free of these seven things.

1.15

The Venerable Ānanda, who distinguished the seven qualities—knowing the Dharma, understanding the meaning, knowing the right time, understanding moderation, being articulate in the matters of assemblies, examining himself, and discerning the faculties of people—immediately rose from his seat, adjusted his robes, knelt down, and asked the Buddha: “For what reason did the Buddha smile? May you please explain its meaning.”

1.16

The Buddha said to Ānanda: “Did you see the wife of the brahma-cultist generate the great aspiration?”

1.17

He replied: “I saw it.”

1.18

The Buddha said: “When this woman's life comes to an end, she will transform her female form and become a man. She will be born in heaven as the foremost among the devas, and descend to be born in the world as the supreme among humans. She will understand the profound and wondrous Dharma as like an illusion, like a transformation, like the moon in the water, a shadow, an echo, a mirage. Thirty kalpas from now, she will become a Buddha named Xinming (Clear-Minded), Tathāgata, Truly Real, Completely Awakened, Accomplished in Knowledge and Conduct, Sugata, Knower of the World, Unsurpassed Person, Charioteer of the Dharma, Teacher of Gods and Humans, called Buddha, World-Honoured One.”

1.19

The brahma-cultist's heart was subdued. He threw himself to the ground with his five limbs, reproached himself in his heart, and repented, saying: “I was like a child, foolish and blinded by ignorance, harboring doubts and hesitation, failing to recognize the Great Sage and speaking coarse words. I pray only that my offenses be forgiven!”

1.20

The Buddha said: “Excellent! Excellent! If one recognizes one's own faults, takes refuge in the Buddha, and repents of one's defilements within the Way, the Dharma, and the Vinaya, one's offenses will diminish, and one's blessings will increase day by day.”

1.21

The brahma-cultist stepped forward and petitioned: “I pray only that you show great compassion! Bestow grace, pity, and acceptance upon me, and allow me to leave the household life.” The Buddha immediately accepted him as a śramaṇa. His hair and beard were removed, and the Dharma robes were upon his body. At that time, the World-Honoured One taught the Four Noble Truths—suffering, origin, cessation, and the path. The brahma-cultist rejoiced, his outpourings were extinguished, and his mind was liberated.

1.22

When the Buddha had spoken this, the Venerable Ānanda, the fourfold assembly, the heavenly beings, dragons, and spirits all generated the aspiration for the Way, and with rejoicing, bowed their heads in homage.

1.23

The Sūtra on Xinming, Spoken by the Buddha

Linked texts (1)

佛說心明經 — Classical Chinese