XII
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Soothill, William Edward and Kumārajīva
That this chapter may be an interpolation is explained in the Introduction. It proceeds to recount how Śakyamuni, ages ago, “through innumerable aeons tirelessly sought the Law-Flower Sutra.”
“During many kalpas I was long a king and vowed to seek the Supreme Wisdom, my mind never relenting.” “I bestowed alms unstintingly—elephants, horses, the seven precious things, countries, cities, wives, children, male and female slaves, servants and followers, head, eyes, marrow, brain, the flesh of my body, hands, and feet, unsparing of body and life. At that time people’s lifetime was beyond measure. For the sake of the Law, I gave up the throne of my domain, deputed my government to the prince-royal, and with beating drum and open proclamation, sought everywhere for the truth, promising—‘Whoever is able to tell me of a Great-Vehicle, him I will all my life provide for, and be his footman.’ At that time a certain hermit came to me, the king, and said: ‘I have a Great-Vehicle, named Wonderful Law-Flower Sutra. If you will not disobey me, I will explain it to you.’ I, the king, hearing what the hermit said, became ecstatic with joy and instantly followed, providing for his needs, gathering fruit, drawing water, collecting fuel, laying his food, even of my body making his seat and bed, yet never feeling fatigue of body or mind. While I thus served a millennium passed, and for the sake of the Law, I zealously waited on him that he should lack nothing.’
“The aforetime king was myself and the sage at that juncture was the present Devadatta himself.”
Then he foretells the future destiny of Devadatta, that he will become a Buddha named “Deva-king”, or “King of the gods”.
“If there be, in a future world, any good son or good daughter who hears this Devadatta chapter of the Wonderful Law-Flower Sutra, with pure heart and believing reverence, and is free from doubt, such a one shall not fall into the hells or become a hungry spirit or animal, but shall be born into the presence of the Buddhas of the universe. Wherever he be born he will always hear this Sutra; and whether he be born amongst men or gods, he will enjoy marvellous delight. As to the Buddha into whose presence he is born, his birth shall be by transformation from a lotus-flower.”
Thereupon one of the attendants on the Buddha “Abundant Treasures” within the Stupa, by name “Wisdom-Store”, says to his master: “Let us return to our own land!” But Śakyamuni Buddha answers Wisdom-Store: “Good son! Wait a while. Here is the Bodhisattva, Manjuśri. First meet and discuss with him the Wonderful Law and then return to your own land.”
“Thereupon Manjuśri, sitting on a thousand-petal lotus-flower, large as a carriage-wheel, and the Bodhisattvas who accompany him, also sitting on jewelled lotus-flowers, unaided spring up from the great ocean, out of the palace of the Sagara Dragon-King. Taking up his place in the sky, he advances to the Divine Vulture Peak, alights from his lotus-flower, goes before the Buddha, and reverently makes obeisance at the feet of the two World-honoured Ones. When he has expressed his reverence he goes over to Wisdom-Store and, after they have asked of each other’s welfare, they withdraw and sit on one side. The Bodhisattva Wisdom-Store asks Manjuśri: ‘Virtuous Sir! Since you went to the Dragon palace, how many beings have you converted?’ Manjuśri answers: ‘Their numbers are immeasurable, they cannot be calculated, nor expressed in words, nor fathomed by the mind. Wait but a moment: let me give the proof.’ Before he has finished speaking numberless Bodhisattvas, sitting on jewelled lotus-flowers, spring up from the sea, advance to the Divine Vulture Peak, and take their places in the Sky. All these Bodhisattvas have been converted and saved by Manjuśri.”
Then the Bodhisattva Wisdom-Store extols him thus in verse:
“Most wise, brave and strong one!
Thou hast converted countless beings,
As now this great assembly
And I have all seen.
Expounding the principle of Reality
And revealing the One-Vehicle Law,
Widely hast thou led the living
To attain with speed to Bodhi.”
Manjuśri replies: “That which in the midst of the ocean I always proclaimed, was no other than the Wonderful Law-Flower Sutra.”
Wisdom-Store asks Manjuśri: “This Sutra is very profound and subtle, the pearl of all the Sutras, a rarity in the world. Is there any being who, diligently and zealously practising this Sutra, can attain speedily to Buddhahood?”
“There is the daughter of the Dragon-King Sagara,” Manjuśri replies, “just eight years old, wise and keen of faculties, well acquainted with the karma arising from the roots of action of all creatures, who has obtained dharani, has been able to receive and keep all the most profound and mystic treasuries revealed by Buddhas, and has deeply entered into meditations and penetrated into all laws. In a moment of time, she resolved on Bodhi and attained to non-relapse to mortality. She has unembarassed powers of argument, and has a compassionate mind for all the living as if they were her children; her merits are complete and the thoughts of her mind and discourses of her mouth are both subtle and great. Kind and compassionate, virtuous and modest, gentle and beautiful in her disposition, she has been able to attain to Bodhi.”
The Bodhisattva Wisdom-Store doubtingly replies: “I have seen how Śakyamuni Tathagata, during innumerable kalpas, in doing arduous and painful deeds, accumulating merit and heaping up virtue, sought the Way of Bodhi ceaselessly and without rest. I have observed that in his Three-Thousand-Great-Thousandfold-Worlds there is not even a spot as small as a mustard-seed where he has not laid down his body and life as a Bodhisattva, for the sake of the living; and only after that has he attained to Bodhi. It is incredible that this girl, in but a moment, should become perfectly enlightened.”
“Before he has ceased talking, the daughter of the Dragon-King suddenly appears before them and, after making reverent obeisance to the Buddha, withdraws to one side, extolling Him thus in verse:
“Profound seer of sin and goodness,
Illuminator of the universe;
Whose spiritual body, ethereal and pure,
Has the Thirty-two perfect Signs;
With the Eighty kinds of Excellence
Is his Spiritual Body adorned;
To whom gods and men look up,
Nagas and spirits pay reverence,
And all species of living beings
Pay their worship and honour;
Hearing the Truth, I attained to Bodhi;
To this only a Buddha may bear witness.
I will reveal the Great-Vehicle teaching
Which delivers creatures from suffering.”
Thereupon Śariputra says to the daughter of the Dragon-king:
“You state that in no length of time you attained to the Supreme Way. This thing is hard to believe. Wherefore? Because the body of a woman is filthy and not a vessel of the Law. How can she attain to Supreme Bodhi? Buddhahood is so vast that only after passing through innumerable kalpas, enduring hardship, accumulating good works, and perfectly practising the Perfections, can it be accomplished. Moreover, a woman by her body still has five hindrances, viz., she cannot become, firstly, king of the Brahma-heaven: secondly, Sakra; thirdly, a Mara-king; fourthly, a Holy Wheel-rolling King; and fifthly, a Buddha. How then could a woman’s body so speedily become a Buddha?”
“Now the Dragon’s daughter possesses a precious pearl, worth a Three-Thousand-Great-Thousandfold-World, which she holds up and presents to the Buddha, and which the Buddha immediately accepts. The Dragon’s daughter then says to the Bodhisattva Wisdom-Store and the Honoured Śariputra:
“‘I have offered my pearl, and the World-honoured One has accepted it—was this action speedy?’
“‘Most speedy’ they answered.