Toh 73The Noble Episode “King Udayana of Vatsa’s Questions”

Summary

Manipulated into a murderous rage by the jealous Queen Anupamā, King
Udayana launches a barrage of arrows at Queen Śyāmāvatī. King Udayana is
terrified when Queen Śyāmāvatī pays homage to the Buddha, cultivates loving
kindness, and the arrows are repelled. Awestruck by such a spectacle and
inspired by Queen Śyāmāvatī’s words of praise for the Buddha, King Udayana
approaches the Buddha and requests a teaching on the inadequacies of women. The
Buddha tells King Udayana that he must first understand his own faults and
proceeds to deliver a discourse on the four faults of men, such as attachment to
sense pleasures and failure to take care of elderly parents. The teaching is
delivered with a plethora of analogies and striking imagery to turn the mind
away from sensual desires. The work concludes with King Udayana giving up his
weapons and going for refuge in the Three Jewels, filled with love for all
beings.

Acknowledgements

The translation and introduction were prepared by Ben Ewing and Lowell
Cook.

The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of
84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha. David Fiordalis edited the
translation and introduction, and incorporated the evidence from the portions
preserved in Sanskrit. Dawn Collins copyedited the text. Martina Cotter was in
charge of the digital publication process.

Introduction

King Udayana of Vatsa’s Questions
is a cautionary discourse on the dangers of sense desires
and the consequences of acting on them. In this work, King Udayana is driven
into a murderous rage when his jealous wife, Queen Anupamā, deceives him
with lies about Queen Śyāmāvatī engaging in infidelities with the Buddha and
his monastic community. Queen Śyāmāvatī is a female lay disciple of the
Buddha, however, and when the king attempts to kill her, she pays homage to
the Buddha and cultivates loving kindness, and the king’s arrows are
miraculously repelled. This miraculous display, along with Queen Śyāmāvatī’s
own words of faith in the Buddha, convinces the king to seek him out and ask
for his guidance. King Udayana asks the Buddha to explain the faults of
women, such that they could lead him to commit murder, but the Buddha
responds that he must first understand his own faults. The rest of the work
consists of the Buddha explaining the four faults of men who indulge in
sense pleasures, causing them to fall under the sway of women, and the
hellish fates that await them as a result.

The four faults concern ignorant attachment to objects of desire:
reckless indulgence in sense pleasures; shameful neglect of one’s parents,
especially in their old age; immoral actions due to a failure to heed the
teachings of the wise; and miserly failure to give donations to those who
deserve them, such as renunciants, the Buddhist monastic community, and the
poor. Throughout the work, women are given as the primary example of objects
of sensual desire. The work goes into highly colorful descriptions, both in
prose and poetic verse, of the impure nature of the human body and of the
female body in particular, seemingly as a way of instilling a sense of
aversion and disgust for sensual pleasures like sexual activity. The Buddha
also analyzes the delusive nature of desire and the mental conditions under
which people become addicted to sensual pleasures. He gives extensive
descriptions of the terrible deeds men are driven to commit under the
influence of their desire for women, as well as the terrible fates that
await the men who commit such deeds. Their behaviors are condemned in no
uncertain terms. The text gives vivid descriptions of the punishments one
will undergo in many of the specific hell realms into which one may be
reborn, providing the names of many of them.

This text has received attention throughout the centuries for its
descriptions of the dangers of sexual desire toward women and of the impure
nature of the human body. Several passages from King
Udayana of Vatsa’s Questions, comprising about two to three
pages in all, are quoted in Śāntideva’s eighth-century work, the Śikṣāsamuccaya. Śāntideva uses this work,
among others, as a scriptural basis for a discussion of the harms of desire.
King Udayana of Vatsa’s Questions is also
quoted extensively by the yogi Shabkar (zhabs
dkar tshogs drug rang grol, 1781–1851) in his work The Wondrous Emanated Scriptures (rmad byung sprul pa’i glegs bam). In this
case, as well, King Udayana of Vatsa’s
Questions is used as scriptural evidence for the dangers of
desiring women. The sections quoted by Shabkar appear to match those in the
Degé Kangyur. In modern scholarship, Diana Paul has translated a version of
this work from Chinese and discussed it in her book Women in Buddhism.

The narrative framework of the Buddha’s discourse in this work
builds on the old story of Mākandika (Māgaṇḍiya in Pali), who offers his
beautiful daughter, Anupamā, to the Buddha. That a version of the Buddha’s
dialogue with Māgaṇḍiya is found in the Suttanipāta of the Pali Canon
suggests that the story is among the oldest in Buddhist literature,
and the Pali commentary on that text, which is also part of the Pali Canon,
provides one version of the backstory for the dialogue. Another
version of this tale, found in the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya (and also in
the closely related Divyāvadāna
),
starts earlier than the episode related in the present text and ends later.
Earlier, we learn, Mākandika had given his daughter to King Udayana after
the Buddha had refused her. And later, whereas King
Udayana of Vatsa’s Questions concludes when King Udayana becomes
a lay disciple of the Buddha, the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya version goes on to
describe how Queen Anupamā, undeterred in her murderous intent, subsequently
conspires with her father, Mākandika, who had become King Udayana’s chief
minister, to set fire to the queens’ quarters; that ultimately results in
the deaths of the morally pure Śyāmāvatī and the rest of King Udayana’s five
hundred wives, all of whom willingly cast themselves into the flames.

King Udayana seems to be portrayed in these stories as a powerful
but impulsive, passionate, and sometimes belligerent person who is led by
the Buddha to reflect and change. Another text in the Kangyur featuring King
Udayana of Vatsa that follows this pattern is Advice to
a King (2) (Toh 215). In its brief framing story, the king is
about to set out on a military campaign of conquest when he meets the
Buddha. At first angry about being intercepted, he shoots an arrow at the
Buddha, but the arrow is miraculously prevented from meeting its target—just
as, in the present text, the arrow he shoots at Queen Śyāmāvatī is stalled
and turned back. This startling event arouses his respect and he becomes
receptive to the advice the Buddha then gives him on combating the great
enemy of belief in a self.

King Udayana of Vatsa’s Questions is
included in all extant versions of the Kangyur as the 29th member of the
Ratnakūṭa, or Heap of Jewels, section. All versions agree that it was
translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan by the Indian scholars Jinamitra and
Surendrabodhi along with the Tibetan translator-editor Yeshé Dé, all of whom
were prolific in their translation activity. Given this translation team,
along with the fact that it is included in both the Phangthangma and
Denkarma imperial
catalogs, we can be confident that this work was translated into Tibetan
between the late eighth and early ninth centuries. The work was also
translated into Chinese on three different occasions: between 290–306 ce by Faju, in 706 ce
by Bodhiruci, and in 984 ce by Fatian. The
present translation is based on the Degé Kangyur with reference to variant
readings recorded in the Pedurma comparative edition and Stok Palace
edition, as well as the Sanskrit excerpts in the Śikṣāsamuccaya.

The Translation

The Noble Episode

King Udayana of Vatsa’s Questions

Homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas.

Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One was dwelling in the
Sarasvatī grove in Kauśāmbī with a great assembly of some five hundred monks
and numerous bodhisattva great beings. At that time, Queen Anupamā, daughter
of Mākandika, was overcome with jealousy and envy toward Queen
Śyāmāvatī.

Queen Anupamā, daughter of Mākandika, addressed King Udayana of
Vatsa: “Your Majesty, five hundred women, including Queen Śyāmāvatī, have
committed dishonorable acts with Gautama the mendicant. I humbly request
Your Majesty to act as you see fit with regard to this situation.”

With these lies, Queen Anupamā, daughter of Mākandika, sowed her
discord. Rage, aggression, and wrath toward the Blessed One and the assembly
of disciples welled up in King Udayana of Vatsa. Miserable and overcome with
a wrathful fury, he drew his bow and shot a razor-sharp arrow at Queen
Śyāmāvatī with murderous intent.

In that instant, Queen Śyāmāvatī called out, “Homage to the Blessed
One, the thus-gone, worthy, perfect Buddha!” She prostrated herself to the
Blessed One, praised him, and entered into meditative absorption on
loving-kindness. Through the power of the Buddha, the
razor-sharp arrow turned back and burst into flames directly above King
Udayana of Vatsa’s head. As it burned and blazed, it became a single flame,
sometimes moving about and sometimes standing still. Then, moving toward
King Udayana of Vatsa, the arrow remained on his right side without touching
his body.

King Udayana of Vatsa shot two or three more arrows with the same
result before Queen Śyāmāvatī said to him, “Great King, in this situation,
if you were to prostrate to the Thus-Gone One, you too would find
well-being.”

Full of terror and fear, King Udayana of Vatsa became weak, and his
hair stood on end. Falling to the ground, he spoke these verses to Queen
Śyāmāvatī:

“Are you a goddess or a gandharvī?

Are you a piśācī or a rākṣasī?

How is it that I should consider you?

Answer my question thus.

“There is no woman anywhere

Who is not harmed by weapons.

I have never heard of nor seen,

Nor known of someone like that.

“I am mighty and diligent

And skilled in the art of archery;

There is no doubting my arrow

For never has it missed.

“Whether it be monkeys or birds,

No matter if it be men or targets,

Wherever I shoot my arrow,

Never yet has it missed its mark.

“And yet today, this arrow that I shot

Returned back as if counteracted,

And—without any physical harm—

It came to rest right in front of me.

“Having heeded the words of others,

I desired to bring about your death,

Yet now I go to you for protection.

Please protect me, pitiful being that I am.

“Henceforth I will not act in this
manner.

Please be patient with miserable beings,

Recollect your past love for me, and

Delight therein, curbing your wrath.”

Queen Śyāmāvatī responded in verse to King Udayana of Vatsa:

“I am neither goddess nor gandharvī,

Nor am I a piśācī or rākṣasī.

I am the queen Śyāmāvatī,

A disciple of the Lord of the World.

“Out of affection for Your Majesty,

I rested my mind in meditative absorption.

Let your mind now develop faith

In the sovereign master, the Lord of the World.

“He has taught that one should not kill

Any man or woman who has cultivated

Loving-kindness for billions of eons,

And who abides in loving-kindness.

“He who is unharmed by women,

And who knows the true nature of things,

As one knows ripe grain by its golden color,

It is in his teaching that I find joy.

“All the lords of the world

Have taught that women are loathsome;

Those who avoid gazing upon women

Are exalted by the lords of the world.

“Buddhas, pratyekabuddhas,

Bodhisattvas, and disciples

Do not indulge in women

For it is but a foolish pursuit.

“To indulge in women

Is taught to be Māra’s noose.

Attachment to negative deeds

Is a path to distress and destruction.

“The unwise who cling to women,

Perform acts of wickedness,

And seek to reject wisdom

Will be led to the lower realms.

“The wise who wish for liberation

Do not keep company with women.

They do not jump into

The pit of smokeless fire.

“Since they talk so attractively,

And snare you with only a look,

Then send you to the unbearable hells,

Heed not the words of women!

“I am not possessed of anger –—

My mind is, instead, full of faith.

Let your mind, too, have faith

In the sovereign master, the Lord of the World.

“O Great King, be on your way

And gaze upon the supreme human,

Being mindful and paying heed

To the Dharma that he teaches.”

Inspired by Queen Śyāmāvatī, King Udayana of Vatsa, surrounded by a
great assembly of people and his royal power and wealth, went to meet the
Blessed One with great speed and haste. He saw the Blessed One, elegant and
beautiful. The Blessed One’s sense faculties and mind were calmed, and he
was completely controlled. He had perfected the most sublime tranquility
meditations and the most sublime meditative concentrations. He rose above
the crowd like a golden sacrificial post resplendent with glory. The Blessed
One’s body was brilliant, vibrant, and beautifully adorned with the
thirty-two marks of a great being. Surrounded by an assembly of monks, nuns,
laymen, laywomen, and bodhisattvas, the Blessed One was venerated by gods,
nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, mahoragas, humans, and
non-humans. Having seen that, the king approached the Blessed One and bowed
at his feet.

Addressing the Blessed One, he said, “Blessed One, I have witnessed
wonders the likes of which I have never seen before. Will the Blessed One
grant me the opportunity to make a request?”

The Blessed One replied to King Udayana of Vatsa, “Great King, make
a request as you wish. Speak!”

King Udayana of Vatsa then said to the Blessed One, “Blessed One
because I am attached to my desires and their cause and basis, today I was
overcome with wrath and fury by the words of Queen Anupamā, daughter of
Mākandika. I was overcome with thoughts of rage and anger toward the Blessed
One and his assembly of disciples and shot a razor-sharp arrow at my wife
Śyāmāvatī with murderous intent. When I did, it burst into flames in the
sky, and as it burned and blazed, it became a single flame. As if the arrow
were counteracted, it returned back to remain on my right side, without
touching my body.

“Blessed One, I bowed at the feet of my wife Śyāmāvatī, and asked
her, ‘Are you a goddess, nāginī, gandharvī, piśācī, rākṣasī, or something
else?’ She told me, ‘I am not a goddess, nāginī, gandharvī, piśācī, or
rākṣasī. Rather, I am a disciple of the Blessed One, the thus-gone, worthy,
completely perfect Buddha. Out of love for you, I have rested my mind in
equipoise.’ My wife Śyāmāvatī then sang the praise of the Blessed One in
various ways.

“Then, Blessed One, I had this thought: ‘If a disciple of the
Blessed One, the thus-gone, worthy, perfectly awakened Buddha, is so full of
compassion, loving-kindness, great superhuman power, and great marvelous
strength, and is of such great distinction, then what must the Blessed One,
the thus-gone, worthy, perfectly awakened Buddha himself be like?’

“Blessed One, in that way, because I was like a fool—ignorant,
unclear, and unwise—I felt rage and hatred toward the Thus-Gone One and the
assembly of disciples. For this, I request your forgiveness. In the presence
of the assembly of disciples, I confess my errors. In the hope that you may
show me compassion, I confess my errors. I request you, Blessed One, to
treat me with kindness. I vow to practice restraint from this day forward.”

The Blessed One said, “Great King, rise and be seated,” and he
accepted with kindness King Udayana of Vatsa who had confessed his faults.
King Udayana of Vatsa bowed his head at the feet of the Blessed One and sat
to one side.

King Udayana of Vatsa, sitting to one side, addressed the Blessed
One: “Blessed One, because of how cruel, obstinate, and quick to anger I
was, I have been driven to negative actions by the words of women. Because
of that, Blessed One, I will go to the hell realms. Blessed One, out of
compassion for me, I request the Blessed One to describe thoroughly and
correctly the faults of women so that, from today onward, I will not, by any
means, fall under the sway of women and be driven to negative deeds that
will lead me to fall into the hell realms. It would be for the long-term
benefit of myself and all sentient beings, so that we may be helped and
happy. Please describe thoroughly and correctly the behaviors of women, the
characteristics of women, the treachery of women, the deceitfulness of
women, the dishonesty of women, the unsteadiness of women, the fickleness of
women, the dependencies of women, the words of women, and the deceptiveness
of women.”

The Blessed One asked King Udayana of Vatsa, “Great King, what is
your purpose in asking such questions?”

King Udayana of Vatsa responded, “Blessed One, I fall under the sway
of women because they are vicious, hateful, fierce, and quick to anger.
Blessed One, it is women who will lead me to the hell realms. Thus, Blessed
One, please heed this request of mine.”

The Blessed One said to King Udayana of Vatsa, “Great King, you must
first understand your own faults and then you will come to understand the
faults of women.”

King Udayana of Vatsa responded to the Blessed One, “Excellent,
Blessed One, excellent! When men possess certain faults, they fall under the
sway of women. Please, Blessed One, explain these faults of men to me.”

The Blessed One responded to King Udayana of Vatsa, “Yes, Great
King, listen carefully and pay attention. I will now explain.”

King Udayana of Vatsa said, “Very well, Blessed One,” and he
listened as the Blessed One had instructed.

The Blessed One addressed him, saying, “Great King, when men possess
four particular faults, they fall under the sway of women. What are the
four? They are as follows:

“Great King, men are attached to the objects of their desire and
become reckless in pursuit of them. Intoxicated by sense pleasures, they
ignore the morally disciplined, virtuous, and wise mendicants and brahmins and,
instead, only desire to gaze upon women again and again. They do not serve,
follow, or venerate the morally disciplined, virtuous, and wise mendicants
and brahmins when they see them. By abandoning the morally disciplined,
virtuous, and wise mendicants and brahmins, they also abandon their own
faith, moral discipline, generosity, and wisdom. Those men are faithless,
their discipline is faulty, they lack learning, and they are stingy. They
behave like hungry spirits; they are weak-minded, attracted to open
sores, and
involved with excrement. They delight in the smell of backsides, they enjoy
filth, and they have a craving for women. They do not seek peace, they are
occupied with their attachments, and they go to places where they should
not. They are contemptible, they resemble maggots in excrement, and they
welcome defilement. They lust after the objects of their desire, abandoning
all shame and modesty. They violate the laws of gods and men, lead
despicable lives, are detested by the wise, and keep company with foolish
beings. They entertain negative thoughts, keep company with bad friends, are
constantly engaging in bad actions, and are inclined toward bad actions.

“They become controlled by women and enslaved by them. They fall
under the sway of women as they become dedicated to them and live beside
them. They are fixated upon orifices, dependent on orifices, and reliant on
orifices. They are occupied with saliva, mucus, phlegm, snot, pus, fetid
excretions, cerebral secretions, and excrement. They behave
like sheep, cows, chickens, dogs, pigs, jackals, and asses. They make their
living by harming others. They do not cherish their parents, nor do
they cherish mendicants, brahmins, or others worthy of receiving offerings.
They lose their faith in the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha; they lose nirvāṇa.
They enter the hells, the animal realm, and the realm of the Lord of
Death—they fall to that level. They take up the bodies of lions and garuḍas.
They sink to the level of the Hell of Iron-Thorn Trees and the Hell of
Burning Coals. They enter the Reviving Hell, Black Line Hell, Crushing Hell,
Howling Hell, Great Howling Hell, Hot Hell, Fiercely Hot Hell, and the Hell
of Endless Torment.

“Even after hearing about these faults of women, these men feel
neither anxiety nor disgust when they reflect on how
they laughed, cried, and felt like shouting aloud, and how they danced,
sang, and played music while desiring women and keeping company with them.

“Great King, such is the conduct of foolish beings. Beings with
these behaviors will be reborn in the lower realms. Great King, attachment
to sense pleasures is the first fault of men whereby they fall under the
influence of women and are reborn in the lower realms.”

The Blessed One then spoke the following verses:

“Foul and filthy, objects of desire ought to be despised.

Dissatisfying, frightful, and impermanent, they cause suffering.

Pointlessly, these inferior things lead to one’s demise.

Thus, who among the wise would indulge their desirous cravings?

“Sense pleasures are utterly loathsome,

Like the stench of a cesspit brimming with excrement,

A dwelling filled with rotten, overpowering odors,

Or the loathsome charnel grounds of the dead.

“Just as flies, upon seeing a wound, swarm to it,

And pigs, after seeing excrement, run to it,

And dogs run to the butcher for meat,

So, too, do the unwise delight in women.

“Infamous and shameful, they degrade positive qualities;

Because of them, one’s pure discipline declines,

And the higher realms are lost as one falls into the hells.

Who among the wise would indulge their desirous cravings?

“Just as the body deteriorates and delusions arise

When one consumes halāhala poison,

In the same way sense pleasures cause foolish beings

Not to see physical forms, like one’s own body, as poison.

“In the same way that a skilled magician

Delights hundreds with conjured illusions,

Foolish beings, who seek pleasure for themselves,

Fall to the lower realms because of their delight in sense pleasures.

“Using feasts of food and drink,

Accompanied by song, dance, and music,

To take a bride from a good family

Is the accrual of pain, the accumulation of suffering.

“Craving for the enjoyment of sense pleasures is pain,

Yet people praise these filthy things, which cause injury and
ignorance.

By praising and indulging in such lowly desires,

Inferior people will fall to the lower realms.

“Those who desire for such pain praise these objects

And delight in such harmful desires.

Pointlessly forsaking their lives, these foolish beings

Will fall down into the great and unbearable abyss.

“These people who are dominated by pride and ignorance

Are like birds unable to see the far shores of the ocean;

For so long as they are consumed with the five precious metals,

These foolish beings will wander and burn.

“These foolish beings, utterly intoxicated and confused,

Mistake mere glass for an exquisite vase;

Ignorant as to the path, they will remain forever here,

Where they claim, ‘It is perfect,’ due to their desires.

“Because they do not know karma in all its diversity,

They do not believe in the downfall of all beings.

They do not truly honor their fathers and mothers

Or their sons and daughters, and, instead, bring them pain.

“Constantly chattering about intimacy with women

And fully preoccupied with such behavior,

They amass negative deeds in a net of delusion

And pave the way to the lower realms.

“Perceiving their passion as bliss,

These people utterly abandon both father and mother.

They fail to make offerings those who are worthy

And indulge in sense pleasures that ought to be deplored.

“Such people seek their own torment here and there.

The flow of their thoughts is certain to cause destruction.

Those afflicted people search for praise and delight therein.

Such ignoble people are not of the Dharma, but wholly of the world.

“On that basis, they are bound to experience

Torment from weapons and iron shackles,

From bonds, battles, strife, and certain death,

After they die, they will go to the fearsome Hell of Endless Torment.

“In this very life, too, such suffering abounds.

As their wealth diminishes and their beauty fades,

The higher realms slip away and they descend to hell.

Thus, who among the wise would give rise to desirous thoughts.

“Even for the wise, it is easy to lose themselves

In the midst of dense forests made of iron.

It is easy for the learned to get cut on the razor blades.

It is all too easy to end up preparing one’s bed of knives.

“It is easy to end up seizing lumps of burning iron;

It is easy to end up swallowing such iron balls.

To encounter fearsome, fiery pits is easy indeed.

Thus, never let your two hands touch a woman.

“The extent to which people indulge in sense pleasures

Is the extent to which they forsake complete happiness.

Given that sense pleasures are nothing but pain and filth,

Give up such pleasures, along with misery and impurity.

“Desires are the ground for all suffering,

For they cause one’s wealth to be squandered.

Attraction is the root of men’s downfall;

Thus, those who associate with women find only pain.

“For a man who comprehends such guidance,

And does not act carelessly regarding women,

The path to the higher realms will always be clear,

And supreme awakening will not be hard to achieve.

“Furthermore, Great King, one’s parents undergo hardship. For nine
or ten months, your mother carries you in the womb, enduring much pain to
raise you. She wipes away your urine and excrement and nurses you on her
lap. She helps you to grow and nurtures you. Parents show you the world and
teach you all about it. They are concerned about you and wish for your
well-being. They desire your benefit and wish you well. They desire your
success and happiness. They desire to help you out in the world. As such
they are worthy of generosity.

“Out of desire to help their son and for him to be happy, they use
the wealth they have saved to find him a bride from a different family. The
son then becomes attached and intoxicated; he lusts after her to the point
of fainting. He becomes fixated on her and remains infatuated. Attached to
and intoxicated by this girl from a different family, he neglects his
parents who are worthy of generosity and who have grown old, frail, weak,
and blind. He kicks them out of their own home, banishing them without
resources or wealth.

“Great King, one should constantly, at all times, and with genuine
happiness, honor one’s kind and venerable parents. One should revere,
venerate, and worship them. And yet, men kick their parents out of their own
homes, banishing them, as they give their respect and honor to the girl
taken from another family, presenting her food, drink, and clothing. They
cherish, esteem, worship, and respect her with genuine happiness, yet not
their parents. Just look at these heartless and inconsiderate people with
their wicked minds!

“Great King, look at these people who forsake the Dharma that leads
to the higher realms as they adopt the way of life that leads
to the lower realms. Great King, indulging in objects of one’s desire and
falling under the sway of women, such men neglect their parents and proceed
to the lower realms. This is the second fault of men.”

The Blessed One then spoke the following verses:

“Those who take care of their elderly parents

Will always be happy and content.

They will be among the class of gods,

The likes of Indra and Brahmā themselves.

“Those who take care of their elderly parents

Will successfully return triumphant and safe

Whenever they depart for and return from the great seas.

Those who do so will find supreme treasures.

“Those merchants who take care of their elderly parents

Will reach the pinnacle of success;

Like a bountiful harvest reaped from the fields

The merit gained is simply impossible to measure.

“Those who take care of their elderly parents

Will not be reborn as pack animals,

Such as camels, oxen, donkeys, and the like,

Nor will men cut them with sharp blades.

“Those who take care of their elderly parents

Will not have to cross the Blazing River Hell,

The Hell of Burning Coals, or the Hell of Razor Blades,

Nor will they find themselves drinking molten copper.

“Those who take care of their elderly parents

Will not lack in wealth or grain.

They will acquire wives and sons and daughters,

As well as precious beryl and fine gold.

“Those who take care of their elderly parents

Will behold the palace of the Nirmāṇarata heaven,

As well as the Pāruṣika and Miśrakā groves;

There will always be scores of gods gathered before them.

“The Great Sage, foremost among men and god of gods,

Has taught it to be so; having heard this, who would not

Take care of the sublime objects of veneration,

Their elderly parents, whose faculties have declined.

“Great King, inferior people are those who perform the acts of
inferior people and tenaciously adhere to wrong views. Such people wonder
about virtue and nonvirtue and do not understand how to act in their own
self-interest. Because they are insecure, they are disliked by many beings
and delight in the praises of foolish beings. Deluded by desire and
aversion, they are despised by the wise, consumed by anger, and perform
nonvirtuous deeds. They are forsaken by the buddhas and the bodhisattvas.
They are intoxicated by the pride of wealth. They are
miserly, delight in harming others, and despise cultivating the Dharma.

“Great King, look how these inferior people delight in the acts of
inferior people and despise the acts of superior people. Great King, this is
the third fault of men who indulge in the objects of desire and proceed to
the lower realms.”

The Blessed One then spoke the following verses:

“Objects of desire are the basis for the downfall of men.

Based on them, beings perform wicked deeds;

Deluded by wrong views, they wander this world

And are led to the lower realms by their confusion.

“With their backward ways, they lack good qualities.

They are heedless and their reasoning is flawed,

As if searching for the roots of blue lotuses in a river,

Their wrong views perpetuate the cycle of saṃsāra.

“In seeking happiness, they only look after themselves.

Like the multitude of people who are attracted to nonvirtue,

They pursue sense pleasures for the sake of finding happiness,

And go to the hell realms in the darkness of their delusion.

“Those inferior men who constantly obsess

Over the objects of their desire

Embody their desire and commit evil deeds;

How could those with such wrong ideas ever be happy?

“They repay kindness with evil deeds;

They are charlatans with diminished faith, lacking true devotion;

They will be forsaken by the assembly of noble ones,

And, for that reason, will fall down to the unbearable, fearsome
hells.

“People who fixate on forms, sounds, and tastes

Do not honor the bodhisattvas or the wise.

Because of their distorted views, they do not listen to the Dharma

And they never even occasionally honor the Saṅgha.

“Forsaken by the noble ones, they are destined for the lower realms.

Therefore, in this precious human life that one has acquired,

One must earnestly practice generosity, discipline, and abstinence,

And, in that way, attain supreme and authentic awakening.

“Great King, men make their living from a variety of occupations
and professions. Great King, they may be scribes, astrologers, accountants,
palmists, armorers, royal servants, farmers, merchants, or herdsmen. From
these occupations and professions, they make their livelihood. For the sake
of wealth, they travel where there are no roads or where the roads are poor;
they cross canyons, rivers, war zones, and oceans; they endure the icy winds
of winter and the heat of summer; they suffer from hunger and thirst, and,
all the while they delight in such journeys. They endure such suffering as
this for the sake of their own livelihood, yet they will not donate any of
the wealth they earn to mendicants, brahmins, the destitute, the poor, or
beggars, because they are under the sway of women, controlled by them, enthralled by
them, and enslaved by them. Because of this
same love for women, these men are unable to give gifts even to support
their women or to practice moral discipline. Infatuated by their women, they
will endure their chatter, and even put up with their abuse, evil looks, and
reprimands. When abused by women, those men will voluntarily accept it and
still regard those same women without ill will. Those men fall under the
sway of women who are the objects of their desire.

“Great King, this is the fourth fault of men who crave women,
consider filth to be the highest bliss, delight in foulness, and act without
awareness. Thereby, they indulge in women and proceed to the lower realms.
Great King, a man who possesses these faults comes under the power of sense
pleasure.”

The Blessed One then spoke these verses:

“Pursuing sense pleasures in a drunken state,

How could one be happy?

Indulging in these base desires,

How could one be happy?

“Those who perform, without restraint,

The deeds of an inferior being,

And pursue their craving for sense pleasures,

Must suffer their own downfall.

“Those unwise people

Behave like camels and donkeys.

When they see a woman, they rush over,

Just like pigs to a pile of feces.

“Even though the precious objects of their desire

Are stinking and unclean,

Those fools cannot see the faults of those objects—

Like the blind moving through the world.

“Those who are bound by their attachment to material form

Are enthralled by thoughts of sensual pleasure.

Foolish beings who indulge in sense pleasures

Are no different from the likes of dogs and jackals.

“Sound, smell, taste, and touch

Keep ordinary beings

Foolishly spinning in saṃsāra,

Like monkeys tied to a post.

“Foolish beings are shrouded in ignorance.

Covered by a great mass of darkness;

Attached to women, they are befuddled

Like crows flocking to feces.

“They are within Māra’s domain.

Those headed to the lower realms

Are addicted to enjoyment

Just like maggots in a pile of feces.

“If one thinks about how executioners

Discard the body parts of a human,

It will lead one to find liberation

And not to fall under the sway of women.

“Being caught up in gazing upon women,

The objects of one’s desires, is a fearsome situation.

Yet foolish beings fixate on appearances

And their craving for sense pleasure grows.

“They are like travelers in the summertime,

Making their way across a great desert,

Who foolishly drink salt water.

Their thirst returns more strongly.

“Similarly, foolish beings, blind to the truth,

Who live out their lives in states of ignorance,

Will strengthen desirous cravings

For women here in this world.

“In the same way that a leper’s body

becomes food for tiny insects,

So, too, ordinary beings who crave sense pleasures

Are devoured by women.

“A chamber pot may be decorated

with many variegated colors

Yet be filled with halāhala,

The strongest of all poisons.

“Bejeweled women are like that too.

They may glitter with adornments,

Yet they are filled with urine and excrement.

They are like leather bellows filled with air.

“Just like a blade sharpened with oil

And wrapped in a cloth,

So too is a dressed-up woman

Like a sword sheathed in a scabbard.

“In the same way a blazing fire pit

Can burn without any smoke,

Women are like fire.

They are deceptive, like dangerous insects.

“When the fire at the end of the eon blazes,

The entirety of this land will be consumed,

The grasses and trees will be destroyed,

And the rivers will completely dry up.

“As for this abode of the great elements—

The vast oceans will dry up

And the great mountains will burn away.

Even Mount Meru will likewise be destroyed.

“This earth, the great king, sustainer of beings,

Will be completely destroyed.

Even the great stone mountains will be destroyed,

And there will be no protection.

“The way that this fire will consume

The mountains and the oceans

Is the same way that women resemble fire;

They are dangerous and unsettling to men.

“Mucus, phlegm, and saliva,

Fluids running from the head,

And foul-smelling bodily discharge

Are like honey for these foolish beings.

“Full of bones and having a mouth for its opening,

A pile of flesh and skin,

And smelling like raw meat,

This despicable body is like a boil.

“Like a swelling pustule

Filled with a variety of bacteria,

The body is but a receptacle

For feces and other types of filth.

“The body is stuffed with intestines,

Colon, spleen, and lungs,

Kidneys, blood, and bile,

Brains, bone, and marrow.

“Shrouded in a veil of delusion,

Foolish beings do not even see

The eighty thousand types of organisms

That dwell within their innards.

“The nine bodily orifices

Are constantly excreting putrid filth,

Yet fools grasp at appearances,

Only what they can see and hear.

“Those fools, whose abode is filth

And who feed on mucus and saliva,

After they feel desire

Do not understand that this is a place despised by all.

“Like flies that have spotted a wo་und,

They desire contemptible things.

Sweat drips from their armpits

And they reek with awful smells.

“Fools cling to their own suffering,

Having been deceived into harming themselves.

Like fish pulled from water,

This will bring about their ruin.

“The way that one is attacked

By someone wielding a fearsome weapon

Is the way that those attached to sense pleasures

Are attacked by evil, weapon-like women.

“The way that a king is attacked

By an opponent wielding the weapons of conquest

Is the way that those attached to sense pleasures

Are incinerated in the flames of desire.

“Like dogs hovering around a butcher,

Foolish beings fantasize about tastes.

Even when scared away by a loud yell,

They quickly return to savoring their suffering.

“As there is nothing that can protect one

From the faults of one’s own actions,

Beings are led to the lower realms

In accordance with their own faults.

“Those who abandon the Buddhadharma

To indulge in women’s excretions

Have become attached to the taste,

And, by that, are led to the lower realms.

“When a monkey hurts itself,

As it swings about

From one tree to the next,

It experiences suffering that very instant.

“Similarly, those who crave the objects of desire,

Who indulge in the suffering of sense pleasure,

And who are caught in the cage of delusion

Are just squandering their time again and again.

“Just as some unfortunate beings

Are impaled on stakes and left to hang,

Those who are attached to sense pleasures

Will hang high in the Hell of Iron-Thorn Trees.

“When urad and mung beans

Are poured into metal cauldrons

And cooked over a blazing fire

They will foam and boil.

“So, too, will beings who were blind to virtue

And attached to the objects of their desire

Proceed to the lower realms upon death

To be cooked in metal cauldrons.

“Those people who perform evil deeds

Go to the place for evil beings,

Where there are four groups

Of six hundred million cauldrons.

“In each one of those cauldrons,

Which are unfathomably large

And surrounded by masses of flame,

They will boil away for many eons.

“Some will cook in those cauldrons

For one, two, three hundred,

Or even four hundred whole eons,

Depending on their past actions.

“They will be seized by thin, sharp pincers

And plunged again and again into the cauldrons.

They will lose their flesh

And become as white as a conch shell.

“Once they are dropped into the iron pots

They will be burning hot, yet never taken out.

They will die again and again only to be reborn.

Their destination is determined by their past actions.

“When the guardians of the hell realms

Beat those miserable people

With clubs and other such weapons,

Their flesh, bones, and marrow will be reduced to dust.

“At that time, a bitterly cold wind will blow

And denizens of the hells

Will thereby be given some relief

From their suffering.

“Those who commit evil acts

Will be smashed by mighty pestles,

Split apart by axes,

And impaled on stakes.

“Those who commit evil acts

Will have four-pointed iron spears,

As well as those with three and five points,

Plunged into their bodies.

“Those who commit evil acts

Will have their heads and brains picked apart

By crows with knife-like beaks,

And eaten by jackals and wolves.

“Those who commit evil acts

Will fall into putrid, rotting feces,

Down to a fate reviled by all—

They will fall into the Hell of Razor Blades and the Blazing River
Hell.

“Those who commit evil acts

Will be burned in the Fiercely Hot Hell,

The Howling Hell, and the Great Howling Hell.

They will also be burned in the Black Line Hell.

“Those who commit evil acts,

After their birth in the Black Line Hell,

Will fall, again and again,

Into the hells of burning coals, blazing rivers, and razor
blades.

“When it comes time for those people

To be cooked in the great iron cauldrons,

They will be tormented by dogs

And left longing for happiness.

“When those who commit evil acts

Descend to the great, brutal hells,

They will have no companions

As they swallow lumps of iron.

“Those who commit evil acts

Will have their bodies pulverized

By giant boulders made of iron

And terrible mountains.

“That is how one reaps

The fruit of one’s actions.

There will be no protection whatsoever

From the experience of that suffering.

“Any support one could think of

Will not be available to them;

They will be alone, with no refuge,

Left to undergo such suffering.

“For those engaged previously in wrongdoing

In a futile search for happiness,

Even their parents are powerless

To save them now.

“For those engaged previously in wrongdoing

In a futile search for happiness,

Even their sons and daughters

Cannot save them now.

“For those engaged previously in wrongdoing

In a futile search for happiness,

None of their close friends

Can come to save them now.

“For those engaged previously in wrongdoing

In a futile search for happiness,

None of their other relatives

Can save them now.

“Indulging in inferior desires,

While following inferior doctrines,

They commit low, immoral deeds

And proceed to the lower realms.

“Those who are unwise will experience

The anguish of the Hell of Endless Torment.

The buddhas have declared that women

Are foul-smelling, like excrement.

“Thus, only inferior men have intercourse

With women, who are inferior,

Like fools who enter houses

Carrying bags full of excrement.

“The quality of one’s actions

Determines the quality of fruit that one bears.

The punishment of a king

May leave one shackled and in pain.

“Because of women,

Men will endure being bound and even killed,

And they will surely be burned and bound

Again by the guardians of the hells.

“Those confused men who crave women

Will not find happiness

But will be impaled on tall stakes

And thrown into boiling water.

“They will be cast into fissures in the ground

And stabbed with swords.

Such people, having heard this,

Become concerned and uneasy.

“They preoccupy themselves with women

And enjoy themselves with them.

These despicable people indulge in and talk of

Sense pleasures, which are full of pain.

“When they hear the Dharma, they are confused about its meaning,

But they say, ‘Well spoken!’

Their minds are lost in women,

Like a cat’s lost in a mouse.

“Even if they feel a momentary sense of agitation

By listening to the words of the Victorious One,

Desire will arise again in their minds

As if it were halāhala poison.

“A pig may become timid and afraid

For just a single moment,

But as soon as it sees excrement,

Its desires are excited again.

“In that same way, fools seeking happiness

Abandon the Victorious One’s teachings.

By indulging in the lowly sense pleasures

They proceed to the lower realms.

“Intoxicated by their lust for sense pleasures

They perform extremely evil deeds,

And criticize those with moral discipline.

Ultimately, they will proceed to the lower realms.

“As soon as he has the opportunity, a wise man

Who has listened to a teaching such as this one

Ought to abandon all sense pleasures

And go forth as a renunciant.

“Great King, these are the faults of men who indulge in sense
pleasures. Those who cling to sense pleasure, to the causes of sense pleasure, and to the bases of sense pleasure
will experience the hell realms. Therefore, Great King, you must
constantly and continuously cultivate mindfulness of the Buddha. You must
cultivate mindfulness of the body.”

That is how the Blessed One taught King Udayana of Vatsa. As a
result of that teaching, King Udayana of Vatsa was delighted, joyful, and
extremely happy with the Thus-Gone One.

Then King Udayana of Vatsa said to the Blessed One, “Blessed One,
the blessed, thus-gone, worthy, completely perfect Buddha’s explanation of
the excellent teaching on the inconceivably numerous faults of men and women
is truly amazing. Blessed One, I seek refuge in the Blessed One, the Dharma,
and the Saṇgha. I have abandoned my weapons and my clubs. I have become
modest, and I feel love for all living beings. Blessed One, please accept me
as a male lay disciple.”

When the Blessed One had finished teaching, King Udayana of Vatsa,
the monks, bodhisattvas, gods, humans, asuras, and gandharvas, together with
the whole world, rejoiced and praised the Blessed One’s words.

Thus concludes The Episode “King Udayana
of Vatsa’s Questions,” the twenty-ninth of the one hundred
thousand sections of the Dharma discourse known as The Noble Great Heap of
Jewels.

Colophon

Translated, edited, and finalized by, among others, the Indian
preceptors Jinamitra and Surendrabodhi and the chief editor-translator,
Bandé Yeshé Dé.

Notes

Abbreviations

K
Kangxi

Y
Yongle

N
Narthang

H
Lhasa

S
Stok Palace

Bibliography