師子素馱娑王斷肉經

I recall measureless past kalpas ago,

There was a king named Sudāsa.

That king one day roamed within the forest,

His retinue following him to hunt the birds and beasts.

Suddenly thunder and lightning broke forth in a raging storm,

And everyone, terror-stricken, scattered apart.

The king alone strayed deep into the mountains,

Came upon a river and fainted away, with none to aid him.

There was a lioness dwelling in the deep mountains

Who, seeing the king alone, drew near to him.

By the evil karma and conditions of beings from former lives,

The seeds of unending hellish suffering were sown.

The king and the lioness, bound by conditions of past lives,

Lust arose, and they joined together in union.

For many lives he had eaten flesh and slain living beings,

And that karma was gathered into the lion's womb.

Thereupon was born a being with a human body and a lion's head,

A mingling of a man and a king of beasts,

Growing to maturity swiftly and surpassingly strong.

He asked of his mother, his lineage, and his origins,

And the lioness mother answered her son's questions:

"Your father is King Sudāsa of the land of Kosala."

Hearing this, he hastened forth to seek him out;

To the land of Magadha, where the father-king dwelt,

He laid out and recounted the whole matter.

The king, hearing this, knew of himself and acknowledged him as his son,

But the father-king was already advanced in years.

Upon his enthronement, the son then ascended to become king,

Titled Lion Sudāsa.

Presiding in the palace over court affairs, he governed the multitude of the people,

Yet the lion gradually returned to his old evil karma:

For many lives he had eaten flesh and harmed living beings.

Though he was king, he would not eat rice and grain,

But ate only the birds and beasts of mountain and river.

Once, when various kinds of meat were about to be offered up,

Suddenly a dog seized them and carried them away.

Lacking meat, the cook, fearing the king would behead him,

Hurried off to seize a young child,

Secretly cut off its head, neck, limbs, and hands,

Boiled it all in the cauldron, and presented it as the offering.

The king ate that flesh and praised it as most delicious,

Craving the substance of the flesh as a fire craves firewood.

The king asked the steward of food: "What meat is this?"

The food-steward, terrified, reported the truth to the king.

The king pardoned all the offense: "Do not be sorrowful or anxious;

Each day let this meat be presented to me."

The cook obeyed the great king's instruction,

Changing his guise each day to steal a child.

He stole and seized boys and girls for many years,

Just like a rākṣasa, like a hawk.

The people throughout the land wore mourning garments,

For losing their children, everyone was terror-stricken.

Clasping hands and bewildered, they questioned one another,

Choking with grief, knowing only to cry out to high heaven.

The folk of a hamlet seized and bound the bandit,

But the bandit-cook protested: "It is not by my doing."

When the people heard this, they remonstrated with the king,

But the king, hearing it, was enraged and reproached them in fury.

At that time, secretly seizing children,

"From now on, each day seize one person—

Lineage, officials, and commoners shall be eaten in turn,

Like sheep dragged out from the fold."

The whole land, in despair with nowhere to appeal,

Came together to the royal palace, wishing to do away with the king.

The king, in his lofty tower, made offerings to ghosts and spirits,

Begging the eagle-hawks to deliver him from this calamity:

"If I obtain the flying birds to guard all the realms,

I shall offer the heads of the kings of a hundred nations to the mountain spirit."

The lion, a savage beast accustomed to evil ways,

Forthwith obtained the birds' aid to capture the kings,

Bound and confined them upon the towering mountain peaks—

Ninety-nine kings he captured,

Lacking only one king, whom he intended to bring as sacrifice.

The lion descended to seek him out.

At that time the Bodhisattva, king of Rājagṛha,

Titled Sutasoma, was bathing in his garden.

The lion, seeing the king seated upon a jade stone,

Hastened over and pulled at his hand, wishing to seize him.

At that time King Sutasoma shed tears.

The lion asked the king: "For what reason?

I have heard that the great king is wise and valiantly courageous;

A Bodhisattva does not begrudge his body or his possessions.

If it be even thus, you ought to be patient—

How can you, of your own accord, give way to sorrow and grief?"

Sutasoma answered the Lion King:

"All sorrow and grief is as nothing.

From the Bodhisattva's cultivation of great Loving-kindness and Compassion,

I now grieve for those kings of the hundred nations.

For a lifetime they were noble and wealthy, lords of the realm;

Today imprisoned and confined, death is drawing near.

Together with the hundred nations I sought the Dharma of the Buddha,

And invited a Dharma-master to come from afar,

But I have not yet been able to hear the Dharma the master imparts—

The multitude of the people thirst with longing, never yet having heard it.

Release me for seven days

To make offerings to the Triple Gem and hear the sound of the Dharma,

To assemble the ministers and entrust the Dharma to them—

On the eighth day I shall come to you, great king."

Because a Bodhisattva does not deceive,

The lion granted the king his appointment of exactly seven days.

On the eighth day Sutasoma left the city and came,

Surrendering his body to give in alms to the Lion King.

At that time the lion, appearing like a cloud,

Seized Sutasoma and brought him before the assembly.

The lion asked the king why he was not afraid,

Daring to come before him, the king of beasts.

Sutasoma answered the words of the Lion King:

"This body is illusory and false; I give it to the great king.

I would rather forsake a hundred thousand bodies and possessions

Than break my word in deceit, but keep my appointment with the king."

With a joyful countenance, he spoke skillfully:

"Grant me a moment to speak of the causes and conditions.

You wish to make sacrifice to evil ghosts and spirits—

A calamity for you and for the good spirits.

The Buddha-lands of the ten directions, the sages and worthies—

For many kalpas you have not heard even their names.

This body is a false illusion compounded of causes and conditions;

Human life, like a flash of lightning, does not endure.

The five faculties and six consciousnesses have no self of person—

Eye, ear, nose, tongue, and touch serve as their causes.

All phenomena transform like a magical illusion,

Yet beings, through deluded thought, grasp them as real.

If you examine the body from beginning to end,

There is not a single part that is permanent and abiding.

Within a kṣaṇa it dissolves like the foam of water;

Suffering, aging, sickness, and death are likewise impermanent.

To nourish the body now with flesh

Is ultimately no refuge for returning to the path of good.

Eating the flesh of measureless slain creatures,

One suffers in turn within the evil paths."

Then Sutasoma spoke these verses,

Exhorting and transforming the Lion King Sudāsa.

When the lion had heard, he forthwith turned his mind around,

Reflecting that the form and substance are truly without self.

The lion asked the king: "What ought to be done?

Is there no offense in making joyful sacrifice to the spirits?"

Sutasoma answered: "O king, attend to fasting.

Vegetarian fasting is without offense; making sacrifice to heaven—"

The lion obeyed the words and offered to the mountain spirit,

Surrendering his body to give in alms together with King Sutasoma.

The kings confined in the mountains and forests

Were all handed back to King Sutasoma.

Sutasoma led them back to their former lands,

Set them upon their royal thrones to govern the multitude of the people,

And escorted the Lion King Sudāsa

Back to his palace in Magadha.

Thereafter, with the officials and the common people,

The whole nation kept the vegetarian fast and did not kill living beings.

Then Sutasoma made a great vow:

"I vow that when I attain Equal and Perfect Enlightenment,

I shall liberate all beings everywhere.

These kings shall all accomplish the Buddha-path,

And I shall impart the wondrous Dharma to the lion.

I vow that the king's grave offenses shall swiftly be dissolved away."

Again I recall in the past, asaṃkhyeya kalpas ago, Śakra Devānām Indra was in the Heaven of the Thirty-three. Because of the habitual tendency from past lives, accustomed to eating flesh, that still remained, he transformed into an eagle-hawk pursuing a dove. At that time I was a king named Śibi; out of compassion for that dove, I weighed my own body and cut off my flesh to ransom and substitute my life for the dove's.

King Śibi at that time was indeed I myself. Later, I was a king named Sutasoma, and at that time Indra transformed into an eagle-hawk. Afterward I again was the king Lion Sudāsa, and Indra, in order to test me, was nonetheless born into the evil paths—how much more so for beings who know no shame, who devote themselves to killing, eating and drinking blood and flesh without ever ceasing!

All beings, from the beginningless past until now, have all at one time been father, mother, kin, and relations, transmigrating even among the birds and beasts—how then can one bear to eat one another's flesh?

A person who eats flesh, passing through many kalpas, must be born among birds and beasts, eating the blood and flesh of others, and in turn repaying with his own life. If born as a human who devotes himself to killing and craves the eating of flesh, then at death he will fall into the Avīci Hell, with no time of even temporary respite from suffering. As for one who can, within a single lifetime, cut off the karma of killing and eating flesh, even unto the accomplishment of Buddhahood he will never again return to eating flesh.