阿難問事佛吉凶經

Ananda addressed the Buddha:

O World-Honored One!

There are people in this world who venerate the Buddha and become wealthy and noble, with warm and harmonious families; yet there are also people who venerate the Buddha and become poor and destitute, with families scattered and broken. Why are there such differences?

The Buddha taught:

O Ananda!

There are people who venerate the Buddha by receiving the precepts from an Enlightened Master, believing single-mindedly without transgression, diligently practicing in obedience, never losing the precepts they have received, making offerings before sacred images, paying homage day and night, reverently lighting lamps and offering incense, never going against the Buddha's teachings, observing the precepts with strict purity, joyful in their hearts. They are constantly upheld by the devas and heavenly spirits, who cause their families to grow warm and harmonious manifold, for the heavenly dragons, ghosts and spirits, and the people all revere them. In time they shall attain the Way. These true Sons of Virtue and Daughters of Virtue are disciples of the Buddha.

There are people who venerate the Buddha but do not meet a good teacher, do not encounter the Sutras, receive the precepts carelessly, holding only the name of the precepts, not believing in the precepts and the discipline, committing acts that transgress the precepts. At times they believe, at times they do not believe; their minds and intentions waver. They neither burn incense nor light lamps nor pay homage; they constantly harbor doubt in their hearts, and with hearts of anger they curse and revile, with harsh speech rebuking and scolding the virtuous.

They do not observe the six days of fasting, they slaughter living beings and harm life, they do not revere the Buddha's Sutras but place them in chests and trunks holding soiled garments, or place them upon the beds of wife and children, in impure places, or hang them upon walls or upon doors with no proper place set aside, having no reverent heart, treating them no differently from crude and vulgar books.

When they fall ill, doubting and not trusting in the Buddha, they instead summon sorcerers and charm-makers to make inquiries, perform sacrifices, and worship heretical spirits.

For this reason, the devas and heavenly spirits keep their distance, no good spirits uphold them, demoness-spirits increase by the day, and evil ghosts enter the house and throw the family into turmoil.

Because what they incline toward is unwholesome, all arising from the evil karma created in former lives that has come to them, in this present life they are people of sin, not disciples of the Buddha. When they die they fall into the hells, suffering torments born of the sins they created. In this present life they endure sorrow and suffering; in lives to come they must endure calamity; and when they die they enter the evil paths, suffering through the cycle of rebirth, beyond all telling.

All of this is due to the accumulation of unwholesome deeds.

Foolish people, benighted and obscured, do not know the causes and conditions created in former lives, nor from what source these things originate. They speak words of lament and grievance, resenting both Heaven and Earth and blaming even the Sages.

People of the world are deluded and confused, not penetrating the causes and effects of the three periods of time; their minds are not firmly settled, their comings and goings without reason; they are ungrateful to the Buddha's grace and give rise to minds of betrayal, sinking gradually into the three evil paths, ever bound by their own views, creating for themselves calamity and blessing.

If a person clearly understands causes and conditions and plants the seeds of wholesomeness, they must know that the ten evils are foes and the ten wholesome deeds are kin, that peace of spirit and the attainment of the Way all arise from doing good.

The one who does good is like one clad in iron armor who fears not blade and weapon; good deeds are like a great ship that can cross the river. When faith is established, the whole household dwells in peace and joy; the reward of blessings comes naturally from wholesome deeds, and there is no spirit who bestows it upon us.

The Buddha told Ananda: Good and evil follow a person as a shadow follows a form, never parting; and matters of sin and blessing are all likewise. Do not harbor doubt. Sin and blessing are clear and certain; believe firmly and be not deluded, and your whole life shall be at peace. The Buddha does not deceive people.

A Buddha is hard to meet in the world, the Sutras and the Dharma hard to hear. You in former lives possessed blessings, drawing near to the Buddha and hearing the Dharma; therefore take my words and transmit them to later generations. Ananda, having heard the teaching, resolved with determination to obey and practice it.

Ananda again addressed the Buddha:

O World-Honored One!

In this world there are people who do not kill with their own hands. If one does not kill with one's own hands, is one then without sin?

The Buddha taught:

O Ananda!

To command another to kill living beings is even graver than killing with one's own hands.

Why is this?

Because one commands those under one's authority, such as servants and slaves, foolish people who do not know what sin and blessing are.

Or there may be one who is compelled by the district magistrate, forced to kill, not killing by their own wish. Though they incur the sin of killing, yet the act and the intention are not the same, and there is a difference in gravity and lightness.

To command another to kill is to knowingly and deliberately transgress; the heart constantly harbors evil deeds, borrowing another's hand to go and slay other living beings, without a heart of compassion, deceiving the Three Jewels, betraying one's teacher, harming life and injuring living beings. That sin is exceedingly great; foes exact repayment, and life after life one endures calamity with no day of ending.

In this present life there is no peace; one constantly meets with peril and danger. At death one enters the hells, no longer bearing human form, and must fall into the realm of beasts to be slaughtered by people. Through the three evil paths and the eight calamities, passing through countless myriads of kalpas, giving one's own flesh for people to eat, never once ceasing—all because in former lives, when one was a human being, one lived without the Way and secretly harmed living beings. Life after life the foes pursue, and one must endure retribution; the sin is grave beyond measure.

Ananda again addressed the Buddha:

O World-Honored One!

When people of the world and disciples, with evil intent, often turn toward their teachers and those of virtue to speak ill of them, what is that sin?

The Buddha taught:

O Ananda!

As a human being, one must delight in those who do good and must not harbor a mind of envy and hatred. One who, with evil intent, speaks ill of the virtuous and of true Masters, does no differently than to turn toward the Buddha and speak ill of him.

Better to take ten thousand arrows and shoot them into oneself than to speak evil words reviling the Buddha.

The Buddha taught:

O Ananda, does one who is struck by an arrow feel pain?

Ananda replied:

O World-Honored One, very great pain!

The Buddha taught:

One who, with evil intent, speaks ill of the virtuous, who are true Masters, is like one who shoots ten thousand arrows into himself. One must regard these Masters as the Buddha and must not slight, despise, envy, or hate them.

Seeing others do good, give rise to a joyful heart; revere those who possess the virtue of the precepts, and you shall move the devas, so that the heavenly dragons, ghosts and spirits all hold you in esteem.

Better to cast oneself into fire and to cut one's own flesh with a sharp blade than—take heed—to envy and hate the good and the true Masters!

Ananda again addressed the Buddha:

O World-Honored One!

When one who is a teacher may reproach a disciple who does not follow his wishes, turning a small fault into a great fault, is the teacher then without any sin?

The Buddha taught:

It must not be so, it must not be so. The bond of feeling between teacher and disciple is a natural bond; they must inquire after one another, regarding the other as oneself. To dismiss must be done with reason; to teach must be done with the Way. What you yourself do not desire, do not give to others. Honor the rules and statutes, and do not create grievance and litigation.

It is the same for a disciple toward a teacher: in both the meaning must be sincere. The teacher must rightly keep the duty of a teacher, and the disciple must rightly be a disciple. One must not malign, nor harbor resentment and swallow grievance, tearing what is small into what is great, and thereby setting fire to oneself.

As a disciple, one must with all one's heart be filial and obedient toward the true Master, and must not harbor evil intent toward the true Master.

To harbor evil intent toward the teacher is no different from harboring evil intent toward the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha, and one's father and mother: the earth cannot bear such a one, and Heaven cannot shelter him.

Observe that in the age of the Dharma's decline, many people do evil, lacking loyalty and lacking filial piety, having neither benevolence nor righteousness, not conforming to the way of being human.

In this world, among the four classes of bhikshus, there are those who remember only the faults of others and do not cease from their own faults, who are jealous of the worthy and envious of the virtuous. Having themselves done no good deeds, they go on to ruin others, cutting off the intention toward the Way, so that the good deeds of others do not come to fruition.

Though they have left the household life, they covet the desires of worldly affairs, seeking much profit and gain, hoarding the property of the Three Jewels to spend on themselves—much wealth and little Way. At death they fall into the hells, the realm of hungry ghosts, and the realm of beasts.

People living in this age of demons must remember the Buddha's grace, must uphold the Sutras and the precepts; virtue must be learned, the Sutras must be recited, good deeds must be done, kindness and virtue must be bestowed, the poor and suffering must be relieved, so that all may be delivered from birth and death.

Seeing a worthy person, do not be arrogant; seeing a good deed, do not disparage it. To go against the Dharma and against reason—that sin is exceedingly great. Sin and blessing, retribution, cause and effect are clear and manifest; one must take heed.

Ananda again addressed the Buddha:

O World-Honored One!

When disciples in the age of the Dharma's decline chase after worldly conditions and do not fulfill the Way of humanity, how is the retribution of that sin to be reckoned?

The Buddha taught:

In the age of the Dharma's decline there are people who receive the prohibitive precepts of the Buddha, truly believing and practicing in obedience, filial and obedient to father and mother, reverently taking refuge in the Three Jewels, nourishing father and mother, serving their sovereign with utmost loyalty, wholesome within and without, mind and mouth in accord. This is called gaining the affairs of the world, but not yet gaining the meaning of the world.

Ananda asked:

O World-Honored One!

What is meant by gaining the affairs of the world but not yet gaining the meaning of the world?

The Buddha taught:

As disciples of the Buddha, one may engage in trade and conduct enterprises, but in doing business one must be honest, with balanced scales and full measure, not deceiving others, acting in accord with reason, not going against the natural reason of the Divine Intelligences.

The matters of funerals, sacrificial rites, marriage, and changing one's dwelling are the affairs of the world. As for the meaning of the world: a disciple of the Buddha must not practice divination, must not revere talismans and incantations, sorcery and cursing, nor pray for offspring through sacrifices, nor select auspicious days and auspicious hours.

Every disciple who receives the five precepts of the Buddha is called a person of blessing and virtue. Whatever they do, they must respectfully announce it to the Three Jewels. The Buddha is one of profound and penetrating insight; there is not a single small matter that he does not know.

For the person who possesses the virtue of the precepts, the good spirits uphold them powerfully, and among the heavenly dragons, ghosts and spirits there is no kind that does not revere and submit to them.

For the person who receives the Buddha's precepts, all kinds of beings hold them honored and esteemed; there is no place they go that is not auspicious. How could they hold a place unwholesome merely because of taboos deemed inauspicious?

The Way embraces both Heaven and Earth. People who do not understand the Way create hindrances for themselves. How can they know that good and evil, the fortunate and the unfortunate, all arise from one's own mind, which creates calamity and blessing, brought about by what one does—as a shadow follows a form, as an echo answers a sound?

When merit and the conduct of the precepts accord with the natural order, the devas uphold one, vows are not thwarted, and one moves the ten directions. One's virtue is lofty and towering; the sages all praise it, beyond all conception and discussion.

The wise person of knowledge understands clearly their own destiny, and throughout their whole life does not follow heretical ways. Keeping faithfully to the Buddha's teaching, they can attain the Way and deliver the world.

When Ananda had heard the Buddha speak, he adjusted his kashaya robe and with head and face bowed in reverence:

O World-Honored One, we possess wholesome blessings, for we have met the World-Honored One, whose loving-kindness is vast and great, taking pity upon all, becoming for them a field of blessings, so that they may be delivered from suffering.

The Buddha taught:

So it is, Ananda. In the age of the Dharma's decline, those who believe are few, and many do evil deeds; living beings are crafty and deceitful—truly it is grievous. If there were people of faith, then the world would not be so wicked and evil as this.

Ananda asked:

O World-Honored One!

After the Buddha's parinirvana, though the Sutras and the Dharma yet remain, there will be no people of faith, and gradually they will fall into decline—truly it is grievous! Upon what shall living beings rely and depend?

I humbly beseech the World-Honored One, for the sake of foolish and benighted ordinary beings, not to enter Nirvana in haste.

Wishing to beseech the Buddha to remain in the world, Ananda spoke a verse:

The Buddha, to save the three realms,

In vast grace fashions the ship of compassion;

He vows to deliver all beings—

Pray do not hasten to Nirvana.

To meet the Dharma is also hard;

Benighted, one does not know the true;

Grieving because one does not know,

Sins tower high as mountain peaks.

Those of blessing who meet the Dharma—

There are a few who have faith;

The Sutras and Dharma are handed down,

And only then is there a refuge to rely upon.

The Buddha's grace is most lofty and deep;

The sins are those that living beings create.

The drum of the Dharma sounds through the Great Thousand—

Why then will they not consent to hear?

In the defiled age, many people are evil;

Of themselves they fall into perversity,

Deriding the Sages,

Heretical and false, destroying the True and Correct.

They do not believe that a Buddha exists in the world,

Deeming that the Buddha has no Correct Way.

Such people delude themselves,

Creating for themselves the roots of all sins.

When their lives end, they enter the hells;

Sabres and swords pierce and hack their bodies,

Fierce ghosts delight in slaying and harming,

And the cauldron of coals brings suffering without end.

For lust they embrace the pillar of copper;

A great fire burns their corpses to ruin.

For deriding those of lofty rank,

Iron pincers pluck out their tongues.

Drunk on wine, they lose decorum and propriety,

Deluded, they violate the bonds of human relations;

At death they fall into the hells,

And molten copper is poured into their mouths.

They constantly meet with perils and calamities,

Their suffering beyond all telling.

If they are born again as human beings,

They are among the poor, the destitute, and the lowly.

Not killing, one gains long life;

Free of illness, one is ever healthy and strong.

Not stealing, one afterward grows greatly rich,

With wealth and goods ever in abundance.

Not committing lust, one is fragrant and pure,

The body ever sweet-scented;

The body's radiance is ever made manifest—

At the highest, one is a Great King.

With utmost sincerity, free of deceit,

For the sake of others, one obeys and practices;

Clear and without confusion,

Their virtue and wisdom are worthy of reverence.

The five blessings surpass all;

People and devas alike rely upon them;

They are born manifold by myriads of millions—

The truth is truly clear and manifest.

In the latter age, those who are evil

Do not believe and harbor much doubt;

Foolish and ignorant, they do not know the Way,

And with grave sins they enter the dark gloom.

Turning against the Sages, destroying Right Enlightenment,

At death they fall into the iron citadel;

Their consciousness is imprisoned therein,

And upon their heads they bear a wheel.

They seek to die but cannot die;

In an instant they are transformed again;

Hooks and spears ever cut and tear them,

Their bodies shattered and torn to pieces.

Why do they suffer thus?

They turned against the right and trusted ghosts and spirits,

Delighting in talismans, incantations, and divination,

Killing and harming without a heart of benevolence.

At death they fall into the eighteen places,

Passing through dark and gloomy hells;

The eight calamities ever surround them,

And to gain a human body is very hard.

If at some time they gain a human body,

They are foolish, without sense of right and reason,

Blind and deaf, neither seeing nor hearing,

Mute and stammering, without words to speak.

Benighted, they do not understand affairs;

Sins and evils ever encircle them;

One after another they must bear the burden,

In the forms of beasts and the six kinds of livestock.

They are skinned of flesh and bone by people,

Their hides stripped off and their heads cut off,

To repay the foes of former times,

Giving their flesh for people to eat.

Without the Way, they fall into the evil paths,

And to seek escape is hard beyond measure.

A human body is very hard to obtain;

The Buddha's Sutras are hard to get to hear.

The World-Honored One, to save and aid,

Brings benefit to all three realms;

He sprinkles everywhere the Dharma of sweet ambrosia,

That all may revere and practice it.

The Buddha has attained wisdom,

Mindful in pity of the deluded multitude;

He opens and reveals the straight and direct Way,

And those who meet it shall end their suffering.

Those of blessing, with minds turned upward,

See firmly and study the unborn;

Of themselves they return to the field of good rice,

Planting the seed that ends birth and death.

No grace surpasses this:

The Buddha aids the world by turning the Wheel of the Dharma.

I vow that all living beings

May enjoy the water of sweet ambrosia.

The ship of wisdom reaches the far shore;

The bell of the Dharma guides the Great Thousand;

Others and self are no different—

The Buddha's true vow is the Unsurpassed.

When Ananda had recited that verse, the great assembly in the gathering at that time believed and understood, and all gave rise to the Way of Unsurpassed Right and True Enlightenment.

The Sangha gave rise to the vast intention of sweet ambrosia; its fragrance perfumed the three thousand worlds, which from this were delivered; the path of the Way was opened, becoming a bridge and a raft for living beings. Kings and their ministers and people, the heavenly dragons, ghosts and spirits, hearing the Sutra, all rejoiced, bowed their heads at the feet of the Buddha and paid homage to Ananda, and having received the teaching of the Dharma, withdrew.