師子素馱娑王斷肉經

I recall countless aeons in the past

There was a king named Sūtasoma

That king one day roamed within the forest

His courtiers followed him to hunt the beasts and birds

Suddenly thunder and lightning stirred up a raging gale

Everyone was terrified, and all were scattered

The king alone strayed into the mountains

He came upon a river, fell unconscious, and no one was there to help.

There was a lioness deep within the mountains

Seeing the king alone, she drew near to him

Sentient beings, through evil karma and conditions of former lives

Sow the seeds of hell and boundless suffering.

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

Lust arose between them and they coupled together

Through many lives she had eaten flesh and slain living beings

Such karma was gathered into the womb of the lioness

She thereupon bore a son with a human body and a lion's head

A blend of a man and a king of beasts

He grew to maturity swiftly, immensely strong.

He asked his mother of her kinfolk and his own lineage

The lion-mother answered her son's question:

"Your father is King Sūtasoma, of the land of Kṣata."

Hearing this, the son hastened to seek him out

To the land of Magadha, where his royal father dwelt

And there he set forth and recounted the whole affair.

The king heard him and knew of himself to acknowledge him as son

But the royal father was already advanced in years

So the son was crowned and ascended to become king

Titled the Lion Sūtasoma.

He sat enthroned and governed the multitude of people in court affairs

The lion, little by little, returned to his old evil karma

Through many lives he had eaten flesh and harmed living beings

Though now a king, he would not eat rice and grain

He ate only the birds and beasts of the mountains and rivers.

When all kinds of meat were about to be presented to him

Suddenly a dog snatched the meat and carried it off,

Lacking meat, the cook feared the king would behead him

So he hurried to seize a young child

Secretly cut off its head, neck, and limbs

Boiled it all in the cauldron and presented it.

The king ate that flesh and praised it as most delicious

He craved the substance of flesh as fire craves firewood

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

The steward, terrified, made the matter clear to the king

The king pardoned all his fault: "Do not be sorrowful or anxious

Each day bring this meat to me."

The cook obeyed the great king's command

Changing his manner each day, he stole a child.

For many years he stole away boys and girls

Like a rākṣasa, like a kite-hawk

The people of the country wore mourning garments

For losing their children everyone was terrified

Clasping hands, dazed, they asked one another

Choking with grief, they could only cry out to high heaven.

The people of the village seized the bandit

The cook-bandit accused: "It is not done by me."

When everyone heard this, they remonstrated with the king

The king heard and was enraged, in fury he reproached them.

At that time he secretly captured the children

"From now each day seize one person

From the royal clan, officials, and commoners, to be eaten in turn

Like goats in a pen dragged away."

The whole country was in despair, with no place to appeal

Together they came to the royal palace, wishing to remove the king

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

Begging eagle-spirits to deliver him from this calamity.

"If I obtain flying birds to guard all the realms

The heads of the kings of a hundred lands I will offer to the mountain god."

The lion, the fierce beast, accustomed to evil ways

Then obtained the birds' aid to capture the kings,

Binding and confining them on a lofty mountain peak

He captured ninety-nine kings

Lacking only one king, he intended to make the sacrifice

The lion descended to seek him out.

At that time the Bodhisattva, the king of Rājagṛha

Titled Sutejas, was bathing in his garden

The lion saw the king seated upon a jade stone

He hurried over and seized his hand, wishing to capture him

At that moment King Sutejas shed tears

The lion asked the king for what reason:

"I have heard that the great king is wise and valiant in courage

A Bodhisattva who does not begrudge his body or his wealth

If it be even as this, you ought to endure it

How can you give yourself over to sorrow and suffering?"

Sutejas answered the Lion-king, saying:

"All sorrow and suffering does not compare

To that of a Bodhisattva cultivating the great Compassion

I now grieve for those kings of a hundred lands

In one life lords of wealth and rank, masters of the world

This day imprisoned, with death drawing near

I together with the hundred lands sought the Dharma of the Buddha

We invited a Dharma master who came from afar

We have not yet been able to hear the Dharma the teacher transmits

The myriad people thirst and yearn, never yet having heard it.

Release me for seven days

To make offerings to the Three Jewels and hear the sound of the Dharma

To gather my courtiers 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 made an appointment with the king for exactly seven days

On the eighth day Sutejas departed his city and came

Abandoning his body to give it as alms to the Lion-king.

At that time the Lion appeared like a cloud

Seizing Sutejas, he brought him before the multitude.

The Lion asked the king why he was not afraid

To dare come before me like a king of beasts.

Sutejas answered the Lion-king:

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

I would rather forsake a hundred thousand bodies and possessions

Than violate and deceive my word, keeping the appointment with the king."

With a countenance of joy he spoke by skillful means:

"Grant me a moment to speak of cause and condition

You wish to make sacrifice to false ghosts and spirits

This is calamity for you and for the good spirits.

The Buddha-lands of the ten directions, the sages and saints

For many aeons you have not heard or known their names

This body is a false combination of causes and conditions

A human life is like a lightning flash, not enduring

The five sense-faculties and six consciousnesses have no self or ego

The eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and touch act as causes

All phenomena transform like an illusion

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

Examine the spirit from beginning to end

There is not a single thing that is permanently abiding

In a kṣaṇa it dissolves like a water-bubble

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

This day you use flesh to nourish your body

In the end you find no refuge upon the path of goodness

Eating the flesh of immeasurable slain creatures

Upon the evil paths you will undergo suffering in turn."

At that time Sutejas spoke these verses

Exhorting and transforming the Lion-king Sūtasoma

The Lion, having heard them, at once turned back his mind

Reasoning out that the character and substance are truly without self.

The Lion asked the king: "What ought I to do?

Sacrificing to the spirits brings joy and is no offense."

Sutejas answered: "O king, take heed to keep a vegetarian fast

Eating vegetarian food is no offense, sacrifice to heaven."

The Lion obeyed his words and offered to the mountain god

Abandoning his body, he gave it as alms together with King Sutejas.

The kings confined in the mountain forests

Were all handed back to King Sutejas

Sutejas led them back to their native lands

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

And he brought the Lion-king Sūtasoma

Back to the palace of Magadha

Together with the officials and the hundred clans

The whole country kept a vegetarian fast and did not kill living beings.

At that time Sutejas made a great vow

"I vow that when I attain Perfect Right Awakening

I shall liberate all the multitude of beings everywhere

These kings shall all accomplish the Buddha-path

I shall transmit the wondrous Dharma to the Lion

I vow that the king's grave offenses may soon be dissolved."

Again I recall that in the past, in an asaṃkhya aeon, Śakra Devānām Indra, dwelling in the Trāyastriṃśa heaven, because of the habitual tendency of eating flesh remaining from past lives, transformed himself into an eagle pursuing a dove. At that time I was a king named Śibi, and out of compassion for that dove, I weighed my own body and cut my flesh to ransom and substitute it for the dove's life; King Śibi at that time was none other than Myself.

Afterward, I was a king named Sutejas, and at that time Śakra transformed himself into the eagle. Later still I became the Lion-king Sūtasoma; Śakra, in order to test Me, was even then born into the evil paths—how much more so the sentient beings who know no shame, who devote themselves to killing, and who feed upon blood and flesh without ever ceasing. All sentient beings, from the beginningless past until now, none have not at some time been our fathers, mothers, kinfolk, transformed and shifting even among the species of birds and beasts; being thus, how can one bear to eat one another's flesh?

One who eats flesh, passing through many aeons, must be reborn among the species of birds and beasts, eating the blood and flesh of others and then in turn repaying with one's own life. If born as a human who devotes oneself to killing and harming and delights in eating flesh, then upon death one will fall into the Avīci hell, with no time of respite from suffering. If a person is able within a single lifetime to cut off the karma of killing and eating flesh, then even up to the attainment of Buddhahood one will never again return to eating flesh.