大寶積經

XXVIII. THE TWENTY-EIGHTH ASSEMBLY: THE HOUSEHOLDER VĪRAVṚKṢA

Thus have I heard. At one time, the Buddha was dwelling in the kingdom of Śrāvastī, in Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park in the Jeta Grove, together with an assembly of one thousand two hundred and fifty great bhikṣus. All were arhats whose outflows had been exhausted and whose afflictions were no more.

Supremely disciplined, they were like great nāgas. They had done what had to be done, laid down their heavy burdens, attained their own benefit, exhausted the fetters binding them to the realms of existence, and through right knowledge attained liberation. Their minds were free and sovereign.

As supreme fields worthy of offerings, they were known to everyone. Only Ānanda still remained at the stage of one in training. Among them, the leaders were Ājñāta Kauṇḍinya, Mahākāśyapa, Mahākātyāyana, Mahākāśpa, Śāriputra, Mahāmaudgalyāyana,

Mahākapphiṇa, Mahākauṣṭhila, MahāBrahmapārśva, Rāhula, Nanda, and others.

There were also five hundred great bodhisattvas gathered there, all of whom had attained samādhis and dhāraṇīs.

At that time, in the city of Śrāvastī, there was a householder named Vīravṛkṣa. He was wealthy and possessed abundant treasures, and his storehouses and granaries were overflowing. He had great quantities of gold, silver, vaiḍūrya, mother-of-pearl, agate, coral, amber, maṇi jewels, pearls, elephants, horses, cattle, sheep, male and female servants, and all kinds of merchandise.

The householder Vīravṛkṣa held a banquet with five hundred householders, and they deliberated together, saying: “Good sirs! It is difficult for a Buddha to appear in the world. It is difficult to obtain a human body, and difficult also to encounter a Buddha.

Within the Buddha-Dharma, it is difficult to leave the household life with a sincere heart, and even more difficult to perfect the nature of a bhikṣu. It is difficult to practice in accordance with the Dharma. One who knows and repays kindness, never forgetting even the slightest favor, is difficult to find.

One who can give rise to joyful faith in the Buddha-Dharma is difficult to find, and it is still more difficult to perfect such joyful faith. It is difficult to adorn the Buddha-Dharma, and liberation from birth and death is many times more difficult. Shall we seek cessation through the Śrāvaka Vehicle or the Pratyekabuddha Vehicle, or shall we set forth toward the supreme Buddha Vehicle?”

They all proclaimed: “We shall realize nirvana through the unsurpassed path to Buddhahood.”

Having reached this decision, the householders left the city together and went to the Jeta Grove. They bowed their heads at the Buddha’s feet, circumambulated him three times to the right, and sat down to one side.

Although the Blessed One knew why they had come, he deliberately asked: “Householders, what circumstance has brought you to the Buddha today?”

The householder Vīravṛkṣa and the five hundred householders rose from their seats, bared their right shoulders, knelt with their right knees on the ground, joined their palms reverently, and addressed the Buddha: “Blessed One! We gathered together and deliberated, saying: ‘It is difficult for a Buddha to appear in the world, difficult to obtain a human body, and so forth, up to liberation from birth and death, which is many times more difficult. Shall we now seek cessation through the Śrāvaka Vehicle or the Pratyekabuddha Vehicle, or shall we set forth toward the unsurpassed Buddha Vehicle?’ We all proclaimed: ‘We shall realize nirvana through the unsurpassed path to Buddhahood.’ Because of this decision, we have come before the Tathāgata, the Perfectly Awakened One.

“Blessed One! How should great bodhisattvas who aspire to unsurpassed bodhi train? How should they abide? How should they cultivate?”

The Buddha said: “Excellent, excellent! You have set forth toward unsurpassed bodhi and have come before the Buddha. Listen carefully, reflect well, and remember what you hear. I shall explain to you how great bodhisattvas should train, abide, and cultivate.”

The householders accepted the instruction and listened attentively.

The Buddha taught: “Householders! A great bodhisattva possessing an excellent aspiration toward unsurpassed bodhi must give rise to great compassion for all sentient beings, cultivate it extensively, and diligently nurture it. Therefore, a bodhisattva must remain unattached to body, life, property, wife and children, treasuries, houses, food and drink, clothing, vehicles, blankets and cushions, flowers, incense, and every article of use.

Why is this? Because sentient beings, through attachment to the body, create evil karma, and through that evil karma fall into the hells. If one gives rise to great compassion for sentient beings, one will not cling to body, life, or wealth, and will be reborn in a wholesome realm.

A great bodhisattva possessing an excellent aspiration toward unsurpassed bodhi, having aroused loving-kindness and compassion for sentient beings, must cultivate great generosity without seeking recompense. One who seeks no recompense must abide in the precepts. Having purified the three aspects of morality, one must perfect patience and endure every evil and injury.

One should then arouse diligence without begrudging body or life. One should cultivate one-pointedness and abide in meditative concentration. One should cultivate wisdom and skillful means, and abandon all notions of self, person, sentient being, and lifespan.

For the sake of sentient beings, one practices generosity and upholds the precepts. For the sake of sentient beings, one cultivates patience and arouses diligence. For the sake of sentient beings, one enters meditative concentration and cultivates wisdom and skillful means.”

The householders addressed the Buddha: “Blessed One! In our hearts we are continually attached to and protective of our bodies, lives, wives and children, and all our possessions. How should a great bodhisattva contemplate body, life, and wealth so as to be free from greed and miserliness?”

The Buddha taught: “Good men! A great bodhisattva possessing an excellent aspiration toward unsurpassed bodhi should contemplate that this body has immeasurable faults and perils. It is an accumulation of minute particles, arising, remaining, changing, and perishing, shifting from moment to moment.

Its nine apertures discharge filth, like a den of venomous snakes. It has no master within, like a deserted village. It is ultimately destroyed, like an unfired clay pot.

It overflows with foul fluids, like a basin of excrement and spittle. It stores impurities, like a latrine pit. It cannot bear contact, like a malignant sore.

Craving delicious flavors brings calamity, like food mixed with poison. It is ungrateful, like Ajātaśatru; deceives people, like an evil friend; is harmed by delusion and craving, like one who befriends apes and monkeys; cuts off life and wisdom, like a murderer; steals wholesome dharmas, like a robber; continually seeks opportunities to inflict harm, like an enemy; has no loving-kindness, like a butcher; and is difficult to attend upon, like a violent man.

It is like an arrow embedded in the flesh, painful whenever moved; like a decaying house that must constantly be repaired; like an old, broken cart that is difficult to use; like a box of venomous snakes that is hard to approach; like an inn where weary travelers gather; like a solitary house belonging to no one; like a prison guard intent on harming others; like a king anxious about his kingdom; like a frontier fortress that must be defended in fear; like an evil country filled with disasters; like a broken bowl that is difficult to hold; like tending a fire that is never satisfied; like a mirage, false and deceptive; like an illusion that bewilders people; like peeling a plantain trunk, which has no solid core; like a mass of foam that cannot be grasped;

like a bubble that quickly arises and quickly perishes; like a tree on a riverbank, endangered and shaken; and like a swift-flowing river that ultimately reaches the sea of death.

“A bodhisattva should further contemplate the body’s preceding and subsequent causes and conditions. At first it is born through the union of sensual desire and craving. To nourish its growth, food is swallowed and enters the receptacle of undigested food, where phlegm and warmth digest it. It then enters the yellow receptacle, where, as it is nearly digested, it turns sour. Next it enters the receptacle of wind, where the force of wind separates the liquid from the dregs, which travel separately and become urine and feces. The liquid becomes blood, blood becomes flesh, fat arises within flesh, and from fat arise bones and marrow. Thus, the preceding and subsequent causes and conditions of the body are all impure.

“Having contemplated in this way, a bodhisattva should further reflect: This body is assembled from three hundred and sixty bones, like a decaying house. Its joints and limbs support one another, while four networks of vessels spread all around it. Five hundred portions of flesh plaster it like mud.

Six vessels bind it together; five hundred sinews fasten it; seven hundred small vessels form a woven network; and sixteen great vessels hook together and connect. Two cords of flesh, each three and a half fathoms long, coil and knot within it. Sixteen intestines and the stomach surround the receptacles of undigested and digested food.

Twenty-five channels of breath are like lattice windows; one hundred and seven cavities are like shattered jars; eighty thousand pores cover it like tangled grass. The five faculties and seven apertures are filled with filth. Seven layers of skin wrap it, and the six flavors sustain its growth, like tending a fire that consumes without satisfaction.

“Such a body is entirely foul and by nature putrid and decaying. Who should cherish it and become arrogant on its account? One should regard it merely as one guards a vessel or maintains a cart, nourishing it so as to reach bodhi.”

The Blessed One spoke in verse:

“Good men! If a bodhisattva arouses an excellent aspiration toward unsurpassed bodhi, he should contemplate this body in forty-four ways:

“First, this body is repulsive because its nature lacks harmony. Second, this body is foul because blood and pus continually flow from it. Third, this body is not durable because it is ultimately destroyed.

Fourth, this body is weak because its limbs and joints merely support one another. Fifth, this body is unclean because it is filled with filth. Sixth, this body is like a magical illusion because it deceives ordinary beings.

Seventh, this body is like the mouth of a sore because its nine apertures continually discharge. Eighth, this body is ablaze because the fire of desire rages within it. Ninth, this body is a fire because the fire of anger is fierce.

Tenth, it is ablaze everywhere because the fire of delusion burns throughout it. Eleventh, this body is dark because of greed, anger, and delusion. Twelfth, this body is caught in a net because it is covered by the net of craving.

Thirteenth, this body is a mass of boils because it is full of sores. Fourteenth, this body is insecure because it is subject to four hundred and four illnesses. Fifteenth, it is a dwelling place for insects.

Sixteenth, this body is impermanent because it must ultimately die. Seventeenth, this body is stubbornly deluded because it does not understand the dharmas. Eighteenth, it is like earthenware because it arises, remains, and breaks apart.

Nineteenth, it is oppressed because it is filled with anxiety and sorrow. Twentieth, it cannot be protected because it will certainly be destroyed. Twenty-first, it is dangerous and evil because its deceit and duplicity are difficult to discern.

Twenty-second, it is like a bottomless pit because its desires are insatiable. Twenty-third, it is like fire consuming fuel because it never wearies of craving forms. Twenty-fourth, it is never content because it craves the experience of the five desires.

Twenty-fifth, it is like something beaten and struck because it is subject to injury. Twenty-sixth, it is unstable because its prosperity and decline, growth and diminishment, continually change. Twenty-seventh, the body follows the mind because of incorrect contemplation.

Twenty-eighth, it is ungrateful because it will certainly be cast upon the burial ground. Twenty-ninth, it is eaten by others because jackals, wolves, ants, and termites consume it. Thirtieth, it is like a mechanism because sinews, bones, and limbs sustain it.

Thirty-first, it is unsightly because it contains blood, pus, feces, and filth. Thirty-second, it is not independent because it depends on food and drink. Thirty-third, it is a false bundle because it will ultimately decay.

Thirty-fourth, it is an evil friend because it brings many injuries and adversities. Thirty-fifth, it is a killer because it destroys itself. Thirty-sixth, it is an instrument of suffering and calamity because it is oppressed by many sufferings.

Thirty-seventh, it is a mass of suffering because it arises from the five skandhas. Thirty-eighth, it has no master because it arises from conditions. Thirty-ninth, it has no life because it is apart from the characteristics of male and female.

Fortieth, it is empty because the skandhas, dhatus, and ayatanas must be contemplated. Forty-first, it is false because it is like a dream. Forty-second, it is unreal because it is like an illusion.

Forty-third, it is deceptive because it is like a mirage. Forty-fourth, this body deceives because it is like an image in a mirror.

“When a bodhisattva contemplates the body in this way, he becomes disenchanted with and detached from body, life, wife and children, and possessions. Free from further attachment, he swiftly perfects the six pāramitās and soon attains unsurpassed bodhi.”

The Blessed One spoke in verse:

“To obtain a good human body is exceedingly difficult;
Do not create evil karma for the sake of this body.
In the end, the burial ground will feed it to jackals and wolves;
Do not give rise to craving through wrong views.

Deluded ordinary fools are driven mad by ignorance;
Through attachment to this body, they create evil karma.
This body, moreover, knows no gratitude;
Day and night it only multiplies conditions for suffering and calamity.

This mechanism moves and turns, continually weary;
Mucus, urine, and excrement constantly overflow.
Hunger, thirst, heat, and cold always oppress it—
What wise person would cherish this body?

This body is insatiable, like a deep pit;
It only nurtures hostile and harmful things.
Because of this body, one continually commits evil
And must endure painful retribution for immeasurable kalpas.

Who can seize and preserve it from decay?
Know that it is useless; do not become infatuated with it.
A Buddha, a Tathāgata, is exceedingly difficult to encounter,
Appearing but once in immeasurable kalpas.

One should have profound faith in the Buddha-Dharma;
The evil realms are fearsome—do not follow their course.
Even if one could live for a thousand kalpas,
One should still fear impermanence and become disenchanted.

How much more when not even a moment is assured,
And one may sink and wander through the evil realms!
An evil friend may come and offer this advice:
‘A human body is difficult to obtain, and now you have obtained it.

Seek abundant treasure and enjoy sensual pleasures;
While still healthy and strong, amuse yourself to the full.’
But who has ever become happy through seeking wealth?
Even after obtaining and guarding it, one still suffers toil.

So do treasures deceive ordinary fools;
Amid such falsehood, what reality can there be?
One endures much suffering and distress in seeking wealth and gain;
Water, fire, rulers, and thieves continually seize it.

They have no loving heart even toward their parents,
And become hostile and harmful even toward their relatives.
Their words appear agreeable, but their hearts are deeply venomous;
They create much karma conditioned by deceit.

Some study heterodox treatises and false spells,
Boastfully displaying their skills like courtesans.
Some practice flattery and deceit while appearing gentle;
Others are obstinate and harsh while displaying fierce authority.

Not knowing that their possession is like an illusion,
People fall into the path of greed for false things.
When the Buddha Maitreya appears in the world,
He will become a Buddha in his final birth and succeed Śākyamuni.

The ground of his land will be paved with gold;
From where will its seven treasures have appeared?
At the end of the kalpa, the world will be consumed by fire;
Mount Sumeru, the rivers, and the seas will all burn and dry up.

Ultimately they will perish and return to emptiness—
Where then will all those precious things go?
Creating evil karmic retribution in the quest for wealth,
One supports wife and children, imagining it to be happiness.

At death, not one remains nearby;
Only evil karma follows close behind.
A wise person will never, for the sake of loved ones,
Create binding karma from which escape is difficult.

No relative can take another’s place;
The messengers of Yama examine karma alone.
They do not inquire about relatives and friends.
Those who obtain a human body but do not abandon evil

Must now willingly undergo suffering.
Yama continually tells those sinners:
‘I have not added even the slightest offense to yours.
You created your own offenses and have now come here yourself.

You must personally bear your karmic retribution; no one can replace you.
Parents, wife, and children cannot save you.
One should diligently cultivate the causes of transcendence;
Therefore, cast off the chains of karma.

Know well how to leave them far behind and seek peace and happiness.
Regard wife, children, and home with apprehension;
Always rely upon the Buddha’s teaching and practice correctly.
Household prosperity is the root of suffering,

Like a fiery furnace that is greatly to be feared.
Body and mind grow feverish, scorched and burned—
What wise person would give rise to attachment?
Delighting in the cultivation of the Buddha-Dharma,

Never pursuing worldly gain, is true happiness.
Dark and foolish ordinary beings do not understand;
Though the home is the root of suffering, they remain attached to it.
Regarding that mass of skin, bones, sinews, and flesh,

They are deluded and falsely conceive ‘husband’ and ‘wife.’
Not knowing that the body is like an illusion,
Dark and foolish ordinary beings give rise to craving.
The wise know the body to be a source of faults and calamities;

After hearing the Dharma, the five hundred householders attained the patient acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas. Joyful and elated, they spoke in verse:

We set forth toward great bodhi
To bring benefit and happiness to sentient beings.
We sustain our lives with wholesome Dharma,
And settle our own minds through awakened wisdom.

The Blessed One then smiled. From the portal of the Buddha’s face issued rays of golden, red, white, rose, purple, and crystal light. They illuminated immeasurable and boundless worlds, reaching as far as the Brahmā Heaven and eclipsing the majestic radiance of the sun and moon. The rays then returned, circumambulated the Buddha three times, and entered the crown of his head.

Venerable Ānanda rose, bared his right shoulder, knelt with his right knee on the ground, joined his palms, and addressed the Buddha: “Blessed One! What cause and condition have led the Buddha to smile?”

The Venerable then spoke in verse:

Sentient beings are poor and lack the wealth of Dharma;
Therefore, proclaim the supreme Great Vehicle.
You who can serve as bright eyes for the world,
Please explain the cause of the Buddha’s smile.”

The Buddha taught: “Ānanda! Do you see these five hundred householders who have now aroused the mind of unsurpassed bodhi before the Buddha?”

“Yes, I see them, Blessed One!”

“Ānanda! In the past, these five hundred householders attended upon and made offerings to hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of Buddhas, planting roots of goodness. Now, upon hearing me teach the Dharma, they have all attained the patient acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas.

Henceforth, these householders will no longer be born in the evil realms, but will continually enjoy happiness among humans and devas. In a future life, in the presence of the Buddha Maitreya, they will draw near to him, make offerings, honor, revere, and praise him. They will do likewise before every Buddha of the Auspicious Kalpa.

In the presence of those Buddhas, they will hear the true Dharma, receive, retain, read, and recite it, and explain it to others. After twenty-five kalpas, these householders will attain unsurpassed bodhi in various Buddha lands. They will all bear the same name: Tathāgata Victorious Lotus Treasury, Worthy of Offerings, Perfectly Awakened One.”

Venerable Ānanda addressed the Buddha: “Rare indeed, Blessed One! Rare indeed, Well-Gone One! What should this vast Dharma gate be called, and how should we receive and retain it?”

The Buddha taught: “Ānanda! This Dharma gate is called The Stages of the Yoga Masters. It is also called The Questions of the Householder Vīravṛkṣa. You should receive and retain it.”

When the Buddha had spoken this sūtra, Venerable Ānanda, the bhikṣus, the five hundred householders, the assemblies of bodhisattvas, devas and humans, and the eight classes of heavenly beings, nāgas, and others heard the Buddha’s teaching. They all rejoiced greatly, faithfully accepted it, and respectfully practiced it.