XXVII
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Soothill, William Edward and Kumārajīva
The Buddha now tells the story of King Resplendent. Of yore, infinite aeons ago, there was a Buddha called Thunder-Voice, who was the Star-King Wisdom. His realm was named Radiantly-Adorned, and his epoch Joyful-Sight.
In his domain was a king called Resplendent, whose wife was Pure Virtue, and his two sons, one Pure Treasury, the other Pure Eyes. The two sons had attained to great supernatural powers, blessedness and wisdom, by methods of self-cultivation and concentration, the names of which are given; and by “benevolence, compassion, joy, indifference and the thirty-seven kinds of aids to the Way”.
Then the Buddha Thunder-Voice decided to guide King Resplendent into the higher truth, by preaching to him this Lotus Sutra. The two sons, becoming aware of this intention, implored their mother to lead them to hear the Sutra. The mother sighed that the father believed in and was deeply attached to heretical doctrine, but sent her two sons to urge him to accompany them. The two sons, putting their religion first, protested that, “though born in this home of heretical views”, they were really the sons of Buddha. Again the mother urged them: “You should have sympathy with your father, and reveal to him some of your supernatural powers so that, seeing them, his mind may be enlightened, and he may perhaps grant that we all go to the Buddha.”
On this the sons went to the king and, in order to convince him, displayed their marvellous powers, rising into the sky, walking, sitting, standing and lying there. They expanded themselves till they filled the whole sky, or shrunk themselves to minute size; they vanished from the sky and appeared upon earth; they entered the earth as if it were water, and walked on water as on the earth. Thus they convinced their father and brought him to faith and discernment. Demanding to be told who was their teacher, he was informed it was Thunder-Voice, Star-King of Wisdom.
“I also would now like to see your Master,” said the King; “we will all go together.”
The sons reported to their mother and begged for permission to leave home and become followers of the Buddha.
“I grant you permission to leave home,” she graciously said; “for it is a rare event in the world to meet a Buddha.”
They besought both father and mother to go and pay homage to the Buddha, for, said they, a Buddha is as rare an event as is the flower of the tree that blossoms but once in its life-time; or as “a one-eyed tortoise spying the sun through a hole in a floating log”. “But we, richly blessed through a former lot, now may meet the Buddha in this life.”
Then the eighty-four thousand court ladies of King Resplendent also became capable of receiving the Lotus Sutra.
“Thereupon King Resplendent, accompanied by his ministers and retinue, Queen Pure Virtue with her court ladies and retinue, and the two Princes, together with forty-two thousand of their people, set out to visit the Buddha.”
After prostrating themselves, they made procession around the Buddha three times and stood on either side.
“Then that Buddha preached to the king, showing, teaching, profiting, rejoicing him, so that the king was greatly delighted. King Resplendent and his Queen unloosed the necklaces of pearls worth hundreds and thousands, from their necks, and threw them upon the Buddha, and these in the sky were transformed into a four-column jewel-tower; on the tower was a large jewelled couch spread with hundreds, thousands, myriads of celestial coverings, on which sat the Buddha cross-legged, emitting a great ray of light. Whereupon King Resplendent reflected thus: ‘Rare, dignified, extraordinary is the Buddha’s body, perfect in its supreme refined colouring’.”
“The king at once made over his domain to his younger brother; while he, together with his queen, two sons and their retinue, forsook his home, and followed the Way under the rule of that Buddha. Having forsaken his home, during eighty-four thousand years the king was ever diligent and zealous in observing the Wonderful Law-Flower Sutra, and after these years had passed, attained to the samadhi Adorned-with-all-pure-Merits.
Rising in the sky King Resplendent gave the praise for his enlightenment to his two sons, who had turned his mind from heresy to Buddha Truth. “These two sons are indeed my good friends, for desiring to develop the good roots planted by me in my former lives, they came and were born in my home.” In other words, the good seed the King had sown in former lives attracted these two spirits to be born in his home, to aid him in reaping the fruit. The implication is that no man has sons of his own. He may beget their bodies, but the real sons are souls re-born into his home.
“So it is, so it is, the Buddha replied, “It is as you say. Any good son or good daughter, by planting roots of goodness, will in every generation obtain good friends, which good friends will be able to do Buddha-deeds, showing, teaching, profiting and rejoicing him, and causing him to enter into Perfect Enlightenment. Know, Great King! A good friend is the great cause whereby men are converted and led to see the Buddha and aroused to Perfect Enlightenment. Great King! Do you see these two sons? These two sons have already paid homage to Buddhas sixty-five times the hundreds, thousands, myriads, kotis nayutas of the sands of a Ganges, waiting upon and revering them; and among those Buddhas have received and kept the Law-Flower Sutra, compassionating the living in their false views, and establishing them in right views.”
“King Resplendent thereupon descended from the sky and said to the Buddha:
‘World-honoured One! Rare indeed is the sight of the Tathagata; by his merits and wisdom the prominence on his head shines brilliantly; his eyes are wide-open and deep blue; the tuft between his eyebrows is white as the pearly moon; his teeth are wide, even, close and ever shining; his lips are red and beautiful as bimba-fruit.’
“When King Resplendent had thus extolled the many merits of that Buddha—countless hundreds, thousands, myriads, kotis of them—with all his mind he folded his hands before the Tathagata and again addressed that Buddha saying: ‘Unprecedented is the World-honoured One. The Tathagata’s teaching is perfect in its inconceivable and wonderful merits. The moral precepts which he promulgates are comforting and quickening. From this day onward I will not again follow my own mind, nor beget false views, nor a haughty, angry or any other sinful mind.’ Having uttered these words, he did reverence to the Buddha and went forth.”
Śakyamuni now declares that King Resplendent and his queen are re-incarnated in the persons of two Bodhisattvas present, and that the two princes are now the Bodhisattvas King of Healing and Lord of Healing.
“While the Buddha preached this chapter, eighty-four thousand people departed from impurity, separated themselves from uncleanness, and acquired pure spiritual eyes in regard to spiritual things.”