佛說長者法志妻經

Thus have I heard:

At one time the Buddha, together with a great assembly of 1,250 bhikṣus and tens of thousands of Bodhisattvas, was dwelling in the Garden of Jeta and Anāthapiṇḍika in the country of Śrāvastī.

One day, in the early morning, the Buddha put on his robe and took up his bowl and entered the city to beg for alms, and all the assembly of bhikṣus and Bodhisattvas followed in attendance. The devas, the nāgas and spirits, the spirit Hươn-âm, the spirit Vô-thiện-chi, the Phoenix spirit, the Mountain spirits, and the spirit king Chấp-lạc all scattered flowers, burned incense, and played all manner of music, praising and extolling the virtue of the World-Honored One in verse:

Through countless koṭis of kalpas,

His accumulated conduct is hard to measure;

With loving-kindness and compassion he cares for living beings,

And brings forth the practice of the Great Way.

The three realms are like an illusion,

All of them are fundamentally empty;

That wisdom is able to understand this,

And to liberate beings throughout the ten directions.

With the thirty-two marks of excellence

And the eighty noble characteristics,

He speaks with myriads of koṭis of sounds,

His merit and virtue adorning his very countenance.

He manifests within the three realms,

Revealing and opening the three places of enlightenment;

The three kinds of defilement are already destroyed,

The offenses of the three times are utterly removed.

His mind is like the bright orb of the moon,

In the realm of desire he is untainted by attachment;

In equanimity he is free of love and hatred,

Toward all there is neither intimacy nor estrangement.

At that time the people heard the praises of the virtue of the World-Honored One, and the whole country gathered to see the Buddha walking, each of his steps unhurried and deliberate, his countenance and dignified bearing beautiful, like the moon among the host of stars, like the sun just risen, shining throughout the sky without any obstruction. He was like the Brahmā King or Śakra Devānām-indra amid the devas in the venerable Trāyastriṃśa heaven; like Mount Sumeru rising in the midst of the great ocean, with the four quarters at peace and unshaken.

Everyone, joyful and exultant, joined their palms and took refuge in the World-Honored One. The Buddha came to the house of Dharma Aspiration, stood before the closed door, and emitted a great radiance that shone throughout the ten directions. The elder’s wife was sitting upon her bed, adorning herself, decking her body with all kinds of gold and precious gems, anointing herself with fragrant sandalwood oil, her face full of rouge and powder.

The elder’s wife regarded the brilliant five colors of those ornaments as everlasting, and so whenever her servants and maidservants committed even the slightest fault, she beat them severely without inquiring whether they were in the right or the wrong. When she saw the radiance of the Buddha, brighter than the light of the sun, she thought: “That gentle, soft radiance is not the light of the sun or the moon, nor the light of Brahmā, Śakra, or the devas, nor is it of the common world.

That light appears cool, peaceful, and immeasurable; if my body could obtain this light, my misfortunes would end, and without hunger or thirst I would naturally be sated and full. How might I obtain that light, so as to have the power to command my servants to obey me?” Having thought thus, she came to the closed door, and looking through it she saw the World-Honored One, his excellent marks and dignified bearing radiant and beyond comparison.

His faculties were tranquil and composed, his marks complete and excellent, like a majestic, towering mountain of the seven treasures. The elder’s wife, half ashamed and shy, half joyful and moved with affection, then bowed her head to the Buddha’s feet and said:

“I have committed offenses far too many; I beg to repent. Anger and joy both arise from oneself, and as a woman I have not been able to avoid them. Now that I recognize my faults for the first time, I dare not conceal them.”

The Buddha said:

“Excellent! Excellent! To see one’s own offenses, to reform and cast off all that is wrong, is already to have attained a wholesome benefit.

From now on you must cultivate practice, for a human body is hard to obtain, and the Buddha’s sutras are hard to encounter. Why is it that for myriad lifetimes one is afflicted by being born in a woman’s body? Because within that body there is the semblance of lust; one cannot cultivate the body, the mind is heedless and lets loose its thoughts, full of jealousy and excessive talk, indulging oneself in dependence upon physical appearance, not knowing that the world is impermanent, that wealth and authoritative power last but a moment.

Wealth and nobility, poverty and lowliness, are like the moon, now dim, now bright; like the sun that rises and then sets. Like water, fire, and wind, which arise but do not last and likewise come to an end. All things, both of the Way and of the world, arise from the mind.

The heaven of the gods, the human realm, the hells, the hungry ghosts, and the animals all come from oneself! The Buddha is the Deva among devas, and so too are the Śrāvakas and Pratyekabuddhas. Now my body has obtained the 32 marks of excellence and the 80 noble characteristics, because I contemplate and penetrate clearly throughout the ten directions and comprehend all things, and I regard living beings as my own children.”

When she heard the Buddha speak, she rejoiced beyond measure, paid homage to the Buddha once more, and silently blamed herself, for because of her foolishness and ignorance she had heard the teaching that reveals and transforms—the Unsurpassed—far too late.

The Buddha taught:

“You should practice the ten wholesome deeds: with the body, no killing, no stealing, no lust; with the mouth, no false speech, no divisive speech, no embellished speech, no harsh speech; with the mind, no greed, no anger, no delusion. Constantly practice the six pāramitās: giving, upholding the precepts, patient endurance, vigorous effort, meditative concentration, and wisdom. Follow the four immeasurable states of mind: loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity; with great compassion widely propagate and universally liberate, and you yourself will obtain the 32 marks of excellence and the 80 noble characteristics.

When you give orders to your servants and maidservants, you should instruct them in the matters of suffering, of birth and death, and of sin and merit. Or instruct them about the misfortunes of the three evil paths, or speak to them of the meaning of upholding the precepts and convey it to everyone—this is better than beating them. Moreover, in the adorning of necklaces and ornaments there are four matters: 1. faith, 2. upholding the precepts, 3. cultivating purity, 4. wisdom.

These are the four matters of adornment. If a Bodhisattva adorns the mind and turns toward the Great Vehicle, then there is neither male nor female, like an illusion, like a magical creation. As a painter paints according to his intent and it is at once accomplished, so by understanding clearly the ‘wisdom of emptiness’—that all things are fundamentally pure—one attains the nameless body (no-self), the four fearlessnesses, and as for the four requisites (lodging, medicine, clothing, and food) one keeps nothing for oneself alone.

Alone one walks within the three realms, liberating all.”

Hearing the Buddha’s teaching, the elder’s wife, her mind awakened and penetrating clearly, at once brought forth the unsurpassed, true, and correct aspiration for the Way, and attained the stage of non-retrogression.

At that time Śakra Devānām-indra came up behind the Buddha and said to the elder’s wife:

“The Buddha’s Way is hard to attain; better that you seek to transform your female body into a male body, and become the Deva-king of Sun and Moon, a Wheel-turning Sage King.”

The elder’s wife composed a verse in reply:

The Deva-king, the King of Sun and Moon,

The Wheel-turning Lord of the four quarters—

Their authority and power last but a moment,

Their support endures not for long.

Wealth and nobility are like the morning dew,

Or like seeing scenery within a dream:

When one awakens, the scene dissolves away,

And the five aggregates are like an illusory creation.

One does not know the place where they gather;

The three realms are made by oneself,

And the three times are all equal.

With the mind set on the Way as companions,

To understand the ultimate truth is just this—

So then who is male, and who is female?

When Śakra Devānām-indra heard this, he fell silent and said no more.

The Buddha said:

“To speak truthfully thus is excellent! Excellent! The three realms are like an illusory creation, like a reflection, like an echo, like the vapor of the earth, like the moon’s reflection in water, like a plantain tree.

“People of the world do not understand, and take there to be a self, to be an ‘I’; further attached to the three realms, they cannot save themselves.”

The woman’s mind awakened, and she at once transformed into a male body; joyful and exultant, he bowed his head to the Buddha’s feet.

The Buddha said:

“In a future life you will pass through kalpas as numberless as the sands of the Ganges and will become a Buddha named Stainless King Tathāgata, the Truly Worthy One of Right and Equal Enlightenment, Perfect in Knowledge and Conduct, Well-Gone One who Understands the World, the Unsurpassed One, the Tamer of the Way and Dharma, Teacher of Devas and Humans, the Buddha named Deva among Devas; and that land shall be called Pure Radiance.”

At this time everyone in the assembly—the devas, the people, numberless thousands of beings—seeing this miraculous transformation, all brought forth the mind for the unsurpassed, true, and correct Way. The elder’s wife and all the servants stood before the Buddha and asked:

“Reverently we ask, World-Honored One: are the high and the low fundamentally different or not?”

The Buddha answered:

“All are fundamentally not different, yet they exist in accordance with the mind. Though one be a lowly and humble person, if one brings forth the mind for the Way, one can become a Buddha. But though one be a person of wealth, nobility, power, and rank, if one’s mind is arrogant and proud, one falls into the evil paths: the hells, the hungry ghosts, the animals—like the moon, now full, now waning; like trees, now flourishing, now withered. All are impermanent, and there is nothing that is firm and enduring. Only profound and deep wisdom can be everlasting—void as space, neither coming nor going.”

At that time the servants, joyful and exultant, together brought forth the mind for the Great Way, transformed into male bodies, and attained the patient acceptance of the Dharma.

The Buddha said to Ānanda:

“The five aggregates have no fixed place, the six senses have no root, the twelve links of dependent origination have no starting point—on what do the four great elements rely so as to form a person?”

When the Buddha had spoken thus, everyone rejoiced.