師子月佛本生經

Thus have I heard:

At one time the Buddha was dwelling in the Kalandaka Bamboo Grove near the city of Rājagṛha, together with one thousand two hundred and fifty bhikṣus and one hundred Bodhisattvas.

At that time, among the assembly there was a bhikṣu-Bodhisattva named Vasumitra. This bhikṣu roamed about in the bamboo grove, climbing up and down the branches of the trees, making cries like a monkey, or holding three bells and performing nāṭa tricks. The elders and passersby vied with one another to come and watch. When the crowd had gathered, the bhikṣu soared up into the empty sky, climbed to the very tops of the trees, and gave forth the cries of monkeys.

In Mount Gṛdhrakūṭa there were eighty-four thousand monkeys with golden-hued fur, who surrounded the place where the Bodhisattva was. The Bodhisattva again manifested all sorts of tricks to delight them. Seeing this, everyone said: "A Śākya-son śramaṇa playing like a child, deluding the people, doing evil deeds that no one can trust, and moreover keeping company with birds and beasts in unlawful conduct." Such an evil report spread to the city of Rājagṛha. A brāhman reported to the great king Bimbisāra:

"Your Majesty, a Śākya-son śramaṇa is performing unlawful deeds, performing nāṭa tricks together with birds and beasts."

When the king heard these things, he reproached the disciples of the Buddha. The king said to the elder Kalandaka:

"Those Śākya-sons gathering a troop of monkeys—what are they doing in your grove? Does the Tathāgata know of this?"

The elder replied:

"Vasumitra performs transformations that delight the troop of monkeys; the devas rain down flowers as offerings. They do things that I cannot comprehend."

Then the great king Bimbisāra, riding a fine elephant carriage together with his retinue, went to the place of the Buddha. Arriving at the Kalandaka Bamboo Grove, the king at once descended from his carriage and from afar beheld the World-Honored One upon the pavilion. He sat upon a throne of the seven jewels, his body of a golden radiance, one zhang and six chi tall, possessing the thirty-two marks and the eighty noble characteristics, all of which emitted a brilliant light like a mountain of pure gold. He dwelt amid that resplendent radiance, the golden light encircling all around so that the whole great assembly was enveloped in gold. The venerable Vasumitra and the eighty-four thousand monkeys likewise had bodies of golden hue.

At that time, when the troop of monkeys saw the great king arrive, they performed all manner of things: singing, dancing, beating drums, blowing horns, and so forth; and there was a monkey who plucked flowers and offered them to the great king. Seeing this, the great king led the people to the place of the Buddha, paid homage to the Buddha, circumambulated him three times, then sat down to one side and said:

"O Buddha, World-Honored One, what merit did these monkeys plant in former lives that their bodies are golden? And for what offense were they born among the beasts? What roots of merit did the venerable Vasumitra plant, that he was born into the house of an elder, regarded the household as no household, left home, and studied the Way? What offense has he, that although born in a human life with all faculties complete, he does not uphold the precepts and disciplined conduct, but makes friends with the troop of monkeys and apes, singing and speaking just like a monkey, causing the heretics to ridicule us? I humbly beseech the World-Honored One, out of compassion, to analyze and clearly explain this, so that we may understand."

The Buddha said:

"Great king, listen well and ponder this matter skillfully. I shall explain it to you clearly. In immeasurable koṭis of kalpas in the past, there was a Buddha who appeared in the world named Dīpaṃkara, complete in the ten epithets. After the Buddha Dīpaṃkara entered nirvāṇa, there were bhikṣus who dwelt in the mountains and marshes, cultivating according to the Buddha's teaching. They dwelt in solitary places, practicing the twelve dhūta austerities, holding firmly to the precepts as one who guards his own eyes; and thereby they realized the fruit of Arhatship, complete in the eight liberations and the three knowledges and the six supernatural powers.

At that time, in a lonely marsh there was a monkey that came to the place of an Arhat.

Seeing the Arhat sitting in meditation, absorbed in samādhi, it took the sitting-cloth of the venerable one and draped it as a kāṣāya in the proper manner of a śramaṇa; it also bared its right shoulder and, holding an incense-censer in its hands, circumambulated that bhikṣu. When the bhikṣu rose from meditative absorption and saw that this monkey had such a good and wholesome mind, he at once snapped his fingers and said to the monkey:

"Dharma-child, you should now arouse the unsurpassed mind of the Way."

When the monkey heard this, it leapt about in joy, prostrated its five limbs to the ground in reverence to the bhikṣu, then rose and plucked flowers and scattered them upon the bhikṣu. Thereupon the bhikṣu expounded the Three Refuges:

"Dharma-child, now that you follow me to learn the Buddha-Dharma of the three times, you must request and receive the Three Refuges and the Five Precepts."

The monkey joined its palms and said:

"O Venerable One, may you take pity on me. I now wish to take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha."

The bhikṣu taught:

"You now take refuge in the Buddha, take refuge in the Dharma, take refuge in the Saṅgha."

A second and a third time he likewise said: "You have taken refuge in the Buddha, taken refuge in the Dharma, taken refuge in the Saṅgha." A second and a third time he likewise said so. Next came repentance, and the bhikṣu said to the monkey:

"From immeasurable kalpas down to the present, you have committed greed and desire, anger and hatred, delusion, wrong views, jealousy, arrogance, slander, the breaking of precepts, doing all ten evil deeds, committing the five heinous offenses, despising the Vaipulya scriptures, lustful misconduct with a bhikṣuṇī, stealing the property of the Saṅgha, and committing grave offenses immeasurable and boundless. I have now cut off birth-and-death, will not receive a body in lives to come, and have become an Arhat, able to eliminate immeasurable grave offenses for sentient beings.

Why is this so? When I was born, it was together with the mind of great compassion; the Dharma of the noble sages of the three times is likewise thus, also born into the world together with the mind of great compassion."

Earnestly the bhikṣu spoke the repentance of offenses for the monkey three times. The repentance done, the bhikṣu said:

"Dharma-child, you are now purified, and are called Poṣadha. From now until the end of your life you receive the precept that you may not take life. The Buddhas, the Arhats of the three times, are pure in body, speech, and mind, never taking life at all. You too shall be likewise."

Thereupon the monkey said to the Arhat:

"I vow to become a Buddha. According to the Venerable One's teaching, from now until the day I become a Buddha, I will not take life."

When the Arhat heard the monkey speak, his mind was greatly delighted, and he conferred the five precepts upon it:

"Dharma-child, from now until the end of your life, following the study of the Buddha-Dharma—the Buddhas of the three times, the Śrāvakas, are pure in bodily karma, ever refraining from killing and keeping the precept against killing. You too are likewise: to the end of your life never violate the precept against killing. Can you uphold this?"

The monkey said:

"I am able to uphold it."

Next, the monkey received the precepts against stealing, against sexual misconduct, against false speech, and against drinking liquor, just as in the manner of receiving the precepts above.

The Arhat bhikṣu taught:

"You must make a vow. You are an animal, your present body an obstruction to the Way; yet you must be diligent and seek the Way of Unsurpassed Perfect Enlightenment."

When the monkey had made its vow, it leapt about in joy, ran up a high mountain, swung among the branches in play, fell to the ground, and died at once. Because the monkey had received the five precepts conferred by the Arhat, it cut off the karma of an animal. After death, the monkey was born up in the Tuṣita heaven, where it met the Bodhisattva who is bound to one more birth. The Bodhisattva spoke the mind of the Unsurpassed Way for it to hear, and it then brought heavenly flowers down to the lonely marsh to make offerings to the Arhat. When the Arhat saw it, he smiled and said:

"O deva-king, the retribution of good and evil is like shadow following form, and can never be cast off."

Then he spoke a verse:

Keeping the precepts, one is born in the heavens;
Breaking the precepts, one drinks molten copper.

When the Arhat had spoken this verse, he fell silent and said no more. The deva-son said:

"O Venerable One, by what evil offense in my former body was I born among monkeys? And by what merit and reward did I meet the Venerable One, escape the animal existence, and be born up in the heavens?"

The Arhat said:

"You should listen carefully and skillfully bear this in mind: In a past age, in the world of Jambudvīpa, there was a Buddha who appeared in the world named Mahāprajñā Tathāgata, Arhat, Perfectly Enlightened One... complete in the ten epithets. After he had appeared in the world, this Buddha three times manifested entry into nirvāṇa. Coming to the age of the semblance Dharma, there was a bhikṣu named Padmagarbha, who constantly made friends with kings, elders, and laymen.

He did not keep the precepts and disciplined conduct, but lived perversely, deceitful and crooked. Because of his deceit and delusion, after his death, in but a moment he fell into the Avīci hell. Like a lotus flower opening, his body filled all of the eighteen hells.

Hot iron pellets rained down from on high; hundreds of thousands of fierce flames and countless hot iron wheels fell from the empty sky. In the Avīci hell the sinner endured for one kalpa, and when that kalpa ended, was born again into another. Thus the sinner passed through the great hells for the full eighty-four thousand kalpas.

Coming out of the hells, he fell into the existence of a hungry ghost, drinking molten copper and eating hot iron pellets, passing eighty-four thousand years. Coming out of the hungry-ghost existence, for five hundred lives he had the body of an ox. Again for five hundred lives he had the body of a camel, for five hundred lives he was born among pigs, for five hundred lives he was born among dogs, and for five hundred lives he was born among monkeys.

Because of your former conditions of making offerings, keeping the bhikṣu precepts, and making the great vow, you have now met me again, been bathed in the Dharma, and being purified, have been born up in the heavens.

The bhikṣu who kept the precepts is myself; the bhikṣu who was heedless is you."

Then, when the monkey deva-son had heard the Arhat speak these words, his mind was afraid, his hair stood on end, and repenting of his former offenses, he returned to the heavens.

The Buddha said to the great king:

"That monkey, though it was an animal, met an Arhat but once and received and upheld the Three Refuges and the Five Precepts. By this merit it surpassed a thousand kalpas of deep and grave offenses and was born up in the heavens, meeting the Bodhisattva who is bound to one more birth. Thereafter it met countless Buddhas, purely cultivated the holy conduct, became complete in the six pāramitās, abode in the Śūraṅgama samādhi, and dwelt in the stage of non-retrogression.

In its final body, following the Buddha Maitreya, it will become the Unsurpassed, Perfectly Enlightened One. The king's name will be Ratnaprabha; the land will be pure like the Trāyastriṃśa heaven, and the sentient beings in that land will practice the ten wholesome deeds and keep the precepts wholly without flaw. The Buddha of that land will be named Siṃha-candra Tathāgata, Arhat, Perfectly Enlightened One, Perfect in Knowledge and Conduct, Well-Gone, Knower of the World, Unsurpassed One, Tamer of Men, Teacher of Devas and Humans, Buddha, World-Honored One.

If any sentient being hears the name of that Buddha, in whatever place they are born life after life, they will be far removed from the body of an animal, and will cut off the karma of birth-and-death for immeasurable kalpas."

The Buddha said:

"Great king, you should know that the Buddha Siṃha-candra of that land is now the bhikṣu Vasumitra in this assembly."

Thereupon, when King Bimbisāra had heard the Buddha's teaching, he rose, joined his palms, and his whole body broke out in sweat. He wept, his tears falling like rain, repenting and reproaching himself; and turning toward Vasumitra he bowed to the ground, repenting of his former offenses.

The Buddha said:

"Great king, you should know that these eighty-four thousand golden-bodied monkeys, in a past kalpa during the time of the Buddha Krakucchanda, between the country of Vārāṇasī and the country of Kauśāmbī—between these two countries—were likewise eighty-four thousand bhikṣuṇīs. They did all sorts of unlawful deeds, becoming exceedingly intimate with worldly people, violating the grave prohibitions, adorning their bodies like gandharva women without any sense of shame.

They took lewd licentiousness as their necklaces, used the violations of precepts as their flower-garlands, raised the banner of arrogance, beat the drum of self-exaltation, plucked strings in heedlessness, sang praises of evil repute, wild and witless like a troop of foolish monkeys. When they saw a bhikṣuṇī endowed with the virtue of compassion, it was as if they saw a thief.

At that time, there was a bhikṣuṇī named Suśānti, who had realized the fruit of Arhatship, complete in the three knowledges, the six supernatural powers, and the eight liberations. She came to the place of these bhikṣuṇīs and said to them:

"Sisters, the World-Honored One, when he was yet in the world, often spoke this verse:

When the bhikṣuṇīs heard the Arhat bhikṣuṇī speak this verse, their minds harbored anger and hatred, and they ceased not their evil words of cursing and reviling:

"Where has this old monkey come from? Speaking vicious and deceitful words, speaking outrageously of the hells."

The Arhat, seeing that these evil ones had given rise to unwholesome minds, aroused the mind of loving-kindness, flew up into the empty sky, and manifested eighteen transformations. When the evil ones saw such transformations, they all flung up their golden bracelets. The Arhat bhikṣuṇī said—and the evil women said:

"We vow that life after life we shall bear a golden hue upon our bodies, and for the evil deeds we did before we beg to repent. We pray that you, out of pity for us, will accept our offerings."

The Arhat bhikṣuṇī descended from the empty sky and accepted the various offerings of these evil women.

When these evil ones died, they fell into the Avīci hell. Like lotus flowers spread throughout the hell, their bodies were borne, again passing in succession through more than eighteen great hells. In the various hells their life-spans were equal, one great kalpa each; and continuing thus, they constantly remained in the hells for ninety-two kalpas. Coming out of the hells, for five hundred lives they were constantly hungry ghosts; coming out of the hungry-ghost existence, for one thousand lives they were constantly monkeys with golden-hued bodies.

Great king, you should know that the eighty-four thousand bhikṣuṇīs of old who violated the precepts and cursed and reviled the Arhat bhikṣuṇī are now precisely the eighty-four thousand golden monkeys in this assembly. The one who made offerings to those evil bhikṣuṇīs at that time is now the great king. Because of the cause in a former life, the troop of monkeys now bring flowers and incense as offerings to the great king. The bhikṣuṇī who humiliated the precept-keeping bhikṣuṇī at that time is now Kokālika and the five hundred eunuchs of the king."

The Buddha said to the great king:

"You should carefully guard your body, speech, and mind."

The World-Honored One spoke a verse:

Great king, you should listen well:
Put an end to evil, cultivate wholesome conduct.

When King Bimbisāra had heard the Buddha speak this verse, he begged forgiveness before the Buddha, repenting and reproaching himself; and suddenly his mind penetrated through and through, and he realized the fruit of Anāgāmin. Eight thousand people who followed the king also begged to be allowed to leave home, and the king granted it.

The Buddha said:

"Welcome, bhikṣus."

Their hair and beards fell away of themselves at once, and they donned the kāṣāya, becoming śramaṇas. They paid homage at the feet of the Buddha, and in the interval before they could even raise their heads, they realized the fruit of Arhatship, complete in the three knowledges, the six supernatural powers, and the eight liberations. The remaining more than sixteen thousand people who followed the king all aroused the mind of Unsurpassed Perfect Enlightenment.

Eighty thousand devas also all aroused the mind. The eighty-four thousand golden-furred monkeys, hearing the conditions of their former lives, were ashamed and reproached themselves, circumambulated a thousand times, turned toward the Buddha in repentance, and also all aroused the mind of Unsurpassed Bodhi; and according to the length or shortness of their life-spans, their lives came of themselves to an end. After their lives ended, they were born up in the Tuṣita heaven, where they met the Buddha Maitreya, became ever more diligent, and attained non-retrogression.

Then the venerable Mahākāśyapa, seeing these events, said to the great assembly:

"A Bodhisattva who practices pure conduct can cause even animals to arouse the mind of the Way. Vasumitra is able to perform such a great Buddha-work; how much more so the other Bodhisattvas of immeasurable majestic virtue."

The deva-sons, the mountain spirits, the earth spirits, the devas, the nāgas, and the eightfold assembly, seeing the troop of monkeys arouse the mind of Bodhi, be born up in the heavens, and attain non-retrogression, their hearts gave rise to joy, and they said to the Buddha:

"When will this troop of monkeys realize the fruit of Buddhahood?"

The Buddha said to the great assembly:

"From now, after a hundred myriad koṭis of nayutas of asaṃkhyeya kalpas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, there will be a kalpa named Mahāprabha; and people in that kalpa shall attain Buddhahood. There will be eighty-four thousand Buddhas appearing in the world in succession, all in that same kalpa, all with the same name, Samanta-suvarṇa-prabhā-rāja Tathāgata, Arhat, Perfectly Enlightened One, Perfect in Knowledge and Conduct, Well-Gone, Knower of the World, Unsurpassed One, Tamer of Men, Teacher of Devas and Humans, Buddha, World-Honored One." All in the assembly heard the Buddha, the World-Honored One, bestow upon the troop of monkeys the prophecy of the Bodhisattva Way.

They then took off their most precious necklaces to make offerings to the Tathāgata and the bhikṣu-Saṅgha. All with one voice praised the immeasurable virtue of the World-Honored One:

"The Tathāgata has appeared in the world precisely for the sake of this troop of monkeys. Excellent, World-Honored One! If even a troop of monkeys, hearing the Dharma, can attain Buddhahood, how then could we, in lives to come, not attain Buddhahood?"

At that time, when the great assembly had heard the Buddha's teaching, with joy they received and undertook it, paid homage to the Buddha, and withdrew.