前世三轉經

Thus have I heard:

At one time the Buddha was traveling and teaching in the Jeta Grove, the Garden of Anāthapiṇḍika, in the country of Śrāvastī, together with five hundred bhikṣus who were great arhats. All of these were venerable ones, and all could know the thoughts of others; only the Venerable Ānanda had not yet attained this.

At that time, the Buddha went out from the city of Rājagṛha and, seated in empty space, expounded the Dharma for the assembly of countless hundreds of thousands who surrounded him. There were seventy thousand bodhisattvas, all of whom had attained the various dhāraṇī teachings.

At that time the Buddha's countenance was radiant and luminous beyond his usual appearance. The light from the Buddha's face shone throughout all the worlds. The Buddha smiled, and a five-colored light issued from his mouth, rising up to the realm of the Brahma Heaven.

When the Buddhas, the Devas among Devas, bestow predictions upon their śrāvaka disciples, the light shines as far as the Heaven of the Four Heavenly Kings, and then the light returns, circles the Buddha three times, and enters through the soles of the Buddha's feet.

When the Buddhas, the Devas among Devas, bestow the prediction of the fruit of pratyekabuddhahood, the light issuing from the mouth shines as far as the Paranirmita Heaven, and then the light returns, circles the Buddha three times, and enters through the Buddha's navel.

When the Buddhas, the Devas among Devas, bestow the prediction of the fruit of the Buddha Path, the light shines as far as the Brahma Heaven, and then the light returns, circles the Buddha three times, and enters through the crown of the Buddha's head.

At that time the earth spirits all said: "The Buddha manifesting these three events in this way speaks of the matters of bestowing predictions in the past, the future, and the present."

The devas, the spirits of empty space, the Four Heavenly Kings, the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven, and on up to the Brahma Heaven, all said: "The Buddha manifesting these three events in this way concerns the past, the present, and the future. These are: bestowing the prediction of the śrāvaka fruit, bestowing the prediction of the pratyekabuddha fruit, and bestowing the prediction of the Buddha fruit."

At that time all the Brahma devas assembled together, and even the gods and humans of the Heaven of the Thirty-three also gathered. At that time, countless hundreds of thousands of people, bhikṣus, bhikṣuṇīs, upāsakas, and upāsikās assembled together. At that time, the worthy Ānanda knew the seven matters of Dharma. What are the seven?

1. Understanding the meaning.

2. Clearly understanding the Dharma.

3. Knowing the time.

4. Clearly understanding measure.

5. Clearly knowing the assembly.

6. Knowing one's own affairs.

7. Knowing the affairs of others.

The worthy Ānanda rose from his seat, arranged his robes, knelt, joined his palms, and in verse praised the Buddha:

The World-Honored One, serene and still, has crossed beyond the shore,

The eye of wisdom shines bright with the virtue of purity,

Golden radiance shines from afar,

I wish to know this subtle and wondrous sign.

Who now has aroused the resolve to accomplish the Buddha Path?

Who sits beneath the tree subduing Māra?

Who receives the benefit of the supreme path?

Pray tell, why does the Buddha smile?

If the World-Honored One smiles with his mouth,

His face radiant, his smile resplendent,

Just at the time when hundreds of thousands have assembled,

May the Buddha teach me, that I may know this cause.

Ānanda continued, addressing the Buddha:

"O Deva among Devas, only those still possessed of lust, anger, and delusion, on account of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas, laugh and smile. But the Deva among Devas has cut off lust, anger, and delusion—so why does he smile? The Buddhas, the Devas among Devas, do not need Śāriputra to ask, nor do they need Mahāmaudgalyāyana, Mahākāśyapa, Uruvilvā-Kāśyapa, Gayā-Kāśyapa, Nadī-Kāśyapa, or Śīlapariṣka to ask. The Buddhas, the Devas among Devas, possess six unshared qualities. What are the six?

1. The Buddhas, the Devas among Devas, possess wisdom that clearly knows the past without obstruction.

2. The Buddhas, the Devas among Devas, possess wisdom that clearly knows the future without obstruction.

3. The Buddhas, the Devas among Devas, also possess wisdom regarding the present without obstruction.

4. The Buddhas, the Devas among Devas, practice wisdom with the body.

5. The Buddhas, the Devas among Devas, speak wisdom.

6. The Buddhas, the Devas among Devas, contemplate wisdom with the mind.

The Buddhas, the Devas among Devas, ever see and hear the Buddhas expounding the wisdom of the Buddha Path."

The Buddha said to Ānanda:

"In the past there was a country named Utpalāvatī. This country was rich and powerful, its provisions abundant, its people too many to count, and they lived in great peace."

The Buddha told Ānanda:

"At that time, in the country of Utpalāvatī, there was a king named Pradīpa. He was the only king among all the countries who had transformed his people to practice the right Dharma; he did not employ a single punishment. The people of this country lived to twenty thousand years. When the king passed away, there was in the country a beautiful courtesan, a woman of extraordinary beauty. The woman came to a certain person's house, where the mistress of the house had just given birth to a son. The mother was tugging at the arm of her child. The woman then asked:

'Why are you pulling on his arm?'

She said:

'I am hungry and want to eat him.'

The woman said:

'Do you have no rice to eat?'

The mother said:

'I have none.'

The woman said to the mother:

'Wait a moment, and I will bring food.'

The mother said:

'Before you even leave the house, I will already have starved to death. I cannot wait for you to bring food here.'

The woman thought: 'If I take this baby away, its mother will starve to death. If I leave it here, she will eat its flesh. What must I do so that both the mother and the child are kept safe?' The woman then took a sharp knife and cut off both of her breasts and gave them to the mother to eat at once. The woman asked:

'Are you full now?'

She answered:

'I am full.'

The woman's two breasts streamed with blood, and she returned home. At that time a man came to the woman's house, intending to do an unlawful deed with her. Seeing this happening, he asked:

'Who cut off your two breasts?'

And his heart suddenly filled with tender care for the woman, treating her with the affection of a sister, no longer with the lustful mind he had had before. He asked again:

'Who did you allow to harm you like this?'

The woman said:

'No one harmed me. I myself went to another person's house and saw the mistress of the house, who had just given birth, take her child by the hand. Seeing this, I asked what she wanted to do. She said she was very hungry and wanted to eat her child's flesh. I asked: Do you have no rice to eat? She answered: None. I told her to wait a moment, that I would bring rice, but she said: Before you even leave the door, I will have died of hunger. I thought: "If I take the child away, the mother will die, but if I leave, the mother will eat the baby's flesh." Therefore I cut off my two breasts and gave them to her to eat.'

When the man had heard her account, he collapsed to the ground in a faint. The woman then sprinkled water over his body, and after a long while he revived and said:

'For my sake, show forth your utmost sincerity.'

The woman consented. The man said:

'I did not witness this calamity from the beginning. If it is truly as you say, without falsehood, then may your two breasts be restored as before.'

As soon as he had finished speaking, the woman's two breasts were healed as before, with not even a scar.

Śakra, Lord of the Devas, with his divine eye saw this woman and said to himself: 'This beautiful courtesan, through giving, has obtained such merit and virtue—I fear that in the future she will seize my position.' He then transformed himself into a brahmin holding a jeweled branch and a washing pitcher, leaning on a golden staff, and went to the woman's house and said:

'Please give me food.'

The woman filled a golden bowl with rice and offered it to the brahmin, but he refused to accept it. The beautiful woman asked the brahmin:

'Why do you not accept the rice?'

He answered:

'I do not eat. I heard that you gave away your breasts—is this true?'

The woman replied:

'It is indeed true.'

The brahmin asked in verse:

For what do you seek—

Do you seek to become Śakra or Brahmā,

Or do you desire many jewels and treasures?

This is hard to attain as one wishes.

The woman answered in verse:

I seek nothing more than this:

No birth, aging, sickness, or death,

Purity without sorrow or care—

This alone is what I wish for.

The brahmin asked:

'When you gave away your breasts, did you wish to transform into a different body?'

'O brahmin, I shall demonstrate my utmost sincerity for you to see.'

He said:

'Then show it.'

The woman said:

'If I truly gave my breasts without any other intent, then may I transform from a woman's body into a man's body.'

As soon as the woman had spoken, she at once transformed into a man's body.

After the king of Utpalāvatī had reigned five thousand years, his life came to an end. When the ministers of the court heard that the woman had transformed into a man's body, they thought: 'We should at once establish this person as king. This king will govern the country with the right Dharma.' So together they raised him to the royal throne.

After ascending the throne, the king did not employ punishments but governed the country solely by the right Dharma. The king delighted in giving away gold, silver, and jewels at the city gates and at the crossroads. Whoever wished for food, drink, clothing, fragrant flowers, houses, fields and gardens, beds and mats, garlands, jewels and treasures, moonlight pearls, lapis lazuli, crystal, coral, agate, and so forth—the king granted all according to their needs, and he taught everyone to receive and uphold the precepts of the Eight Precepts of Abstinence.

The king governed the country for five hundred years. The people did not plow or cultivate, yet naturally there was fragrant, fine, pure rice, with none of the inferior or spoiled kind. Whatever rice was reaped today would naturally grow back again tomorrow; as soon as people had taken the grain, the stalks of rice would sink down of themselves.

Everyone took that rice and ate it. After eating this rice, their teeth did not fall out. They also did not age or grow sick, nor did their backs become bent.

Their complexions did not differ, their heights were the same, and their fine features were likewise alike, just as in the land of Uttarakuru. The king thought: 'For me to give to human beings is nothing remarkable; for me to give to the birds and beasts—that is the difficult thing.' The king took fragrant ghee and rubbed and smeared it on his body, then went into a deserted forest and lay down on a rocky ledge. Hundreds of birds flew down and pecked at the king's body, and the king's life came to an end.

He was reborn in the house of a very wealthy brahmin, with gold, silver, jewels, and treasures beyond counting. When ten months were fulfilled, he was born; the baby had auspicious marks, upright and dignified, beyond compare. As soon as he was born, four serving women attended to the life of the child: the first arranged the adornment of the child's body, the second saw to bathing, the third saw to nursing, and the fourth saw to carrying him.

The child grew very quickly. The four serving women discussed together: 'We will not let the child see anything else.' One time, while five hundred serving maidens who attended him were enjoying themselves together, the boy slipped out into the streets and saw the wretched scene of people being bought and sold. The boy felt compassion arise and said to himself: 'If only I could make these people wealthy and happy, no longer bought, sold, and bartered.' The boy spoke a verse:

How may my body and mind

Stand firm and unharmed,

That I, peaceful and at ease,

May witness the suffering people.

The boy ran swiftly back home and said to his father and mother:

'I wish to shave off my hair and beard, go into the mountain forests, dwell in a quiet place, and sit beneath a tree to cultivate practice.'

The boy's parents were not pleased and said:

'You are our only child, whom we love most dearly. Day and night we prayed and made offerings to the spirits of the rivers and mountains, to the sun, the moon, and the devas, and only then were we able to give birth to you. If we cannot see your face, we will grieve ourselves to death, so we absolutely will not let you go.'

The son lay down upon the ground for one day, two days, up to five days, refusing to eat or drink. His relatives heard that this boy wished to shave off his hair and beard, but his parents would not permit it, so he had lain on the ground without eating or drinking for five days now. The relatives came to the house to urge him:

'O boy, why do you not rise, bathe, eat, and prepare to shave off your hair and beard, to delight in the path of leisurely peace in the mountain forests?'

They said this three times. The boy still would not consent. These relatives then went to the boy's parents and said:

'Please allow him to leave home and study the path. If he wishes, he may come and visit from time to time; if not, then call him to return.'

The boy's parents consented. Seeing that his parents had agreed, the boy resumed eating and drinking as before. Six or seven days later, the boy circumambulated his parents three times and paid his respects, then took his leave and entered the quiet mountain forest to practice the path.

The boy came to a forest of many large trees, in which there were two ascetics who practiced seated meditation and had attained the five supernatural powers. With utmost sincerity and diligence they sought the path, far removed from lust and desire. The boy came to the place of the two ascetics and asked:

'What are you doing here in the midst of these mountain forests?'

The two ascetics answered:

'We dwell here practicing seated meditation, contemplating the path, and for the sake of the people we diligently practice austerities.'

The boy said:

'I too will, for the sake of the people, practice seated meditation and seek the path.'

The two ascetics said together:

'Excellent, young one!'

The boy then entered the forest, practiced seated meditation beneath a tree, and out of love for the people diligently practiced the path, and at once attained the five supernatural powers; and his diligence surpassed that of the two ascetics, so they honored the young one as a Great Sage.

In that mountain forest region there was a tigress that was pregnant. According to the rule of the ascetics, they only gathered fallen fruit to eat and did not pick it from the trees. The ascetics went together to look for fruit, and suddenly they saw the pregnant tigress. The young ascetic said to the two ascetics:

'This tigress is about to give birth, and after enduring so many days of hunger and thirst, I fear she will eat the flesh of her own cubs. Who can offer his own body for the tigress to eat?'

One of the two ascetics, the Bodhisattva Maitreya, said:

'I will offer my own body for the tigress to eat.'

After gathering greens and returning, they saw that the tigress had just given birth and wished to eat the flesh of her own cubs. The young ascetic said to the two ascetics:

'The tigress has just finished giving birth and is very hungry; she wishes to eat the flesh of her cubs. Who can offer his body for her to eat?'

And then all three went to the place of the tigress. The tigress glared with wide eyes and opened her mouth toward the three of them. The other two ascetics were both terrified and at once flew up into the sky. One ascetic said:

'Why are you so devoted to her?'

The other replied:

'I offer my body for the hungry tigress to eat—why have you flown up into empty space?'

Having said this, the ascetic, moved with pity, shed tears.

Looking all around and seeing no one, the young ascetic took a sharp knife and cut his right arm until the blood flowed. The young one cut himself in seven such places. The tigress drank the human blood as it flowed into her mouth, and the young ascetic then took his own life so as to offer his body for the hungry tigress to eat.

The Buddha told Ānanda:

"Do you wish to know who that beautiful courtesan was at that time? That person was none other than I. The one who was raised to the throne as king was also none other than I. And the brahmin who killed himself for the tigress to eat was also none other than I. The two ascetics were the Bodhisattva Kāśyapa and the Bodhisattva Maitreya."

The Buddha told Ānanda:

"I diligently practiced the path, surpassing the Bodhisattva Maitreya by nine kalpas. Thus, Ānanda, I diligently practiced the path for sixty kalpas, giving away my hands and feet, head, ears, eyes, nose, sinews and bones, wife and children, fine garments, food and drink; I subdued sixty koṭis of Māra's armies, and thirty-four koṭis of beings attained the accomplishment of the Buddha Path."

The Buddha told Ānanda:

"If all people could know the merit and reward of giving as I have known it—that for one who is poor and lacking food, by a single meal his life will be prolonged, but without being able to eat this meal he will die—then they could go hungry so that others might be satisfied.

Ānanda, I recall how in former times I performed these deeds of giving, and therefore I now have a countenance luminous and radiant. When I smile, the radiance from my mouth shines throughout the three-thousandfold great-thousand world."

When the Buddha spoke this sūtra, four thousand two hundred bhikṣus, arousing the resolve without remainder, attained liberation. Eighty nayutas of devas and humans aroused the resolve for the supreme, right, and true path, and seventy thousand bodhisattvas realized the patient acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas.

When the Buddha had finished speaking this sūtra, the worthy Ānanda and the entire assembly of devas, nāgas, ghosts, spirits, and the people of the world all rejoiced, came forward and bowed their heads at the Buddha's feet, and withdrew.