Buddha 3
THE PREVIOUS LIVES OF THE BUDDHA
THE BODHISATTVA AS A TREE-FAIRY
Mataka-bhatta Jâtaka, Khuddaka Nikâya
NOTES
In the Pali Canon, in the Khuddaka Nikâya of the Sutta Pitaka, there are some 550 Jâtakas (birth stories) in which the Buddha relates incidents from some of his previous lives.
This is Jâtaka number 18. Its didactic purpose is to expound the Buddha’s precept concerning the taking of life.
Here it criticizes the Hindu practice of giving food offerings to the dead, and the implication is that the whole system of animal sacrifices is evil.
THE BODHISATTVA AS AN ANTELOPE
Kuringa-Miga Jâtaka, Khuddaka Nikaya
NOTES
This is Jâtaka number 21. It deals with the question of taking life (cp. Jâtaka 18 above), not only the life of animals but of Buddhas. It is a principle of Buddhism that the worthier the living being is, the greater the demerit is for the killer of that being. Devadatta, a relative and a disciple, tried to cause the Buddha’s death on more than one occasion. He was to Gotama what Judas Iscariot was to Jesus. Devadatta, like the antelope hunter, would have to undergo severe punishment in the various hells.
Translations consulted in the preparation of the above rendering of Jâtakas 18 and 21:
T.W. Rhys Davids, Buddhist Birth Stories; or, Jâtaka Tales (London 1880).
E.B. Cowell, ed., The Jâtaka or Stories of the Buddha’s Former Births, Vol 1,
translated by Robert Chalmers (Cambridge 1895)
Julius Dutoit, Jatakam, Das Buch der Erzählungen aus früheren Existenzen Buddhas, Vol.1 (Leipzig 1908).
THE VOW OF THE BODHISATTVA
Mahâvastu
There was once a young Brahmin named Megha, learned and wise, ... who knew all the mantras of the Vedas by heart. After completing his studies he came down from the Himâlayas to obtain the fee due to his teacher. With his staff, water-pot, sunshade, sandals, and mantle, he entered many villages, towns, and cities; and each one became free of affliction and calamity through Megha's spiritual power. As he went along he begged for money, and he was given five hundred coins.
He then decided to go to the royal city Dîpavatî, to see the city of a universal monarch. On entering he found the city was in festivity, and he wondered why....
An attractive young Brahman girl came by, carrying a jug and seven lotus flowers. When Megha asked her ... she replied with these verses:
Young man, you are clearly not a native of this place;
you must be a stranger from another city,
if you do not know that coming to this town today
is the benefactor of the world, the bringer of light.
Dîpankara, the leader of the world, who is the son
of our king Archimat, and a very famous buddha,
is on his way, and to honour him this city
is decked out in gorgeous festive attire.
When Megha offered to buy five of her lotuses with the five hundred coins, so that he could worship Dîpankara with them, she replied: You can have the five lotuses, but only if you will take me as your wife for all future time. Wherever you may be reborn, I shall be there as your wife.
To this request Megha retorted: How can I think of marriage when my heart is set on supreme enlightenment?
There will be no need to desist from your quest, she answered, because I will not hinder you.
So Megha consented.... Sublime joy and exaltation had come over his body when he heard the maiden speak of the Buddha.
The Blessed Lord had set out for Dîpavatî, accompanied by eighty thousand monks, and by King Archimat with eighty thousand of his vassals and many thousands of nobles and religious dignitaries.
Megha saw the Blessed Dîpankara coming in the distance. The Lord's body bore the thirty-two marks of the great man, and was adorned with the eight subsidiary characteristics; he was endued with the eighteen special dharmas of a buddha; he was equipped with the ten powers of a tathâgata, and possesed of the four grounds of confidence.... He had won the stable assurance of dharma; his senses were calmed, his mind was calmed, he had attained perfect self-control and serenity... He was beautiful to look upon,... and the light shining from his body extended for a league....
Megha threw the five lotus flowers towards the Blessed Dîpankara, and they remained suspended in the air, forming a circle round the Lord's radiant head. And likewise those thrown by the Brahmin girl and other people. This is one of the miracles that buddhas perform to make an impression on people and to make them listen to the truth....
Thereupon Megha's body was flooded with great joy and gladness, and a sublime decision arose in his mind. He put his water-pot aside, spread out his deer-skin cloak, threw himself down at the feet of the Blessed Dîpankara, and with his own hair he wiped the soles of the Lord's feet.
And within himself he aroused this thought: May I too at some future time become a tathâgata, with all the attributes of a perfect buddha, as the Lord Dîpankara now is.
May I too turn the wheel of the highest dharma, as the Lord Dîpankara now does.
Having crossed over, may I lead others across; liberated, may I liberate others; comforted, may I comfort others, as the Lord Dîpankara now does.
May I become like him, for the welfare and the happiness of the many, in compassion for the world, for the sake of multitudes of living beings, for their welfare and happiness, be they divine or human.
The Blessed Dîpankara, with his supreme buddha knowledge, knew that Megha was ready to turn towards enlightenment, that his past store of merit and his present vow were faultless....
So he now predicted his future enlightenment: Young Brahmin, at a future time, after an immeasurable and incalculable aeon, in the Shâkya city Kapilavastu, you shall be a tathâgata named Shâkyamuni, an arhat, a fully enlightened buddha, perfect in knowlege and conduct, a sugata, a world-knower, unsurpassed, a leader of men, a teacher of gods and humans.
Like me you will have a body adorned with the thirty-two marks of a great man.... Having won ultimate nirvana, you will help others to win it, as I do now. You will turn the wheel of the highest dharma, and preside over a harmoniously united body of disciples; and both gods and humans will listen to you and believe. What I am now, that you will one day become, for the welfare and happiness of the many, in compassion for the world, for the sake of multitudes of living beings, for their welfare and happiness, be they divine or human.
NOTES
This is a condensed form of the story of Megha, a young Brahmin who vows to become a buddha, and is told by the Buddha of his own time, namely Dîpankara, that he will eventually, after incalculable ages, be born as Shâkyamuni, the sage of the Shâkyas, and become a buddha. This is the version of the tale found in the Mahâvastu (The Great Event), a Lokottaravada work, in Sanskrit, recounting the life of the Buddha.
In the Pali Scriptures, the story is found in verse form in the introduction to the Jâtaka section of the Khuddaka Nikâya, and there the Brahmin is named Sumedha (see Henry Clarke Warren's Buddhism in Translations, 5-31).
The version above has been adapted from the translation of Edward Conze, in his Buddhist Scriptures, 20-23.
THE BODHISATTVA AND THE TIGRESS
Suvarnaprabhasa
Long ago in the distant past there lived a king named Maharatha, who was rich and powerful.... He had three sons, whose names were Mahapranada, Mahadeva, and Mahasattva.
One day the three princes came to a large bamboo thicket.... As they strolled about in it, they saw a tigress, surrounded by five seven-day-old cubs. She was exhausted from hunger and thirst, and extremely weak.
On seeing her, Mahapranada exclaimed:... If the poor animal finds nothing to eat, she will either eat her own young or die of starvation.
How can this poor exhausted creature find food? Mahasattva asked.
Tigers live on fresh meat and warm blood, Mahapranada replied.
In this weak state, Mahadeva said, she cannot possibly catch any prey. And who would sacrifice himself to save her life?
Yes, self-sacrifice is very difficult, Mahapranada said.
Mahasattva replied: It is certainly difficult for people like us, who are so fond of our lives and bodies, and have so little wisdom. But it is not at all difficult for others, who are truly human, intent on benefitting their fellow-creatures, and who are willing to sacrifice themselves. Holy men are born of pity and compassion, and whatever bodies they get, in heaven or on earth, they will gladly give them up so that the lives of others may be saved....
And Mahasattva said to himself: The time has now come for me to sacrifice myself. I have served this foul body for too long, providing it with beds, clothes, food, drink, and conveyances. Yet it is doomed to perish.... It is better to leave this ungrateful body of my own accord and at a good time. It cannot last ever; it is like urine and it must pass away. Today I will use it for a sublime deed, and it will then act as a boat to ferry me across the ocean of rebirth and death. I will renounce this vain body, a mere ulcer, tied to countless becomings, loaded with urine and excrements, as unsubstantial as foam, full of hundreds of parasites. And in return I will gain the perfectly pure dharma-body, endowed with hundreds of virtues, replete with such qualities as trance and wisdom, immaculate, free of encumbrance, change, and pain.
NOTES
This moving story is taken from the Mahâyâna sutra entitled Suvarnaprabhasa (The Golden Splendour). In this jâtaka-tale the Buddha tells Ânanda of a previous life of his, when as a compassionate prince named Mahasattva he reaffirmed his vow to become an enlightened buddha, and sacrificed his body to provide sustenance for a starving tigress, who was unable to feed her cubs.
The question of suicide naturally arises in this connection. The Ten Precepts include a ban on taking life, and the Pâtimokkha rules forbid monks to assist anyone to take their own life. However, to offer up one's body for a noble purpose sometimes appears in the scriptures as a legitimate and even praiseworthy act. Certainly, some Buddhists (notably in Tibet) leave their dead body to be devoured by animals, as a merit-winning deed. But here the bodhisattva takes his own life by cutting his own throat.
The version of the text given here has been made from the translation of Edward Conze in his Buddhist Scriptures (1959) 24-26.