佛說四天王經

Thus have I heard:

At one time, the Buddha was dwelling in the Jeta Grove, the garden of Anāthapiṇḍika, in the country of Śrāvastī. The Buddha said to his disciples:

—Be vigilant regarding the thoughts of your mind; do not delight in the six desires. Cut off the defilements of the dust of the senses, taking freedom from defilement as foremost. Inwardly be pure, and outwardly be wholeheartedly filial and reverent; employ the four Immeasurable Minds to honor and care for those who gave you life.

At early dawn, enter the venerable shrine to perform the rite of repentance; in the evening, recite the scriptures and reflect upon the meaning of the sublime principles within the sūtras. Use the grave precepts of the Buddha to remedy the mind's sickness of defilement. Dwell solemnly in places of quiet stillness, cultivate meditative concentration, and contemplate the breath, going upstream against the current to the source, so as to seek the path of liberation.

Life is like a flash of lightning, ceasing in but a moment. On the days of fasting and abstinence, you should carefully guard body, speech, and mind. On the days of fasting and abstinence, the devas observe the good and evil deeds of human beings.

Upon Mount Sumeru, that is, the second heaven of Trāyastriṃśa, the king of that heaven is Śakra Devānām Indra, whose merit and virtue are vast and great, and who governs the four Heavenly Kings. These Four Heavenly Kings are the four kings who guard the four directions. Each one keeps watch over a single direction, and regularly, on the eighth day of the month, they dispatch envoys to investigate the world below, observing and watching over the thoughts, words, and good and evil deeds of all the people, of Śakra, of subjects and ministers, of dragons, of ghosts, and of the small insects and creatures.

On the fourteenth day, the crown prince descends.

On the fifteenth day, the Four Heavenly Kings descend.

On the twenty-third day, they dispatch envoys to descend.

On the twenty-ninth day, the crown prince again descends.

On the thirtieth day, the four Heavenly Kings descend in person. The sun, the moon, the five great planets, the twenty-eight lunar mansions, and all the devas among them likewise descend together.

The Four Heavenly Kings issue this command: Constantly observe the good and bad deeds of sentient beings. If, on these days, beings take refuge in the Buddha, take refuge in the Dharma, take refuge in the Saṅgha, purify their minds, uphold the fasting and abstinence precepts, give charity to the poor, keep the precepts, practice patience, exert diligence, cultivate meditative concentration, expound this scripture widely, teach and transform those who dwell in darkness, are filial and obedient to father and mother, serve the Three Jewels, reverently receive the Dharma, practice the four Immeasurable Minds, and with loving-kindness and compassion rescue and aid all kinds of beings—then these are fully discerned and reported back to Śakra.

If beings cultivate much merit and virtue, exerting diligence without indolence, then Śakra and his thirty-two assisting officials all rejoice.

Śakra issues a command to increase their lifespan, and sends the virtuous spirits to protect those people, in accordance with whether those people keep many precepts or few. If a person keeps a single precept, then five spirits protect and uphold him. A person who upholds the five precepts has twenty-five spirits who together protect his household; calamities, evil schemes, and perverse plots are all destroyed; in the night there are no nightmares; violent officials, bandits and robbers, and the disasters and sufferings of water and fire utterly fail to harm him; and all manner of catastrophes and monstrous evils are eradicated.

By means of the four Immeasurable Minds, keeping the five precepts, and the six days of fasting—just as a great flood extinguishes a small fire—is there anything that cannot be extinguished? At the time of death, their consciousness is welcomed and escorted to be reborn in the heavens, in palaces of the seven treasures, where every wish and prayer is fulfilled. But if there is a person who does not save the lives of sentient beings, who is impure and defiled, who steals, who indulges in lust with another's wife, who speaks with a double tongue, who curses and speaks harsh words, who tells lies, who utters embellished and frivolous speech, who employs spells and incantations to curse others, who is envious, angry, foolish and deluded, who acts contrary to the Way, who is unfilial,

who is contrary to the Buddha, contrary to the Dharma, who slanders the bhikṣu Saṅgha, who confusedly mixes together discussion of good and evil—a person who practices in such a manner—then the Four Heavenly Kings report back to Śakra and the devas, causing them to be displeased.

The virtuous spirits then do not protect such people, and at once cause the sun and the moon to lose their light, the stars and constellations all to set and vanish, and the wind and rain to come out of season—so as to warn the world to reform and cultivate, that they must cleanse their minds and preserve purity, sincerely repenting before the Three Jewels, cultivating the four Immeasurable Minds, honoring and caring for father and mother, being loyal and filial to the sovereign, using the mind of loving-kindness to halt all disputes and contention, being honest and not deceiving, turning back from their former wrongs to cultivate the Way, casting off defilement, and accomplishing the pure Way.

If there is a person who reforms and abandons wrong conduct and accomplishes the right and proper Way, then Śakra and the Four Heavenly Kings all rejoice; the moon and the sun then shine brightly, the stars and constellations regularly appear, the rain and wind come in their proper season, poisonous vapors are entirely dispelled, the heavens rain down sweet dew, the earth gives forth cool springs, the rice and grains abound in flavor, eating them brings little illness, the colors of flowers are radiant and brilliant, lifespan is long and enduring, and life after life one is far removed from prisons and dungeons.

At death one is reborn in the heavens, with merit and virtue as one has wished; one comes and goes in peace and ease, and gain and loss are ever within one's own command; the body has a radiance like the sun; what one eats is digested by itself, with none of the worries about filth and impurity; and one's body and speech are clean and pure, fragrant and sweet-smelling. The sun, the moon, and the stars and constellations are the dwellings and palaces of the devas.

Halls and pavilions of the seven treasures appear in the midst of empty space according to one's will. When one's lifespan is exhausted, one is reborn into the ranks of royal lineage, with a beautiful countenance that all who behold delight in; one is able to meet the Buddha and meet the Dharma, and to dwell together with the noble Saṅgha; and by the sublime power of one's cultivation, free of further transgression, one will surely attain Nirvāṇa.

Each person who upholds the five precepts and the ten wholesome deeds can hold back the six sense-objects and the various desires, and through the six days of fasting and abstinence one likewise attains this.

In the time of the Buddha Krakucchanda, the lifespan of human beings reached sixty thousand years. Their nature was purely wholesome; they rescued and aided all people just as they would nurture themselves, in equality without duality. That Buddha passed away, the true Dharma declined and weakened, the people acted in ways that were not upright, gradually performing evil, and their lifespan diminished day by day, until only a hundred years remained.

After the Tathāgata entered Nirvāṇa, the people went against the teachings of the Buddha and were no longer filial and reverent; their lives and lifespans diminished, the virtuous spirits did not protect them, plagues and evil ghosts frequently harmed them, and all manner of calamities appeared everywhere. In life they fell into the prisons of the law of the land, and at death they fell into the hells, the realm of hungry ghosts, and the realm of animals.

If reborn as human beings, they were certain to suffer poverty and destitution, being born into the lowly and base ranks. Good and evil are ever bound to the self, just as the five kinds of grain, according to where they are sown and planted, yield their seeds and fruits in harvest. It is also like copying out a book at night by fire: though the fire be extinguished, the written characters remain; though the body dies and the name perishes, yet merit and misfortune are not lost.

You should be careful and vigilant; guard body, speech, and mind, and practice according to the five precepts and the ten wholesome deeds—only then can you attain the Way. That I have now accomplished the fruit of the Buddha's Way is precisely because of accumulating these practices that I have attained it.

The bhikṣus, having heard this sūtra, all greatly rejoiced; they reverently bowed in homage to the Buddha and withdrew.