Although commonly referred to in later Tibetan works by the short form las brgya pa, the title appears in most Kangyurs as las brgya tham pa, and in both D and S as las brgya tham pa pa. The Sanskrit title is universally given as Karmaśataka, but in Kangyurs of predominantly Thempangma line this is variously prefixed: by paravarna in S, Shey, and some of the Bhutan Kangyurs; by parivarna in the Phukdrak (phug brag) Kangyur; by parivarṇa in the Ulaanbaatar Kangyur; and by paripūrna in the Hemis, Dolpo, and Namgyal Kangyurs and the Langdo collection, this last variant meaning “full” or “complete” being the one that seems to make most sense.
Perhaps a better definition is that of Sastri (1960) p. 72: “The word avadāna signifies a ‘great religious or moral achievement as well as the history of a great achievement.’ ”
“Le Karma-Çataka me parait-être l’œuvre d’une École qui a voulu avoir son recueil de « Cent Légendes » se différenciant de l’Avadāna-Çataka par certaines particularités. Les deux recueils appartiendraient à deux Écoles rivales, non ennemies.” Feer (1901) p. 60.
There is a Mongolian version, but like others of its kind it is almost certain to have been translated from the Tibetan. See Skilling (2001) p. 140, n23.
See Butön F.125.a.5, translated in Obermiller ([1932] 1986) p. 186, and in Stein and Zangpo (2013) p. 281. See also Skilling (1997) p. 89; Skilling (2001) p. 140; Ancient Tibet (1986) p. 252. Nyak Jñānakumāra is usually thought of as having worked predominantly on tantric material and to have been active only from Trisong Detsen’s reign onwards; nevertheless, traditional accounts mention that because he was already an active translator familiar with Sanskrit he was Trisong Detsen’s first emissary, sent to invite Bodhisattva Śāntarakṣita to Tibet. Even before that, according to the fourteenth century chronicle rgyal rabs gsal ba’i me long, Drenka Mūlakośa and Jñānakumāra were sent by King Tridé Tsuktsen to invite “the two paṇḍitas Buddhaguhya and Buddhaśānta” to Tibet; the two paṇḍitas declined the invitation but the two translators learned by heart five Mahāyāna sūtras, including the Karmaśataka, and brought them back with them (see Sørensen 1994, p. 352). If they were, in fact, responsible for an early Tibetan translation, it would almost certainly have been revised later, and the Tibetan that has survived in the Kangyur bears no particularly archaic characteristics.
“Ral-pa-can’s brother, Glang-dar-ma, was put on the throne with the backing of the Bon-pos and rebellious clans sometime between 836 and 841 … Glang-dar-ma’s reign lasted only until 841 or 842, according to most sources.” Ancient Tibet (1986) p. 305.
“The three men are called Bod-kyi mkhas-pa mi-gsum or ‘The Three Learned Men of Tibet.’ ” Roerich (1996) p. 63 n1. “viz. Rab-sal of Tsaṅ, Yo Ge-juṅ of P’o-t’oṅ-pa and Mar Çākyamuni of Tö-luṅ.” Obermiller ([1932] 1986) p. 201.
The Avadānaśataka exists in Sanskrit (the most complete manuscript being a 17th century Nepalese one); in a third century Chinese translation (撰集百緣經, Zhuanji Bai Yuan Jing, Taishō 200); and in an imperial period Tibetan translation by Devacandra and Jinamitra (gang po la sogs pa’i rtogs pa brjod pa brgya pa, Toh 343).
Feer (1901) pp. 53–54. By the accounting of the present translation the stories number 124, but because several chapters contain multiple stories a total greater than either 124 or 127 could equally well be counted.
For a list of stories common to both collections see Feer (1901) p. 55; cf. Speyer (1992) p. xix.
“Quoique les récits de l’un et l’autre recueil présentent la même physionomie générale, il y a entre eux des différences de détails nombreuses et notables.” Feer (1901) pp. 54–55.
“Il y a un certain nombre de textes (j’en ai compté 42) que je qualifie de parallèles, parce que le récit du temps présent et celui du temps passé sont la reproduction exacte (sauf quelques modifications indispensables) l’un de l’autre, sans qu’il soit question (au moins dans les plus caractéristiques d’entre eux) de punition ou de récompense; ou, si cet élément s’y trouve, il y est secondaire et occupe très peu de place.” Feer (1901) p. 56.
For a detailed list of similarities and differences between jātakas and avadānas see Sarkar (1981) pp. 50–51.
“Il y a de ces textes dans lesquels le récit du temps passé se divise en plusieurs parties, le Buddha jouant un rôle dans l’une, n’en jouant pas dans d’autres…. Je remarque aussi un certain nombre de récits qui ont pour héros principal ou secondaires des personnages célèbres de la légende bouddhique (Devadatta, Kāçyapa, Ananda, Aniruddha, Katyāyana, Kokālika, Çāriputra, Mandgalyāyana, Gopā, Yaçodharā, Bimbisāra, Prasenajit, etc.) ou même se rattachent à des épisodes connus de ce qu’on peut appeler la biographie du Buddha et l’histoire du Bouddhisme.” Feer (1901) p. 56.
The Tibetan nyes par spyod pa, “misdeeds,” might be a scribal error for nye bar spyod pa, “sense pleasures,” given that parallel Sanskrit source passages have kāma here.
The translation of this stock passage is based on a very similar passage in the Avadānaśataka and the Divyāvadāna, as informed by Rotman’s rendering (2008, p. 225). The Sanskrit is as follows: ko hīyate, ko vardhate, kaḥ kṛcchraprāptaḥ kaḥ saṃkaṭaprāptaḥ, kaḥ saṃbādhaprāptaḥ kaḥ kṛcchrasaṃkaṭasambādhaprāptaḥ ko 'pāyaniṃnaḥ, ko 'pāyapravaṇaḥ ko 'pāyaprāgbhāraḥ kamahamapāyamārgādvyutthāpya svargaphale mokṣe ca pratiṣṭhāpayeyam kasya kāmapaṅkanimagnasya hastoddhāramanupradadyām kamāryadhanavirahitamāryadhanaiśvaryādhipatye pratiṣṭhāpayāmi kasyānavaropitāni kuśalamūlānyavaropayeyam kasyāvaropitāni paripācayeyam kasya pakvāni vimocayeyam, kasyājñānatimirapaṭalaparyavanaddhanetrasya jñānāñjanaśalākayā cakṣurviśodhayeyam /.
In stock phrases like this the text alternates between “truths” in the plural and “truth” in the singular. Based on text-internal evidence we understand this to primarily refer to the “four truths of nobles beings,” so unless context dictates otherwise we have rendered it in the plural throughout.
A portion of this passage and the others identical to it were translated with reference to similar passages in the Divyāvadāna. See Rotman (2008) p. 73; and Tatelman (2005) pp. 32–33, 110–11.
“The unsurpassed, supreme welfare of nirvāṇa”; Tib. g.yung drung gi mthar thug pa grub pa dang bde ba’i mya ngan las ’das pa. The Tibetan phrase grub pa dang bde ba most likely renders the Sanskrit yogakṣema.
At this point in the par phud printing of the Degé Kangyur available on the Buddhist Digital Resource Center site (W22084), vol. 73, F.162.a seems to have been mistakenly inserted in the place of F.12.a, though the English numbering (ostensibly done separately) is continuous. The mistakenly inserted folio is not translated here; its translation appears at the appropriate place later in the text. In D vol. 73, F.12.a is nowhere to be found; the missing portion translated here has therefore been taken from S vol. 80, F.17.a–18.a. The correct section of the text resumes in D after this one folio with vol. 73, F.12.b. This missing folio does not affect the Tibetan text seen in the Reading Room bilingual view, which was input from scans of a later printing free of this error.
This list of five is translated in consultation with the Divyāvadāna, which has a nearly identical passage. Cf. Rotman (2008) pp. 39–41 and Tatelam (2005) p. 29.
“Committed adultery with”; Tib. byi byed pa. This term can also mean “raped.” It is unclear from the context which is intended.
Throughout the text we have omitted reiterations of the full title that appear in the Tib. at the beginning of each bam po.
This rendering is informed by the following Sanskrit phrase from the Avadānaśataka, which likely corresponds closely to the source text phrase for the Tibetan translation: ity uktamātre bhagavatā saptāhāvaropitair iva keśair dvādaśavarṣopasaṃpannasyeva bhikṣor īryāpathena pātrakarakavyagrahasto 'vasthitaḥ. Cf. Andy Rotman’s (2008, p. 88) translation of a very similar stock phrase. The sense, as Rotman notes (p. 406 n270), is that though newly gone forth they do not appear as novices, but as elder well-disciplined monks just prior to their weekly tonsure.
“Four divisions of his army”; Rotman’s translation of the Divyāvadāna lists these as “the elephant corps, the cavalry, the chariot corps, and the infantry.” (2008) p. 128.
D pad ma here is most likely a corruption of bad sa (Vatsa), since pa and ba are easily confused in handwritten Tibetan manuscripts, and Y, J, K, N, C, and H all read sa’i instead of D (and S) ma’i.
“Already”; D: sngan cad; S: sngan chad. This translation follows S. Rangjung Yeshe has an entry for the similar sngan chad med pa, “unprecedented.”
“Ford the floodwaters”; Tib. chu bo rnams las brgal bar bya ba. A Buddhist idiom meaning “to overcome the afflictive emotions,” per Dr. Lozang Jamspal.
“Manifest,” for Tib. rangs. We read this as a variant spelling of langs pa, “appear, arise, manifest, stand, wells up, comes up, and uplifts, p. of lang ba” (Ives Waldo).
“Focused his mind,” for the Tib. dgongs, in contrast to the Tib. mthong, which appears in conjunction with a disciple’s actions in nearly identical passages. Some scriptures explain the omniscience of the Buddha to be such that while all knowledge is ever available to him, he must in fact direct his mind toward an object to “know” it, as seems to be the case here. Some similar passages have simply “know,” when the verb has a direct object, e.g., “The Blessed One knew the time had come….”
“Will be instrumental in,” for the Tib. ’di las brten te; alt. “Through this being the Blessed One will give an extraordinary Dharma teaching,” “The Blessed One will use this being to give an extraordinary Dharma teaching,” or the like.
There are indeed two instances of the phrase “totally and completely awakened Buddha” in this passage.
“Prabhāvan,” adapted from L. Chandra’s entry, which lists not a Buddha but a goddess by the same name. Tib. ’od zer can, Eng. perhaps “Having Light Rays”; probably a Skt. epithet for the sun.
“The Bodhisattva” with a capital B, here and throughout, refers to Buddha Śākyamuni in his previous lifetimes, after he first gave rise to the resolve set on complete and perfect awakening.
“Gopā led him up the stairs, kicked him in the head, and threw him from the top of the staircase.” Here we take the first usage of the Tib. mgo as referring to the “top” of the staircase (as earlier in the story) and the subsequent usage to refer to Devadatta’s own head; Tib. de nas sa ’tsho mas skas de nyid la mgo thur kar bstan te / mgo bor rdog pas bsnun nas / skas mgo nas bor ro.
D: bse ru lta bu’i ’jig rten gyi yon gnas gcig pu rnams ’jig rten du ’byung ste; S: bse ru lta bu ’jig rten…. This translation follows S.
“Held him dear to their hearts”; Tib. pha ma’i snying du shas cher sdug cing phangs la yid du ’ong bar gyur to.
Tib. che ge. Lozang Jamspal compares this term to the Ladakhi dialect ’a ce, “elder sister.”
“Capacity”; Tib. shes pa. Alt. “knowledge,” “education,” “critical faculties.” From this point forward, the text generally adds shes pa to the standard list in this stock passage. In our translation we have inverted the order of the last two qualities in the list from that in the Tib.
“What action pleased the Blessed One, and did not displease him?” Tib. gang las gis ni bcom ldan ’das mnyes par bgyis te / mi mnyes par ma bgyis lags. This construction differs slightly also in the Tib. from elsewhere in the text.
In the list there appear to be six. It may be that the vase and basin, for instance, belong together.
For this list to total ten dreams, one must take “touching” and “taking … into his arms” the sun and moon as two different dreams, and count each of the dreams of sitting on a different being individually. The list is identical in S.
“It quivered, shuddered, and jolted; it trembled, shook, and swayed”; the Tib. uses only two basic verbs, intensifying each twice over to make six in all: ’gul rab tu ’gul / kun du [sic] rab tu ’gul / ldeg rab tu ldeg / kun du [sic] rab tu ldeg par gyur to.
“Finally came”; D and S both have the Tib. thod, which this translation takes as scribal error for thob.
“Stepped”; the Tib. rdzis, here rendered as “stepped” to underscore Mati’s change of heart. The Tib. reflects this shift in Mati’s alternating uses of rkang and zhabs as he describes the incident.
“My drum”; Tib. rol mo. Lit. “music.” His name is later given as rnga sgra (Sound of the Drum).
“Screened windows”; obscure Tib. skar khung khol ma (Lozang Jamspal). Used also to refer to a hole in the roof for releasing smoke from cooking or heating.
“Burning sticks of incense, incense powders, and incense cones”; Tib. bdug pa dang phye ma dang spos. This formulation appears throughout the text. In the absence of a clear delineation between these items in the available dictionaries, this translation renders these three types of incense based on (1) the meaning of bdug pa as a verb, “to cense,” thus “burning” sticks; (2) phye ma, meaning “powder,” in this context incense powder; and while (3) spos is a general term for incense, when it appears with the others we appended “cones” to differentiate them.
The passage that follows, recounting the Buddha’s first teaching, is almost identical to the account of the same episode in The Chapter on a Schism in the Saṅgha (Saṅghabhedavastu, the seventeenth chapter of the Vinayavastu, Toh 1), see D vol. 4 (’dul ba, nga), F.41.a.7 et seq., and therefore also the equivalent passage in The Sūtra on Going Forth (Abhiniṣkramaṇasūtra, Toh 301), see D vol. 72 (mdo sde, sa), F.58.b.5 et seq., since the latter is derived from extracts of the former. These three parallel passages are more than close enough for their common origin to be almost certain, and their minor differences in wording are no doubt due to the work of editors at different times; it is worth noting that the exact wording of the version in the present text diverges further from the first two versions mentioned than the second from the first (and in this regard see n.76 below). A quite different account of the same episode is found in The Play in Full (Lalitavistara, Toh 95), see D vol. 46 (mdo sde, kha), F.195.a et seq.; or, in translation, Dharmachakra Translation Committee (2013), 26.19. A full translation of The Chapter on a Schism in the Saṅgha is in preparation (Miller, forthcoming).
It is at this point in the narrative that the (shorter) version recounted in the Pali Dhammacakkappavattana-sutta (Saṃyutta Nikāya 56) begins; the Kangyur sūtra Toh 31 (D vol. 34, shes rab sna tshogs, F.180.b–183.a) is a 14th century translation made from the Pali and therefore very close to it—though not an entirely accurate match, see Skilling (1993), pp. 103–106.
Most other Tibetan versions of this repeated passage (e.g. in the Dharmacakrasūtra, Toh 337) place the first person pronoun nga with this phrase, but here the Tibetan translators have chosen to omit it. Indeed, in the various Sanskrit versions (typically pūrvam ananuśruteṣu dharmeṣu) there is no indication of whether the phrase means the Buddha had not himself previously heard these dharmas or whether they had more generally never been heard before by anyone. The important point in this phrase is that the Buddha’s realizations of the points he is setting out came from his own experience and not from any pre-existing doctrinal transmission.
This version of the Buddha’s first teaching follows the Sanskrit of the Saṅghabhedavastu (see n.73), but not the Tibetan in that it does not include the term “realization” (Tib. rtogs pa) in this and the following several repetitions of this phrase. Instead the list only includes “insight (jñāna), knowledge (vidyā), and understanding (buddhi)” Gnoli (1977) p. 135. Skilling (1993), pp. 105 and 194, discusses the significance of the four to seven “epithets of insight” found in the parallel versions of this passage in Sanskrit, Pali, and Tibetan but does not mention this particular version, or this difference between the Sanskrit of the Saṅghabhedavastu and its Tibetan translation. For an English translation of another version of this foundational teaching and a discussion of its textual history and various recensions, see Dharmachakra Translation Committee, The Sūtra of the Wheel of Dharma, 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2018. The present English rendering of this teaching closely follows that translation, but differs from it where the Tibetan source text does.
Here, “terrors,” “fearsome,” “terrifying,” “threat,” and “treacherous” all reflect the Tib. ’jigs pa’i and could alternatively all be uniformly translated as simply “the danger of,” or “dangerous.”
“Sirens,” borrowing the familiar term from Greek mythology. Tib. srin mo khrung khrung gzhon nu ma.
“Their boats were destroyed,” unsure. Tib. song ste bor yang. Perhaps “set out, and left (land) behind as well, but….”
Tib. song ste bor yang nor gyi gru rnams ma rungs par gyur. Perhaps “set out, and left (land) behind as well, but….”
“I betrayed him,” for the obscure Tib. bdag gis de la chu gang bor med do. Lit. “There is no throwing out all the water to him” (or “at it”). According to Dan Martin, the honorific form chab gang can mean “loyality,” “integrity,” etc.
This is likely a reference to the episode of “The Burning of the Khāṇḍava Forest” that concludes the first book (ādiparvan) of the Mahābhārata. In this episode, Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna set the Khāṇḍava Forest on fire and annihilate nearly all of the animals that live in the forest as they flee the flames. The reference thus evokes a scene of total annihilation. For a translation of this episode, see The Mahābhārata I: The Book of the Beginning (1973) pp. 412–31.
This final verse is followed by an abbreviated summary of the foregoing verses, listing the first word of each four-line verse. This is perhaps intended as a mnemonic device for ordained persons relating the story from memory in a teaching environment. We have left this terse summary untranslated. D reads: tshigs su bcad pa ’di rnams kyi sdom ni / kyi ’dug de bde khyod sdig chos blo ’jigs bsen. S breaks up the passage in a way that makes this abbreviation more obvious: kyi ’dug / de / bde / khyod / sdig / chos / blo / ’jigs / bsen.
Tib. dud ’gro. The text switches here from referring to the subject of this story as a monster (srin) to referring to him as an animal (dud ’gro).
This renders the Tibetan ’jig rten pa’i thugs, which renders the Sanskrit laukikam cittam, “thought concerning the world.” According to Edgerton (1953, p. 466), this refers to when the Buddha “concerns himself with the welfare of some person or persons … contrasted with a Buddha’s lokottara citta.”
“Truth” and “truths” in this passage, and in this stock phrase as it appears throughout this text, translate dharma/chos.
Here the Tib. text has an additional zhes smras nas / drang srong kai ne yas, which we have somewhat simplified in the Eng.
These are listed in ’dul ba’i mdo as “(1) One should not go alone on the street, (2) one should not swim to the other side of the (“a”?) river, (3) one should not have physical contact with men, (4) one should not remain in the company of men, (5) one should not look upon [them], and (6) one should not hide one’s misdeeds.” The scripture goes on to give six more rules: “(1) One should not lay hands on gold, (2) one should not shave the pubic area, (3) one should not dig in the earth, (4) one should not cut green grass, (5) one should not eat feed what (“food that”?) is not freely given, and (6) one should not hoard food.”
“A novice” is added for clarification; in the Tib. it is only implied by the statement that follows.
The term “preceptor” has been added here for clarity. The Tibetan text reads “nun” (dge slong ma) here, not “preceptor” (mkhan mo), but, given the context, it must be assumed that this nun is the preceptor who is mentioned in the immediately preceding paragraph.
“The five precepts for practicing the holy life,” i.e., not to (1) lie, (2) steal, (3) kill, (4) engage in sexual misconduct, or (5) partake of intoxicants. Sometimes the vow not to engage in sexual misconduct is a vow of celibacy, as here.
A future solitary buddha.
One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology, lowest among the six heavens of the desire realm. Dwelling place of the four great kings, traditionally located on a terrace of Sumeru, just below the Heaven of the Thirty-Three.
Fourth of the four types of formless meditative absorptions (caturārūpyasamāpatti, gzugs med snyoms ’jug bzhi) (Rigzin 369).
Any volitional act, whether of body, speech, or mind. Also rendered here as “act,” “karma,” and “deed.”
See “action.” Also used to translate other synonyms, like mdzad pa.
See “action.”
A formal act of the saṅgha that requires an initial motion followed by the statement of the proposed act, repeated three times. Such an act is required for several proceedings—among other occasions, to fully ordain someone, or to officially admonish an intransigent monk.
A formal act of the saṅgha that requires an initial motion followed by the statement of the proposed act. Such an act is needed to grant the vows of full ordination to a nun, among other occasions.
Any volitional act, whether of body, speech, or mind. Also rendered here as “act,” “karma,” and “deed.”
See “action.” Also used to translate other synonyms, like mdzad pa.
See “action.”
The name of the town where Kaineya lived; traditionally spelled Udumā, the rendering in The Hundred Deeds may be derived from the Pāli/Prakṛt form Ātumā.
An afflictive emotion.
Also called “delusions,” “afflictions,” or “addictive emotions,” these are mental states that produce turmoil and confusion and thus disturb mental peace and happiness (Rigzin 133).
See “afflictive emotions.”
In Buddhist philosophy, the five basic constituents upon which persons are conventionally designated. They are material forms, sensations, perceptions, formations, and consciousness.
A certain brahmin who in the future will be from the country of Pāṭaliputra, a master of the Vedas, and father of Śiṣyaka.
Not to be confused with Agnidatta (of Vārāṇasī), one of the magistrates of King Brahmadatta (past), nor with Agnidatta of the royal palace Śobhāvatī.
A certain brahmin of the royal palace Śobhāvatī during the time of Buddha Krakucchanda.
Not to be confused with Agnidatta of Vārāṇasī, nor with the Agnidatta (father of Śiṣyaka) prophesied to appear in the future, both of whose names are the slightly different Tib. mes sbyin.
One of King Brahmadatta’s magistrates, from Vārāṇasī. Father of Son of Fire and Tongue of Fire.
Not to be confused with Agnidatta (father of Śiṣyaka) prophesied to appear in the future, nor with Agnidatta of the royal palace Śobhāvatī.
Possibly the oldest school of Sanskrit grammar, by traditional accounts traced to the god Indra himself.
The modern-day Rāptīnadī. L. Chandra gives Ajiravatī for the Tib. khyams ldan.
One of the six philosophical extremists who lived during the time of Buddha Śākyamuni.
Another name for Kauṇḍinya. One of the five monks present for the first teaching of the four noble truths; on account of his realization he became known as Venerable “All-Knowing Kauṇḍinya” or “Kauṇḍinya who understood” (Ājñātakauṇḍinya).
One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology, fifth and highest of the five so-called pure realms of the form realm. Also rendered here as Akaniṣṭha.
See “Supreme.”
An epithet of the buddhas. Salutation to the All-Knowing One at the beginning of a Buddhist text typically indicates its designation in the Vinaya Piṭaka.
One of eight children, a daughter, of King Siṃhahanu of Kapilavastu.
One of eight children, a son, of King Siṃhahanu of Kapilavastu.
A monk of the Buddha’s order, brother of Devadatta, who for twenty-five years served as the Buddha’s personal attendant. Second in the apostolic succession that carried on the Buddha’s teachings after his parinirvāṇa.
A wealthy householder of Śrāvastī renowned for his generosity, he spent a small fortune to purchase the garden of Prince Jeta, built a monastery there, and offered both to the Buddha.
Disciple of Śiṣyaka, he was prophesied by the Buddha to slay the arhat Sūrata, hastening the Dharma’s disappearance from this world.
One of the five or six classes of sentient beings, into which beings are born as the karmic fruition of past miserliness. As the term in Sanskrit means “the departed,” they are analogous to the ancestral spirits of Vedic tradition, the pitṛs, who starve without the offerings of descendants. It is also commonly translated as “hungry ghost” or “starving spirit,” as in the Chinese 餓鬼 e gui.
They are sometimes said to reside in the realm of Yama, but are also frequently described as roaming charnel grounds and other inhospitable or frightening places along with piśācas and other such beings. They are particularly known to suffer from great hunger and thirst and the inability to acquire sustenance. Detailed descriptions of their realm and experience, including a list of the thirty-six classes of pretas, can be found in The Application of Mindfulness of the Sacred Dharma, Toh 287, 2.1281– 2.1482.
The Buddha’s first cousin, born of the Śākya clan, who was among the most eminent of the Buddha’s monastic disciples.
A river in the province of Mallā in the vicinity of Kuśinagarī.
An afflictive emotion.
A future buddha.
Ninth of the twelve links of dependent origination.
“Forest Dweller,” the name of the son of householders in Śrāvastī, he preferred seclusion, eventually attaining arhatship.
Literally “foe-destroyer”—the foe in this case being the afflictive emotions—one who has attained arhatship.
“The state of liberation [from saṃsāra via destruction of the afflictive emotions] or the fifth path of no more to learn, attained by arhats after perfecting training in the fourth path…” (Rigzin 60). In this text being “established … in the unsurpassed, supreme welfare of nirvāṇa”; also appears as a synonym for the attainment of arhatship.
Name of a former buddha; also the name of a future buddha prophesied in The Hundred Deeds.
The name of a certain householder.
A mendicant; sometimes employed as a title of the Buddha.
An optional set of thirteen practices that monastics can adopt in order to cultivate greater detachment. They consist of (1) wearing patched robes made from discarded cloth rather than from cloth donated by laypeople; (2) wearing only three robes; (3) going for alms; (4) not omitting any house while on the alms round, rather than begging only at those houses known to provide good food; (5) eating only what can be eaten in one sitting; (6) eating only food received in the alms bowl, rather than more elaborate meals presented to the saṅgha; (7) refusing more food after indicating one has eaten enough; (8) dwelling in the forest; (9) dwelling at the root of a tree; (10) dwelling in the open air, using only a tent made from one’s robes as shelter; (11) dwelling in a charnel ground; (12) satisfaction with whatever dwelling one has; and (13) sleeping in a sitting position without ever lying down.
A future buddha.
Not to be confused with the young brahmin Aśoka who was Buddha Kāśyapa’s best friend prior to his enlightenment, nor with King Aśoka who does not appear in this text.
Young brahmin who was Buddha Kāśyapa’s best friend prior to his enlightenment. The Hundred Deeds is not clear on this point, but Edgerton notes that Aśoka is understood as the nephew and disciple of Buddha Kāśyapa (Edgerton 80.2).
Not to be confused with the future buddha Aśoka, nor with the historical King Aśoka who does not appear in this text.
A future buddha.
A species of tree; Vatica robusta.
“Breath.” The previous incarnation of the great king Dhṛtarāṣṭra as a nāga king who lived on Mount Meru, he eventually went for refuge and took the fundamental precepts.
A certain yakṣa lord tamed by the Buddha.
Along with the Ṛg Veda, Yajur Veda, and Sāma Veda, one of the four Vedas, the most ancient Sanskrit religious literature of India.
Entry point for the path of seeing, this is the direct perception of things as they are, ultimate reality, suchness.
An individual who is gifted in reading natural signs and omens.
A country visited by Venerable Upasena; home of Lotus Color.
An afflictive emotion.
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Denkarma (pho brang stod thang ldan [/ lhan] dkar gyi chos ’gyur ro cog gi dkar chag). Degé Tengyur, vol. 206 (sna tshogs, jo), folios 294.b - 310.a.
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’dul ba’i mdo (Vinayasūtra). Toh 4117, Degé Tengyur vol. 261 (’dul ba, wu), folios 1a–100b.
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C Choné (co ne) Kangyur
D Degé (sde dge) Kangyur
H Lhasa Zhöl (lha sa zhol) Kangyur
J Lithang (li thang) Kangyur
K Kangxi Peking (pe) Kangyur
N Narthang (snar thang) Kangyur
S Stok Palace Manuscript (stog pho brang bris ma) Kangyur
U Urga (khu)
Y Yongle (g.yung lo) Kangyur
The sūtra The Hundred Deeds, whose title could also be translated as The Hundred Karmas, is a collection of stories known as avadāna—a narrative genre widely represented in the Sanskrit Buddhist literature and its derivatives—comprising more than 120 individual texts. It includes narratives of Buddha Śākyamuni’s notable deeds and foundational teachings, the stories of other well-known Buddhist figures, and a variety of other tales featuring people from all walks of ancient Indian life and beings from all six realms of existence. The texts sometimes include stretches of verse. In the majority of the stories the Buddha’s purpose in recounting the past lives of one or more individuals is to make definitive statements about the karmic ripening of actions across multiple lifetimes, and the sūtra is perhaps the best known of the many works in the Kangyur on this theme.
Translated by Dr. Lozang Jamspal (International Buddhist College, Thailand) and Kaia Fischer of the Tibetan Classics Translators Guild of New York (TCTGNY). Introduction by Nathan Mitchell, with additional material by the 84000 editorial team.
Warm thanks to Dr. Tom Tillemans, Dr. John Canti, Dr. James Gentry, Adam Krug, Ven. Konchog Norbu, Janna White, and all the readers and editors at 84000, for their wisdom; to Huang Jing Rui, Amy Ang, and the entire administration and staff at 84000, for their compassion; to readers Dr. Irene Cannon-Geary, Dr. Natalie M. Griffin, Tom Griffin, Norman Guberman, Margot Jarrett, Dr. David Kittay, Dr. Susan Landesman, Megan Mook, and Dr. Toy-Fung Tung, as well as to every member of TCTGNY, for their diligence and sincerity; to Caithlin De Marrais, Tinka Harvard, Laren McClung, and Erin Sperry, for their adept revisions to passages of verse; to Dr. Paul Hackett, for his linguistic and technical expertise; to Dr. Tenzin Robert Thurman and the late Prof. Dr. Michael Hahn, for their insight; to Dr. Lauran Hartley, for her capable assistance in researching the introduction; to Dr. Donald J. LaRocca, for his thoughtful clarification of terms pertaining to arms and armor; and to Jennifer E. Fischer, for her generosity in formatting the translation.
Special thanks to Ven. Wei Wu and all of the students, faculty, and staff of the International Buddhist College, Thailand, for their warm welcome of the senior translator Dr. Jamspal, and to Cynthia H. Wong, for her kindheartedness toward the junior translator Kaia Fischer.
Through the devoted attention of all may the Buddhadharma smile upon us for countless ages, safeguarded by knowledge of the classical Tibetan language.
The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
Work on this translation was rendered possible by the generous donations of a number of sponsors: Zhou Tian Yu, Chen Yi Qin, Irene Tillman, Archie Kao and Zhou Xun; 恒基伟业投资发展集团有限公司，李英、李杰、李明、李一全家; Thirty, Twenty and family; and Ye Kong, Helen Han, Karen Kong and family. Their help is most gratefully acknowledged.
The Hundred Deeds is a collection of stories or avadāna, a narrative genre widely represented in the Sanskrit Buddhist literature and its derivatives. The term avadāna can be analyzed and understood in several ways. One common interpretation is “legend,” but that understanding is perhaps too rigid, as well as too romantic, for what could be described as religious or spiritual biography. The general intention of avadāna literature is to elicit faith and devotion in the reader through an object lesson in karmic cause and effect: how, for example, a noble act motivated by faith and devotion toward the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha), or toward another object of veneration, yields a good result, while the result of an ignoble act is dreadful. Historically, the specific functions of avadāna literature were to propagate Buddhism and to provide inspiration and preliminary education in the Dharma, particularly for laypersons and the recently ordained. It can still perform these functions today.
The collection was written at the beginning of the Common Era, and is most likely the product of the Sarvāstivādin school of Mahāyāna Buddhism; it is thus likely to have originated in the northwest of India in the vicinity of Kashmir. Léon Feer, a late nineteenth century scholar of The Hundred Deeds, suggests that the Sarvāstivādins were not responsible for the Sanskrit text, but does not offer any indication of which school he believes may have been responsible. Whatever the case may be, the Tibetan text closely resembles the texts of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya found in the Kangyur in its wording and in its structural format—in parts, each with its list of contents. Indeed it shares with that corpus a large number of passages, not only stock phrases and modular passages but also whole episodes.
The Hundred Deeds survives exclusively in Tibetan translation; the original Sanskrit version is no longer extant. The Tibetan has no translator’s colophon, and there is no direct evidence of when, or by whom, it was made. It may possibly have been first translated somewhat before the major imperial translation project of the early period began; several sources, including Butön’s History of the Dharma, mention that it was translated by Drenka (bran ka) Mūlakośa and Nyak Jñānakumāra during the reign of the father and immediate predecessor of King Trisong Detsen, King Tridé Tsuktsen (khri lde gtsug btsan, r. 705–55
There are two accounts of how the text was saved from destruction during the period of upheaval around the reign of Langdarma (r. 836–42
There is another collection of broadly similar narratives, the Avadānaśataka, that is perhaps the closest kin of The Hundred Deeds in terms of style and content, and thus may serve as a primary reference point for comparison and contrast. The temporal relationship between the two collections, as well as the seniority of one collection over the other, is a matter for debate. The Avadānaśataka has a definite plan and a clear, orderly structure: it has ten chapters, each containing ten stories based on a common theme, giving a total of one hundred stories. Although The Hundred Deeds is similarly divided into ten parts, it lacks the Avadānaśataka’s structural adherence to round numbers and its more developed thematic arrangement; The Hundred Deeds contains approximately 127 stories by Feer’s count (of these, some fifteen are also in the Avadānaśataka), and the collection is not organized around fixed sets of common themes.
The Hundred Deeds is not entirely lacking in thematic structure, however. The stories in the eighth chapter share a common theme, that of prophecy (vyākaraṇa), the same as the first chapter of the Avadānaśataka. Each prophecy is essentially an “explanation” of a person’s future buddhahood. The primary aspect that differentiates vyākaraṇa avadānas from the majority of other avadānas is that they end with a prophecy rather than in fulfillment; that is, the protagonist of each vyākaraṇa avadāna will certainly achieve enlightenment, but not by the story’s end.
Furthermore, most of the texts in The Hundred Deeds share a basic structure. In general, a given text will begin with a narrative from the time of Buddha Śākyamuni, at the conclusion of which Śākyamuni explains to his monks which of the characters’ previous actions caused the present state of events. This explanation then leads to a second narrative, and occasionally also a third, within the same text. Through these interconnecting stories, the text gives practical examples of karmic cause and effect.
The presence of the bodhisattva vow (pranidhāna) further differentiates The Hundred Deeds from the Avadānaśataka. In the present collection, the bodhisattva vow appears some ninety times, and in the Avadānaśataka only fourteen times. The preeminence of the bodhisattva vow in The Hundred Deeds would certainly seem to place it closer to the work of the Mahāsāṅghika school. However, some scholars believe these are later interpolations in what was originally a Sarvāstivādin text.
While calling attention to the relative lack of thematic structure in The Hundred Deeds, Feer nonetheless classifies several of the collection’s stories using the following categories: parallel, jātaka, and historical avadānas. The parallel avadānas are those in which both the past and present tales are essentially the same, with the common narrative generally lacking karmic punishment or reward. The jātaka (Buddha’s “birth story”) avadānas are further subdivided into partial and “pure” jātakas. The avadānas not considered “pure” are those in which the Buddha acts as protagonist for only a portion of the tale of the past. The historical avadānas are those that feature well-known Buddhist figures as protagonists or secondary characters as well as events from the history of Buddhism. These categories are by no means discrete; there are several instances in which Feer cites a single story as belonging to two categories, if not all three.
The present English translation is based mainly on the Tibetan text of the Degé Kangyur; other Kangyurs were consulted where the Degé reading called for further investigation. Where one folio of the text was missing in the Degé Kangyur (vol. 73, folio 12a, see notes), the corresponding passage in the Stok Palace Kangyur was used to complete it.
[V73] [B1] I prostrate to the All-Knowing One.
When the Blessed One was in Śrāvastī there lived a certain householder, prosperous and wealthy, a person of vast and magnificent means, endowed with the wealth of Vaiśravaṇa—with wealth to rival Vaiśravaṇa’s—who was fond of philosophical extremists.
When the time came for him to marry he took a wife, and they enjoyed themselves and coupled. As they enjoyed themselves and coupled, one day his wife conceived. After nine or ten months had passed, she gave birth to a child who was well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, and beautiful, with glowing, golden skin, a well-rounded head, long arms, a broad brow, a fine and prominent nose, and eyebrows that met. At the elaborate feast celebrating his birth they named him according to their clan.
They reared him on milk, yogurt, butter, ghee, and milk solids, and he flourished like a lotus in a lake. Once he was able to walk, his father brought home a little puppy for him to play with. Any time the puppy saw philosophical extremists, she would run and bite at them, sometimes tearing their robes. But when she saw Buddhist monastics she would trot up, lick their feet, and circumambulate them clockwise while wagging her tail.
The buddhas, the blessed ones, teachers of the one path to be traversed, with mastery over wisdom and the two types of knowable objects, in command of the three kinds of sterling equanimity, fearless by means of the fourfold fearlessness, freed from migration through the five destinies, keen in the six sense bases, practiced in the seven limbs of enlightenment, focused on the eight liberations, absorbed in the nine successive meditative absorptions, possessing all ten of the ten powers, whose proclamations are the great roaring of a perfect lion, by nature regard the world with their buddha eyes six times throughout the day and night—three times by day and three times by night.
These are their thoughts as they look out in wisdom: “Who is in decline? Who will flourish? Who is destitute? Who is in a dreadful state? Who is being harmed? Who is destitute, in a dreadful state, and being harmed? Who is veering toward the lower realms? Who is descending through the lower realms? Who has descended to the lower realms? Whom shall I pull up from the lower realms, and establish in the resultant state of heaven and liberation? Whom, mired in misdeeds, shall I lift up by the hand? Whom, lacking the seven jewels of the noble ones, shall I lead to command of the seven jewels of the noble ones? Whom, not having produced roots of virtue, shall I lead to produce them? Whom, having already produced roots of virtue, shall I lead to ripen their roots of virtue? Whom, having already ripened their roots of virtue, shall I slice open with the blade of wisdom? For whom shall I cause this world, adorned with a buddha’s presence, to be fruitful?”
Just as the buddhas, the blessed ones, regard the world with their buddha eyes six times throughout the day and night—three times by day and three times by night—so too the great disciples of the buddhas regard the world with disciples’ eyes six times throughout the day and night—three times by day and three times by night. When Venerable Śāriputra regarded the world with his disciple’s eyes, he knew that the time had come to tame the householder and his retinue. In the morning he donned his lower garment and Dharma robes, and, carrying his alms bowl, he went for alms in Śrāvastī.
As he went for alms, Śāriputra eventually came to the home of that householder. As soon as the dog saw him from a distance, she jumped up and ran right up to Śāriputra, just as she had with the other monks. She very respectfully licked his feet and circumambulated him three times while wagging her tail.
The householder saw all this and thought, “My! This one has fallen so low as to possess the body of a dog. If even she thinks to pay him such esteem, then surely this monk is a great being. I should invite this monk and offer him food.” Reflecting in this way he approached Venerable Śāriputra, bowed down at Śāriputra’s feet, and said, “Lord Śāriputra, whatever food you need, please take it here.” Venerable Śāriputra assented by his silence.
Understanding that by his silence Venerable Śāriputra had given his assent, the householder then prepared a seat for Venerable Śāriputra and said, “Venerable Śāriputra, please sit upon the seat that I have prepared,” whereupon Venerable Śāriputra sat on the seat prepared for him.
Once the householder knew that Venerable Śāriputra was comfortably seated, by his own hand he contented him with many good, wholesome foods, proffering all that he wished. After he had contented him with many different kinds of good, wholesome foods by his own hand, and had proffered all that he wished, once he knew that Venerable Śāriputra had finished eating and that his bowl had been taken away and his hands washed, he sat before him to listen to the Dharma.
Venerable Śāriputra directly apprehended the thoughts, habitual tendencies, temperament, and nature of the householder and his retinue, and taught them the Dharma accordingly.
When they heard it, the householder and his retinue destroyed with the thunderbolt of wisdom the twenty high peaks of the mountain of views concerning the transitory collection, and manifested the resultant state of stream entry. Having seen the truths, they went for refuge and took the fundamental precepts. After Venerable Śāriputra had instructed, encouraged, inspired, and delighted the householder with a discourse on the Dharma, he rose from his seat and departed.
Having seen the truths, the householder began to give gifts and make merit such that his home became like an open well for those in need. The householder invited Śāriputra to take food at his home again and again. Venerable Śāriputra and the householder would give food to the dog, and the householder would sit before Venerable Śāriputra to listen to the Dharma. The dog too would sit down before Venerable Śāriputra and listen to the Dharma. The householder reflected, “Such good things I have realized, and all on account of this dog!” Realizing this, he took very good care of her.
One day the dog fell ill, and Śāriputra said to her, “And so it is, child: All conditioned things are impermanent. All conditioned things are suffering. All phenomena are selfless. Nirvāṇa is peace. Let your mind be filled with joy at the thought of me, and you may even be released from rebirth in the animal realm.” With that, Venerable Śāriputra departed.
Not long after he had gone, the dog died, filled with joy at the thought of Venerable Śāriputra. After she died, she took rebirth in the same house, in the womb of the householder’s foremost wife.
When the dog died, Venerable Śāriputra returned to the house, where the householder informed him, “Lord Śāriputra, our dog has passed away.”
“Keep the dog’s body in a secluded place,” Venerable Śāriputra instructed, “for those bones will be of benefit to her later on.”
“As you wish, Lord Śāriputra,” said the householder, and the householder put the dog’s dead body in a place where no one would see it.
After nine or ten months had passed, the householder’s wife gave birth to a child who was well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, and beautiful, with glowing, golden skin and a well-rounded head, long arms, a broad brow, a fine and prominent nose, and eyebrows that met. At the elaborate feast celebrating her birth they named her according to their clan. They reared her on milk, yogurt, butter, ghee, and milk solids, and she flourished like a lotus in a lake.
When she had grown, Venerable Śāriputra told her, “Child, sit and listen to the Dharma,” but she had become arrogant on account of her well-proportioned shape and youthfulness, and was so distracted that she was unable to listen to the Dharma. One day Venerable Śāriputra recognized how to uncover her potential. He set the bones of the dog in front of her, and blessed the young woman in such a way that she remembered her former lives.
Recalling her former lives, the young woman was overcome with grief and thought, “Look at the difficult task Noble Śāriputra has done for me! Thanks to him I have been freed from the realms of animal birth.” At this thought she was filled with happiness, and sat before Venerable Śāriputra to listen to the Dharma.
Then Venerable Śāriputra, directly apprehending her thoughts, habitual tendencies, temperament, and nature, taught her the Dharma accordingly. Hearing it, the young woman destroyed with the thunderbolt of wisdom the twenty high peaks of the mountain of views concerning the transitory collection, and manifested the resultant state of stream entry right where she sat.
Having seen the truths, she rose from her seat, drew down the right shoulder of her upper garment, bowed to Venerable Śāriputra with her palms together, and implored him, “Lord Śāriputra, if permitted, I wish to go forth in the Dharma and Vinaya so well spoken, complete my novitiate, and achieve full ordination. I too wish to practice the holy life in the presence of the Blessed One.”
Venerable Śāriputra told her parents of her faith and then presented her to Mahāprajāpatī, who led her to go forth as a novice, ordained her, and gave her instruction. Casting away all afflictive emotions through diligence, practice, and effort, she manifested arhatship. As an arhat, free of the attachments of the three realms, her mind regarded gold no differently than filth, and the palms of her hands as like space itself. She became cool like wet sandalwood. Her insight crushed ignorance like an eggshell. She achieved the insights, superknowledges, and discriminations. She had no regard for worldly profit, passion, or acclaim. She became an object of offering, veneration, and respectful address by Indra, Upendra, and the other gods.
Now an arhat, she remembered Venerable Śāriputra’s previous kindness and approached him again and again, prostrating herself at his feet and saying, “Thanks to Noble Śāriputra, I was freed from the realms of animal birth and achieved great virtues. It is all due to the difficult task the noble one has done for me.”
Many monks overheard her saying this over and over again, and immediately asked Venerable Śāriputra, “Venerable Śāriputra, what is this nun thinking, saying this over and over again?”
“Did you see the puppy at the householder’s home?” Venerable Śāriputra asked.
“Yes, Lord Śāriputra, we did,” they replied.
“The very same one died filled with joy at the thought of me and was reborn in the home of that householder. Now that she remembers her former lives, she speaks these words to me to acknowledge that previous kindness.”
The monks inquired of the Blessed One, “Lord, what was the action this nun performed that ripened into her birth as a dog? What did she do after she died and took rebirth as a human being that she pleased and did not displease the Blessed One, went forth in the Blessed One’s doctrine, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifested arhatship?”
The Blessed One replied, “Monks, it was partly her past actions, and it is partly her present actions as well.”
“Lord, what action did she take in the past?”
“Monks, in times past, in this fortunate eon, when people lived as long as twenty thousand years and the tathāgata, the arhat, the totally and completely awakened buddha possessed of insight and perfect conduct, the sugata, the knower of the world, the tamer of persons, the charioteer, the unsurpassed one, the teacher of humans and gods, the blessed buddha known as Kāśyapa was in the world, there lived a certain householder in the city of Vārāṇasī.
“One day a child was born to him who was well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, and beautiful. As she grew up she gained faith in the doctrine of the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa and asked her parents if she could go forth. Once she had gone forth, she studied the Tripiṭaka and became a proponent of the Dharma with all the eloquence of her wisdom and freedom.
“Having acquired provisions of clothing, food, bedding, a seat, and medicines for the sick, she thought, ‘How wonderful! With all the profit and acclaim I’ve gained, I can see to the welfare of fellow practitioners of the holy life.’ And she served the twofold saṅgha in accordance with the Dharma.
“One day when she was busy, she asked for help from a group of nuns who were on the paths of learning and no more to learn. They replied, ‘We cannot abandon our virtuous works to accomplish your task.’
“When she heard this she bristled with fury. Seething, the nun shouted at them, ‘You’re like dogs! All I do is look after you and fill your stomachs—can you not help me for even a moment?’
“Thereupon the nuns thought, ‘It’s not right for this emotionally afflicted person, so abased, to circle in saṃsāra and meet with great suffering.’ Reflecting in this way, they thought, ‘We have to help her,’ and asked, ‘Do you know who we are? And do you know who you yourself are?’
“ ‘I know,’ she replied, ‘that you have gone forth, as have I.’
“The nuns responded, ‘Though as your elder sisters we have gone forth as you have, you are an ordinary person, bound by every fetter, whereas we have accomplished our task. So acknowledge your mistake as such. Otherwise you are certain to roam in saṃsāra and meet with great suffering.’
“Hearing their words, the nun was flooded with regret, and with renewed vigor she offered her respectful service to the twofold saṅgha and practiced pure conduct all her life.
“At the time of her death, she prayed, ‘Oh, but by the root of virtue of my having gone forth in the doctrine of the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa, my lifetime of practicing pure conduct, and the service I rendered in accord with the Dharma, wherever I am born, may it be into a family of great means, prosperity, and wealth. May I be well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, and beautiful. May I please and not displease Uttara, the young brahmin prophesied by the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa to be the next blessed buddha. Going forth in his doctrine alone, may I cast away all afflictive emotions and manifest arhatship. May I not meet with the results of the act of speaking harshly to those fellow practitioners of the holy life.’
“O monks, what do you think? The one who was that nun then is now this nun. The ripening of the act of speaking harshly to those fellow practitioners of the holy life caused her to be reborn as a dog for five hundred lifetimes. At the time of her death she prayed, ‘Wherever I am born, may it be into a family of great means, prosperity, and wealth. May I please and not displease Uttara, the young brahmin prophesied by the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa to be the next blessed buddha. Going forth in his doctrine alone, may I cast away all afflictive emotions and manifest arhatship.’ And that action ripened such that she was born into a family of great means, prosperity, and wealth.
“So it is, monks, now that I myself have become the very equal of the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa—equal in strength, equal in deeds, and equal in skillful means—that she has pleased me, not displeased me, go forth in my very doctrine, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifested arhatship. These were her past actions.
“You may ask, ‘What are her present actions?’ Born as a dog, she was filled with joy at the thought of Śāriputra. Because of this she took birth among humans. These are her present actions.”
When the Blessed One was in Śrāvastī there lived a certain householder, prosperous and wealthy, a person of vast and magnificent means, endowed with the wealth of Vaiśravaṇa—with wealth to rival Vaiśravaṇa’s. When the time came for him to marry he took a wife, and as they enjoyed themselves and coupled, one day his wife conceived. After nine or ten months had passed, she gave birth to a child who was well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, and beautiful. At the elaborate feast celebrating his birth they named him according to their clan.
They reared him on milk, yogurt, butter, ghee, and milk solids, and once he was able to walk, his father brought home a puppy and gave it to the child to play with. The child taught the puppy how to eat, and when the puppy had grown, he went out to the road and many others fed him as well.
The buddhas, the blessed ones, teachers of the one path to be traversed, with mastery over wisdom and the two types of knowable objects, in command of the three kinds of sterling equanimity, fearless by means of the fourfold fearlessness, freed from migration through the five destinies, keen in the six sense bases, practiced in the seven limbs of enlightenment, focused on the eight liberations, absorbed in the nine successive meditative absorptions, possessing all ten of the ten powers, whose proclamations are the great roaring of a perfect lion, by nature regard the world with their buddha eyes six times throughout the day and night—three times by day and three times by night.
These are their thoughts as they look out in wisdom: “Who is in decline? Who will flourish? Who is destitute? Who is in a dreadful state? Who is being harmed? Who is destitute, in a dreadful state, and being harmed? Who is veering toward the lower realms? Who is descending through the lower realms? Who has descended to the lower realms? Whom shall I pull up from the lower realms, and establish in the resultant state of heaven and liberation? Whom, mired in misdeeds, shall I lift up by the hand? Whom, lacking the seven jewels of the noble ones, shall I lead to command of the seven jewels of the noble ones? Whom, not having produced roots of virtue, shall I lead to produce them? Whom, having already produced roots of virtue, shall I lead to ripen their roots of virtue? Whom, having already ripened their roots of virtue, shall I slice open with the blade of wisdom? For whom shall I cause this world, adorned with a buddha’s presence, to be fruitful?”
Just as the blessed buddhas regard the world with their buddha eyes six times throughout the day and night—three times by day and three times by night—so too the great listeners regard the world with their listener’s eyes six times throughout the day and night—three times by day and three times by night. When Venerable Śāriputra regarded the world with his listener’s eyes, he knew that the time had come to tame the householder and his retinue.
In the morning he donned his lower garment and Dharma robes, and, carrying his alms bowl, he went for alms in Śrāvastī. As he went for alms, Venerable Śāriputra eventually came to the home of that householder. The dog caught sight of Venerable Śāriputra, ran with all his might, bit him, and tore his Dharma robes. The householder saw this and immediately stopped the dog. When he had washed Venerable Śāriputra’s wounds and wrapped them with cloth, he bowed down at his feet and implored him, “Lord Śāriputra, please take your food here.” Venerable Śāriputra assented to the householder by his silence.
Understanding that by his silence Venerable Śāriputra had given his assent, the householder then prepared a seat for him and said, “Venerable Śāriputra, please sit upon the seat that I have prepared,” and Venerable Śāriputra sat on the seat prepared for him. Once the householder knew that Venerable Śāriputra was comfortably seated, by his own hand he contented him with many good, wholesome foods, proffering all that he wished.
After the householder had contented him with many different kinds of good, wholesome foods by his own hand, and had proffered all that he wished, Venerable Śāriputra partook of the day’s meal and gave his remaining food to the dog. When he had finished eating it, the dog looked up at Venerable Śāriputra’s face. Once the householder knew that Venerable Śāriputra had finished eating and that his bowl had been taken away and his hands washed, he sat before him to listen to the Dharma.
Venerable Śāriputra directly apprehended the thoughts, habitual tendencies, temperament, and nature of the householder and his retinue, and taught them the Dharma accordingly. After hearing it, the householder and his retinue destroyed with the thunderbolt of wisdom the twenty high peaks of the mountain of views concerning the transitory collection, and manifested the resultant state of stream entry right where they sat. Having seen the truths, they went for refuge and took the fundamental precepts.
“Lord Śāriputra,” said the householder, “for as long as I live, please accept from me your provisions of clothing, food, bedding, seat, and medicines to cure the sick.”
Śāriputra replied, “There are other householders I must help as well. Please allow me to go.” At this, he rose from his seat and departed.
After the householder had seen the truths, gone for refuge, and taken the fundamental precepts, he began to give gifts and make merit. From time to time he would also extend an invitation to Venerable Śāriputra and make food for him. After eating, Venerable Śāriputra would give the remaining food to the dog.
The dog was very happy with Venerable Śāriputra. He was so happy that whenever Venerable Śāriputra came to the house, he greeted him, licked his feet, and circumambulated him three times while wagging his tail. Whenever Venerable Śāriputra came to give a Dharma talk and the time came for him to leave, the dog escorted him a little distance, then circumambulated him three times before he went away.
One day Venerable Śāriputra came to the house again, took his food, and gave a Dharma talk to the householder. As he was departing, the dog followed him outside onto the main road, licked his feet, and circumambulated him three times while wagging his tail. As the dog was returning to the house, some other dogs tore him apart, killing him. He died filled with joy at the thought of the elder monk Śāriputra, transmigrated, and took rebirth in the same house, in the womb of the householder’s wife.
Venerable Śāriputra knew just how the dog had been killed by the other dogs after they had parted. He contemplated where the dog would take rebirth, and saw that it would be in the same house, in the womb of the householder’s wife. Upon seeing this, out of love for the dog he went to the householder’s home alone, without attendants.
The householder saw that Venerable Śāriputra was alone, without companions or attendants, and he inquired, “Noble one, why have you come here alone, without companions or attendants? Noble one, is there no one at all who could attend you?”
“Where shall we find attendants, if one such as yourself does not grant them to us?” replied Venerable Śāriputra.
The householder said to him, “Lord Śāriputra, my wife has conceived, so if we have a son, noble one, I shall offer him to you as an attendant.”
“The virtuous keep their promises,” said Venerable Śāriputra. Having spoken thus, Venerable Śāriputra departed.
After nine or ten months had passed, the householder’s wife gave birth to a child who was well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, and beautiful, though his eyes were small. At the elaborate feast celebrating his birth they asked, “What name should we give this child?” And they named him, saying, “Since the child’s eyes are small, his name will be Little Eyes.”
They reared young Little Eyes on milk, yogurt, butter, ghee, and milk solids, and he flourished like a lotus in a lake. As he grew up he studied letters, tallying, and arithmetic; the study of seals, lending, deposits, and commerce; and the examination of cloth, jewels, gems, incense, medicine, elephants, horses, and arms and armor. He became skilled in writing, skilled at reading, learned, decisive, industrious, a master of the eight types of examination.
One day Venerable Śāriputra saw that the time had come for Little Eyes to go forth. In the morning he donned his lower garment and Dharma robes, and, carrying his alms bowl, he went for alms in Śrāvastī. As he went for alms, he eventually came to the householder’s home, and there sat on the seat prepared for him.
After he had taken his seat, Venerable Śāriputra reminded the householder, “Householder, before this child was born you granted him to me as an attendant. The virtuous keep their promises, do they not? Didn’t you yourself make such a promise?”
“Yes, noble one, I did make just such a promise,” the householder replied, and he took the child by his two hands, offered him to Venerable Śāriputra, and told him, “Child, before you were born, I offered you to the noble one. Therefore go, and be an attendant of the noble one.”
The child said, “This will be of benefit to me,” and with those words he followed Venerable Śāriputra away.
Venerable Śāriputra brought the child to the monastery, where he led him to go forth as a novice and instructed him. Still in his novitiate, the child cast away all afflictive emotions through diligence, practice, and effort, and manifested arhatship. As an arhat, free from the attachments of the three realms, his mind regarded gold no differently than filth, and the palms of his hands as like space itself. He became cool like wet sandalwood. His insight crushed ignorance like an eggshell. He achieved the insights, superknowledges, and discriminations. He had no regard for worldly profit, passion, or acclaim. He became an object of offering, veneration, and respectful address by Indra, Upendra, and the other gods.
One time after he had attained arhatship, he saw scars on Venerable Śāriputra’s feet as he was anointing them and asked, “Preceptor, how did you get these scars?”
“Child,” Venerable Śāriputra told him, “think on how I got these scars.”
“I see it was I who bit him in a previous life as a dog,” thought the novice. “And I see the life from which I died, transmigrated, and took rebirth as a dog.” He saw that he had died and taken rebirth as that dog, and he also saw that for five hundred lifetimes he had died as a dog, transmigrated, and taken rebirth only as a dog.
He thought, “Had my preceptor not thought of me, where would I have taken rebirth in the future when I died there and transmigrated?” Reflecting in this way, he saw himself taking birth again as that very dog. In the same way he saw himself for five hundred future lives dying, transmigrating, and taking birth over and over only as a dog.
“It was he who saved me from falling so low!” he thought further. “By establishing me in the unsurpassed, supreme welfare of nirvāṇa, my preceptor undertook a difficult task for me, over and over again. What method is there to repay the kindness of one’s preceptor, other than service and respect? When I take full ordination I won’t be able to offer such service—but oh! By remaining a novice for as long as I live I can continue to serve him respectfully.”
With this in mind, he said to Venerable Śāriputra, “Preceptor, for as long as I live I shall serve my preceptor with respect,” and Śāriputra replied, “Do as you wish, my child.”
One day the monks asked him, “Little Eyes, why don’t you take full ordination?”
“I must repay the kindness of my preceptor,” he told them. “By remaining a novice for as long as I live, I shall be able to serve him respectfully.”
“What particular kindness did your preceptor do for you?” they asked.
He told the monks the story in detail, whereupon the monks inquired of the Blessed Buddha, “Lord, what action did Little Eyes take that ripened into his birth as a dog, such that, if Venerable Śāriputra had not thought of him, he would have taken rebirth only as a dog for five hundred lifetimes, and what action did he take that once he had died as a dog he transmigrated and took birth once again as a human into a family of great means, prosperity, and wealth? What action did he take that he pleased the Blessed One, did not displease him, went forth in the doctrine of the Blessed One, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifested arhatship? What action did he take that ripened into his having small eyes?”
“Monks,” explained the Blessed One, “Little Eyes committed and accumulated the actions himself at a previous time. Monks, the actions that he committed and accumulated did not ripen into the external element of earth. They did not ripen into the element of water, nor the element of fire, nor the element of wind. The actions he committed and accumulated, both virtuous and nonvirtuous, ripened into nothing but his own aggregates, sense bases, and constituent elements.
“Monks, in times past, in this fortunate eon, when people lived as long as twenty thousand years and the tathāgata, the arhat, the totally and completely awakened buddha possessed of insight and perfect conduct, the sugata, the knower of the world, the tamer of persons, the charioteer, the unsurpassed one, the teacher of humans and gods, the blessed buddha known as Kāśyapa was in the world, there lived in the city of Vārāṇasī a certain householder, prosperous and wealthy, a person of vast and magnificent means, endowed with the wealth of Vaiśravaṇa—with wealth to rival Vaiśravaṇa’s.
“One day his wife conceived, and after nine or ten months had passed, she gave birth to a child who was well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, and beautiful. When he grew up he found faith in the doctrine of the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa, and after asking for his parents’ permission, went forth.
“Once he had gone forth, he studied the Tripiṭaka and became a proponent of the Dharma with all the eloquence of his wisdom and freedom. Having acquired provisions of clothing, food, bedding, a seat, and medicines for the sick, he thought to himself, ‘How wonderful! With all the profit and acclaim I’ve gained, I can see to the welfare of fellow practitioners of the holy life.’ And he served the twofold saṅgha in accordance with the Dharma.
“One evening, one of his duties, that of serving the evening drink, fell instead to an arhat monk. After distributing the evening drink to the saṅgha, the arhat was weary, so he went to his quarters, crossed his legs, and sat down.
“The evening drink still needed to be served to the benefactors, who began to ask the other monks, ‘Whose turn is it today to serve the evening drink?’
“They replied that today it was the monk so-and-so’s turn. The one who was normally appointed to serve them, seething, closed his eyes as if asleep and said, ‘It’s the one whose eyes are like this—I’ll find him!’
“Having said this, he went to the arhat and said, ‘Lord, for your sake I’ve pleased all our benefactors and patrons, and respectfully served your every need. Now that you’ve enjoyed all I’ve given you in faith, do you come home to sit and sleep like a dog?’
“Thereupon the arhat thought, ‘It’s not right for this emotionally afflicted person, who has become so abased, to circle in saṃsāra and meet with great suffering.’ Reflecting in this way, he thought, ‘I have to help him.’
“With this thought he said to the monk, ‘Lord, do you know who I am? And do you know who you yourself are?’
“ ‘I know that you have gone forth,’ he replied, ‘as have I.’
“ ‘Though we two are like brothers in having gone forth,’ the arhat said, ‘you are an ordinary person, bound by every fetter, whereas I am an arhat, liberated from every fetter. You’ve spoken harshly to me. You must acknowledge your mistake. Otherwise you are certain to roam in saṃsāra and meet with great suffering.’
“Hearing his words, the monk was flooded with great regret. He bowed down at the monk’s feet, asked his forgiveness, and with renewed vigor offered his respectful service to the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha. All his life, he practiced pure conduct and served the saṅgha in accord with the Dharma.
“At the time of his death, he prayed, ‘Oh, but by the root of virtue of my having gone forth in the doctrine of the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa, my practice of pure conduct all my life, and the service I rendered in accord with the Dharma, wherever I am born, may it be into a family of great means, prosperity, and wealth! May I please and not displease Uttara, the young brahmin prophesied by the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa to be the next blessed buddha. Going forth in his doctrine alone, may I cast away all afflictive emotions and manifest arhatship. May I not meet with the results of the wrongful act of speaking harshly to fellow practitioners of the holy life.’
“O monks, what do you think? The one who was of service then is now the novice Little Eyes. The act of speaking harshly to the arhat ripened such that for five hundred lifetimes he took rebirth as a dog, and had the monk Śāriputra not thought of him, he would have taken rebirth only as a dog for five hundred more lifetimes.
“The act of becoming angry, closing his eyes in imitation of the arhat, and saying, ‘It’s the one whose eyes are like this—I’ll find him!’ ripened into his birth as a human being whose eyes were just like that. The act of praying at that time, ‘By this root of virtue, wherever I am born, may it be into a family of great means, prosperity, and wealth. May I please and not displease Uttara, the young brahmin prophesied by the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa to be the next blessed buddha. Going forth in his doctrine alone, may I cast away all afflictive emotions and manifest arhatship,’ ripened such that he was born into a family of great means, prosperity, and wealth.
“So it is, monks, now that I myself have become the very equal of the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa—equal in strength, equal in deeds, and equal in skillful means—that he has pleased me, not displeased me, go forth in my very doctrine, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifested arhatship.”
When the Blessed One was in Śrāvastī, there lived a certain householder, prosperous and wealthy, a person of vast and magnificent means, endowed with the wealth of Vaiśravaṇa—with wealth to rival Vaiśravaṇa’s. When the time came for him to marry he took a wife, and they enjoyed themselves and coupled. But even though they enjoyed themselves and coupled, they had no children.
They desired a son, so the householder supplicated the gods. He prayed to Paśupati, Varuṇa, Kubera, Śakra, Brahmā, and the rest, and to the deities of the pleasure groves, the forest deities, the deities of the crossroads, the deities of forks in the road, the deities who receive strewn oblations, the deities of his inherited tradition, and the deities who are in constant attendance of righteous persons.
While it is often said that praying to deities can cause a boy or a girl to be born, this is not true. If children could be made just by praying, every family would have them a thousand times over, like a universal monarch. In fact, there are three circumstances that allow for the birth of a child: a child is born when (1) lust arises in the parents and they have intercourse, (2) the mother still has her menstrual cycle and is approached by a gandharva, and (3) the gandharva’s mind is either attached or angry.
Still, the householder remained intent on his prayers, and a great being took birth in his wife’s womb who was well renowned and had gained his final birth, had the good fortune to soon be liberated due to gathering the accumulations, had his sights set on nirvāṇa and had turned away from saṃsāra, had no desire for the states of rebirth in cyclic existence, and who had now assumed his final body.
The sūtra The Hundred Deeds, whose title could also be translated as The Hundred Karmas, is a collection of stories known as avadāna—a narrative genre widely represented in the Sanskrit Buddhist literature and its derivatives—comprising more than 120 individual texts. It includes narratives of Buddha Śākyamuni’s notable deeds and foundational teachings, the stories of other well-known Buddhist figures, and a variety of other tales featuring people from all walks of ancient Indian life and beings from all six realms of existence. The texts sometimes include stretches of verse. In the majority of the stories the Buddha’s purpose in recounting the past lives of one or more individuals is to make definitive statements about the karmic ripening of actions across multiple lifetimes, and the sūtra is perhaps the best known of the many works in the Kangyur on this theme.
Translated by Dr. Lozang Jamspal (International Buddhist College, Thailand) and Kaia Fischer of the Tibetan Classics Translators Guild of New York (TCTGNY). Introduction by Nathan Mitchell, with additional material by the 84000 editorial team.
Warm thanks to Dr. Tom Tillemans, Dr. John Canti, Dr. James Gentry, Adam Krug, Ven. Konchog Norbu, Janna White, and all the readers and editors at 84000, for their wisdom; to Huang Jing Rui, Amy Ang, and the entire administration and staff at 84000, for their compassion; to readers Dr. Irene Cannon-Geary, Dr. Natalie M. Griffin, Tom Griffin, Norman Guberman, Margot Jarrett, Dr. David Kittay, Dr. Susan Landesman, Megan Mook, and Dr. Toy-Fung Tung, as well as to every member of TCTGNY, for their diligence and sincerity; to Caithlin De Marrais, Tinka Harvard, Laren McClung, and Erin Sperry, for their adept revisions to passages of verse; to Dr. Paul Hackett, for his linguistic and technical expertise; to Dr. Tenzin Robert Thurman and the late Prof. Dr. Michael Hahn, for their insight; to Dr. Lauran Hartley, for her capable assistance in researching the introduction; to Dr. Donald J. LaRocca, for his thoughtful clarification of terms pertaining to arms and armor; and to Jennifer E. Fischer, for her generosity in formatting the translation.
Special thanks to Ven. Wei Wu and all of the students, faculty, and staff of the International Buddhist College, Thailand, for their warm welcome of the senior translator Dr. Jamspal, and to Cynthia H. Wong, for her kindheartedness toward the junior translator Kaia Fischer.
Through the devoted attention of all may the Buddhadharma smile upon us for countless ages, safeguarded by knowledge of the classical Tibetan language.
The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
Work on this translation was rendered possible by the generous donations of a number of sponsors: Zhou Tian Yu, Chen Yi Qin, Irene Tillman, Archie Kao and Zhou Xun; 恒基伟业投资发展集团有限公司，李英、李杰、李明、李一全家; Thirty, Twenty and family; and Ye Kong, Helen Han, Karen Kong and family. Their help is most gratefully acknowledged.
The Hundred Deeds is a collection of stories or avadāna, a narrative genre widely represented in the Sanskrit Buddhist literature and its derivatives. The term avadāna can be analyzed and understood in several ways. One common interpretation is “legend,” but that understanding is perhaps too rigid, as well as too romantic, for what could be described as religious or spiritual biography. The general intention of avadāna literature is to elicit faith and devotion in the reader through an object lesson in karmic cause and effect: how, for example, a noble act motivated by faith and devotion toward the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha), or toward another object of veneration, yields a good result, while the result of an ignoble act is dreadful. Historically, the specific functions of avadāna literature were to propagate Buddhism and to provide inspiration and preliminary education in the Dharma, particularly for laypersons and the recently ordained. It can still perform these functions today.
The collection was written at the beginning of the Common Era, and is most likely the product of the Sarvāstivādin school of Mahāyāna Buddhism; it is thus likely to have originated in the northwest of India in the vicinity of Kashmir. Léon Feer, a late nineteenth century scholar of The Hundred Deeds, suggests that the Sarvāstivādins were not responsible for the Sanskrit text, but does not offer any indication of which school he believes may have been responsible. Whatever the case may be, the Tibetan text closely resembles the texts of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya found in the Kangyur in its wording and in its structural format—in parts, each with its list of contents. Indeed it shares with that corpus a large number of passages, not only stock phrases and modular passages but also whole episodes.
The Hundred Deeds survives exclusively in Tibetan translation; the original Sanskrit version is no longer extant. The Tibetan has no translator’s colophon, and there is no direct evidence of when, or by whom, it was made. It may possibly have been first translated somewhat before the major imperial translation project of the early period began; several sources, including Butön’s History of the Dharma, mention that it was translated by Drenka (bran ka) Mūlakośa and Nyak Jñānakumāra during the reign of the father and immediate predecessor of King Trisong Detsen, King Tridé Tsuktsen (khri lde gtsug btsan, r. 705–55
There are two accounts of how the text was saved from destruction during the period of upheaval around the reign of Langdarma (r. 836–42
There is another collection of broadly similar narratives, the Avadānaśataka, that is perhaps the closest kin of The Hundred Deeds in terms of style and content, and thus may serve as a primary reference point for comparison and contrast. The temporal relationship between the two collections, as well as the seniority of one collection over the other, is a matter for debate. The Avadānaśataka has a definite plan and a clear, orderly structure: it has ten chapters, each containing ten stories based on a common theme, giving a total of one hundred stories. Although The Hundred Deeds is similarly divided into ten parts, it lacks the Avadānaśataka’s structural adherence to round numbers and its more developed thematic arrangement; The Hundred Deeds contains approximately 127 stories by Feer’s count (of these, some fifteen are also in the Avadānaśataka), and the collection is not organized around fixed sets of common themes.
The Hundred Deeds is not entirely lacking in thematic structure, however. The stories in the eighth chapter share a common theme, that of prophecy (vyākaraṇa), the same as the first chapter of the Avadānaśataka. Each prophecy is essentially an “explanation” of a person’s future buddhahood. The primary aspect that differentiates vyākaraṇa avadānas from the majority of other avadānas is that they end with a prophecy rather than in fulfillment; that is, the protagonist of each vyākaraṇa avadāna will certainly achieve enlightenment, but not by the story’s end.
Furthermore, most of the texts in The Hundred Deeds share a basic structure. In general, a given text will begin with a narrative from the time of Buddha Śākyamuni, at the conclusion of which Śākyamuni explains to his monks which of the characters’ previous actions caused the present state of events. This explanation then leads to a second narrative, and occasionally also a third, within the same text. Through these interconnecting stories, the text gives practical examples of karmic cause and effect.
The presence of the bodhisattva vow (pranidhāna) further differentiates The Hundred Deeds from the Avadānaśataka. In the present collection, the bodhisattva vow appears some ninety times, and in the Avadānaśataka only fourteen times. The preeminence of the bodhisattva vow in The Hundred Deeds would certainly seem to place it closer to the work of the Mahāsāṅghika school. However, some scholars believe these are later interpolations in what was originally a Sarvāstivādin text.
While calling attention to the relative lack of thematic structure in The Hundred Deeds, Feer nonetheless classifies several of the collection’s stories using the following categories: parallel, jātaka, and historical avadānas. The parallel avadānas are those in which both the past and present tales are essentially the same, with the common narrative generally lacking karmic punishment or reward. The jātaka (Buddha’s “birth story”) avadānas are further subdivided into partial and “pure” jātakas. The avadānas not considered “pure” are those in which the Buddha acts as protagonist for only a portion of the tale of the past. The historical avadānas are those that feature well-known Buddhist figures as protagonists or secondary characters as well as events from the history of Buddhism. These categories are by no means discrete; there are several instances in which Feer cites a single story as belonging to two categories, if not all three.
The present English translation is based mainly on the Tibetan text of the Degé Kangyur; other Kangyurs were consulted where the Degé reading called for further investigation. Where one folio of the text was missing in the Degé Kangyur (vol. 73, folio 12a, see notes), the corresponding passage in the Stok Palace Kangyur was used to complete it.
[V73] [B1] I prostrate to the All-Knowing One.
When the Blessed One was in Śrāvastī there lived a certain householder, prosperous and wealthy, a person of vast and magnificent means, endowed with the wealth of Vaiśravaṇa—with wealth to rival Vaiśravaṇa’s—who was fond of philosophical extremists.
When the time came for him to marry he took a wife, and they enjoyed themselves and coupled. As they enjoyed themselves and coupled, one day his wife conceived. After nine or ten months had passed, she gave birth to a child who was well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, and beautiful, with glowing, golden skin, a well-rounded head, long arms, a broad brow, a fine and prominent nose, and eyebrows that met. At the elaborate feast celebrating his birth they named him according to their clan.
They reared him on milk, yogurt, butter, ghee, and milk solids, and he flourished like a lotus in a lake. Once he was able to walk, his father brought home a little puppy for him to play with. Any time the puppy saw philosophical extremists, she would run and bite at them, sometimes tearing their robes. But when she saw Buddhist monastics she would trot up, lick their feet, and circumambulate them clockwise while wagging her tail.
The buddhas, the blessed ones, teachers of the one path to be traversed, with mastery over wisdom and the two types of knowable objects, in command of the three kinds of sterling equanimity, fearless by means of the fourfold fearlessness, freed from migration through the five destinies, keen in the six sense bases, practiced in the seven limbs of enlightenment, focused on the eight liberations, absorbed in the nine successive meditative absorptions, possessing all ten of the ten powers, whose proclamations are the great roaring of a perfect lion, by nature regard the world with their buddha eyes six times throughout the day and night—three times by day and three times by night.
These are their thoughts as they look out in wisdom: “Who is in decline? Who will flourish? Who is destitute? Who is in a dreadful state? Who is being harmed? Who is destitute, in a dreadful state, and being harmed? Who is veering toward the lower realms? Who is descending through the lower realms? Who has descended to the lower realms? Whom shall I pull up from the lower realms, and establish in the resultant state of heaven and liberation? Whom, mired in misdeeds, shall I lift up by the hand? Whom, lacking the seven jewels of the noble ones, shall I lead to command of the seven jewels of the noble ones? Whom, not having produced roots of virtue, shall I lead to produce them? Whom, having already produced roots of virtue, shall I lead to ripen their roots of virtue? Whom, having already ripened their roots of virtue, shall I slice open with the blade of wisdom? For whom shall I cause this world, adorned with a buddha’s presence, to be fruitful?”
Just as the buddhas, the blessed ones, regard the world with their buddha eyes six times throughout the day and night—three times by day and three times by night—so too the great disciples of the buddhas regard the world with disciples’ eyes six times throughout the day and night—three times by day and three times by night. When Venerable Śāriputra regarded the world with his disciple’s eyes, he knew that the time had come to tame the householder and his retinue. In the morning he donned his lower garment and Dharma robes, and, carrying his alms bowl, he went for alms in Śrāvastī.
As he went for alms, Śāriputra eventually came to the home of that householder. As soon as the dog saw him from a distance, she jumped up and ran right up to Śāriputra, just as she had with the other monks. She very respectfully licked his feet and circumambulated him three times while wagging her tail.
The householder saw all this and thought, “My! This one has fallen so low as to possess the body of a dog. If even she thinks to pay him such esteem, then surely this monk is a great being. I should invite this monk and offer him food.” Reflecting in this way he approached Venerable Śāriputra, bowed down at Śāriputra’s feet, and said, “Lord Śāriputra, whatever food you need, please take it here.” Venerable Śāriputra assented by his silence.
Understanding that by his silence Venerable Śāriputra had given his assent, the householder then prepared a seat for Venerable Śāriputra and said, “Venerable Śāriputra, please sit upon the seat that I have prepared,” whereupon Venerable Śāriputra sat on the seat prepared for him.
Once the householder knew that Venerable Śāriputra was comfortably seated, by his own hand he contented him with many good, wholesome foods, proffering all that he wished. After he had contented him with many different kinds of good, wholesome foods by his own hand, and had proffered all that he wished, once he knew that Venerable Śāriputra had finished eating and that his bowl had been taken away and his hands washed, he sat before him to listen to the Dharma.
Venerable Śāriputra directly apprehended the thoughts, habitual tendencies, temperament, and nature of the householder and his retinue, and taught them the Dharma accordingly.
When they heard it, the householder and his retinue destroyed with the thunderbolt of wisdom the twenty high peaks of the mountain of views concerning the transitory collection, and manifested the resultant state of stream entry. Having seen the truths, they went for refuge and took the fundamental precepts. After Venerable Śāriputra had instructed, encouraged, inspired, and delighted the householder with a discourse on the Dharma, he rose from his seat and departed.
Having seen the truths, the householder began to give gifts and make merit such that his home became like an open well for those in need. The householder invited Śāriputra to take food at his home again and again. Venerable Śāriputra and the householder would give food to the dog, and the householder would sit before Venerable Śāriputra to listen to the Dharma. The dog too would sit down before Venerable Śāriputra and listen to the Dharma. The householder reflected, “Such good things I have realized, and all on account of this dog!” Realizing this, he took very good care of her.
One day the dog fell ill, and Śāriputra said to her, “And so it is, child: All conditioned things are impermanent. All conditioned things are suffering. All phenomena are selfless. Nirvāṇa is peace. Let your mind be filled with joy at the thought of me, and you may even be released from rebirth in the animal realm.” With that, Venerable Śāriputra departed.
Not long after he had gone, the dog died, filled with joy at the thought of Venerable Śāriputra. After she died, she took rebirth in the same house, in the womb of the householder’s foremost wife.
When the dog died, Venerable Śāriputra returned to the house, where the householder informed him, “Lord Śāriputra, our dog has passed away.”
“Keep the dog’s body in a secluded place,” Venerable Śāriputra instructed, “for those bones will be of benefit to her later on.”
“As you wish, Lord Śāriputra,” said the householder, and the householder put the dog’s dead body in a place where no one would see it.
After nine or ten months had passed, the householder’s wife gave birth to a child who was well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, and beautiful, with glowing, golden skin and a well-rounded head, long arms, a broad brow, a fine and prominent nose, and eyebrows that met. At the elaborate feast celebrating her birth they named her according to their clan. They reared her on milk, yogurt, butter, ghee, and milk solids, and she flourished like a lotus in a lake.
When she had grown, Venerable Śāriputra told her, “Child, sit and listen to the Dharma,” but she had become arrogant on account of her well-proportioned shape and youthfulness, and was so distracted that she was unable to listen to the Dharma. One day Venerable Śāriputra recognized how to uncover her potential. He set the bones of the dog in front of her, and blessed the young woman in such a way that she remembered her former lives.
Recalling her former lives, the young woman was overcome with grief and thought, “Look at the difficult task Noble Śāriputra has done for me! Thanks to him I have been freed from the realms of animal birth.” At this thought she was filled with happiness, and sat before Venerable Śāriputra to listen to the Dharma.
Then Venerable Śāriputra, directly apprehending her thoughts, habitual tendencies, temperament, and nature, taught her the Dharma accordingly. Hearing it, the young woman destroyed with the thunderbolt of wisdom the twenty high peaks of the mountain of views concerning the transitory collection, and manifested the resultant state of stream entry right where she sat.
Having seen the truths, she rose from her seat, drew down the right shoulder of her upper garment, bowed to Venerable Śāriputra with her palms together, and implored him, “Lord Śāriputra, if permitted, I wish to go forth in the Dharma and Vinaya so well spoken, complete my novitiate, and achieve full ordination. I too wish to practice the holy life in the presence of the Blessed One.”
Venerable Śāriputra told her parents of her faith and then presented her to Mahāprajāpatī, who led her to go forth as a novice, ordained her, and gave her instruction. Casting away all afflictive emotions through diligence, practice, and effort, she manifested arhatship. As an arhat, free of the attachments of the three realms, her mind regarded gold no differently than filth, and the palms of her hands as like space itself. She became cool like wet sandalwood. Her insight crushed ignorance like an eggshell. She achieved the insights, superknowledges, and discriminations. She had no regard for worldly profit, passion, or acclaim. She became an object of offering, veneration, and respectful address by Indra, Upendra, and the other gods.
Now an arhat, she remembered Venerable Śāriputra’s previous kindness and approached him again and again, prostrating herself at his feet and saying, “Thanks to Noble Śāriputra, I was freed from the realms of animal birth and achieved great virtues. It is all due to the difficult task the noble one has done for me.”
Many monks overheard her saying this over and over again, and immediately asked Venerable Śāriputra, “Venerable Śāriputra, what is this nun thinking, saying this over and over again?”
“Did you see the puppy at the householder’s home?” Venerable Śāriputra asked.
“Yes, Lord Śāriputra, we did,” they replied.
“The very same one died filled with joy at the thought of me and was reborn in the home of that householder. Now that she remembers her former lives, she speaks these words to me to acknowledge that previous kindness.”
The monks inquired of the Blessed One, “Lord, what was the action this nun performed that ripened into her birth as a dog? What did she do after she died and took rebirth as a human being that she pleased and did not displease the Blessed One, went forth in the Blessed One’s doctrine, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifested arhatship?”
The Blessed One replied, “Monks, it was partly her past actions, and it is partly her present actions as well.”
“Lord, what action did she take in the past?”
“Monks, in times past, in this fortunate eon, when people lived as long as twenty thousand years and the tathāgata, the arhat, the totally and completely awakened buddha possessed of insight and perfect conduct, the sugata, the knower of the world, the tamer of persons, the charioteer, the unsurpassed one, the teacher of humans and gods, the blessed buddha known as Kāśyapa was in the world, there lived a certain householder in the city of Vārāṇasī.
“One day a child was born to him who was well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, and beautiful. As she grew up she gained faith in the doctrine of the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa and asked her parents if she could go forth. Once she had gone forth, she studied the Tripiṭaka and became a proponent of the Dharma with all the eloquence of her wisdom and freedom.
“Having acquired provisions of clothing, food, bedding, a seat, and medicines for the sick, she thought, ‘How wonderful! With all the profit and acclaim I’ve gained, I can see to the welfare of fellow practitioners of the holy life.’ And she served the twofold saṅgha in accordance with the Dharma.
“One day when she was busy, she asked for help from a group of nuns who were on the paths of learning and no more to learn. They replied, ‘We cannot abandon our virtuous works to accomplish your task.’
“When she heard this she bristled with fury. Seething, the nun shouted at them, ‘You’re like dogs! All I do is look after you and fill your stomachs—can you not help me for even a moment?’
“Thereupon the nuns thought, ‘It’s not right for this emotionally afflicted person, so abased, to circle in saṃsāra and meet with great suffering.’ Reflecting in this way, they thought, ‘We have to help her,’ and asked, ‘Do you know who we are? And do you know who you yourself are?’
“ ‘I know,’ she replied, ‘that you have gone forth, as have I.’
“The nuns responded, ‘Though as your elder sisters we have gone forth as you have, you are an ordinary person, bound by every fetter, whereas we have accomplished our task. So acknowledge your mistake as such. Otherwise you are certain to roam in saṃsāra and meet with great suffering.’
“Hearing their words, the nun was flooded with regret, and with renewed vigor she offered her respectful service to the twofold saṅgha and practiced pure conduct all her life.
“At the time of her death, she prayed, ‘Oh, but by the root of virtue of my having gone forth in the doctrine of the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa, my lifetime of practicing pure conduct, and the service I rendered in accord with the Dharma, wherever I am born, may it be into a family of great means, prosperity, and wealth. May I be well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, and beautiful. May I please and not displease Uttara, the young brahmin prophesied by the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa to be the next blessed buddha. Going forth in his doctrine alone, may I cast away all afflictive emotions and manifest arhatship. May I not meet with the results of the act of speaking harshly to those fellow practitioners of the holy life.’
“O monks, what do you think? The one who was that nun then is now this nun. The ripening of the act of speaking harshly to those fellow practitioners of the holy life caused her to be reborn as a dog for five hundred lifetimes. At the time of her death she prayed, ‘Wherever I am born, may it be into a family of great means, prosperity, and wealth. May I please and not displease Uttara, the young brahmin prophesied by the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa to be the next blessed buddha. Going forth in his doctrine alone, may I cast away all afflictive emotions and manifest arhatship.’ And that action ripened such that she was born into a family of great means, prosperity, and wealth.
“So it is, monks, now that I myself have become the very equal of the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa—equal in strength, equal in deeds, and equal in skillful means—that she has pleased me, not displeased me, go forth in my very doctrine, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifested arhatship. These were her past actions.
“You may ask, ‘What are her present actions?’ Born as a dog, she was filled with joy at the thought of Śāriputra. Because of this she took birth among humans. These are her present actions.”
When the Blessed One was in Śrāvastī there lived a certain householder, prosperous and wealthy, a person of vast and magnificent means, endowed with the wealth of Vaiśravaṇa—with wealth to rival Vaiśravaṇa’s. When the time came for him to marry he took a wife, and as they enjoyed themselves and coupled, one day his wife conceived. After nine or ten months had passed, she gave birth to a child who was well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, and beautiful. At the elaborate feast celebrating his birth they named him according to their clan.
They reared him on milk, yogurt, butter, ghee, and milk solids, and once he was able to walk, his father brought home a puppy and gave it to the child to play with. The child taught the puppy how to eat, and when the puppy had grown, he went out to the road and many others fed him as well.
The buddhas, the blessed ones, teachers of the one path to be traversed, with mastery over wisdom and the two types of knowable objects, in command of the three kinds of sterling equanimity, fearless by means of the fourfold fearlessness, freed from migration through the five destinies, keen in the six sense bases, practiced in the seven limbs of enlightenment, focused on the eight liberations, absorbed in the nine successive meditative absorptions, possessing all ten of the ten powers, whose proclamations are the great roaring of a perfect lion, by nature regard the world with their buddha eyes six times throughout the day and night—three times by day and three times by night.
These are their thoughts as they look out in wisdom: “Who is in decline? Who will flourish? Who is destitute? Who is in a dreadful state? Who is being harmed? Who is destitute, in a dreadful state, and being harmed? Who is veering toward the lower realms? Who is descending through the lower realms? Who has descended to the lower realms? Whom shall I pull up from the lower realms, and establish in the resultant state of heaven and liberation? Whom, mired in misdeeds, shall I lift up by the hand? Whom, lacking the seven jewels of the noble ones, shall I lead to command of the seven jewels of the noble ones? Whom, not having produced roots of virtue, shall I lead to produce them? Whom, having already produced roots of virtue, shall I lead to ripen their roots of virtue? Whom, having already ripened their roots of virtue, shall I slice open with the blade of wisdom? For whom shall I cause this world, adorned with a buddha’s presence, to be fruitful?”
Just as the blessed buddhas regard the world with their buddha eyes six times throughout the day and night—three times by day and three times by night—so too the great listeners regard the world with their listener’s eyes six times throughout the day and night—three times by day and three times by night. When Venerable Śāriputra regarded the world with his listener’s eyes, he knew that the time had come to tame the householder and his retinue.
In the morning he donned his lower garment and Dharma robes, and, carrying his alms bowl, he went for alms in Śrāvastī. As he went for alms, Venerable Śāriputra eventually came to the home of that householder. The dog caught sight of Venerable Śāriputra, ran with all his might, bit him, and tore his Dharma robes. The householder saw this and immediately stopped the dog. When he had washed Venerable Śāriputra’s wounds and wrapped them with cloth, he bowed down at his feet and implored him, “Lord Śāriputra, please take your food here.” Venerable Śāriputra assented to the householder by his silence.
Understanding that by his silence Venerable Śāriputra had given his assent, the householder then prepared a seat for him and said, “Venerable Śāriputra, please sit upon the seat that I have prepared,” and Venerable Śāriputra sat on the seat prepared for him. Once the householder knew that Venerable Śāriputra was comfortably seated, by his own hand he contented him with many good, wholesome foods, proffering all that he wished.
After the householder had contented him with many different kinds of good, wholesome foods by his own hand, and had proffered all that he wished, Venerable Śāriputra partook of the day’s meal and gave his remaining food to the dog. When he had finished eating it, the dog looked up at Venerable Śāriputra’s face. Once the householder knew that Venerable Śāriputra had finished eating and that his bowl had been taken away and his hands washed, he sat before him to listen to the Dharma.
Venerable Śāriputra directly apprehended the thoughts, habitual tendencies, temperament, and nature of the householder and his retinue, and taught them the Dharma accordingly. After hearing it, the householder and his retinue destroyed with the thunderbolt of wisdom the twenty high peaks of the mountain of views concerning the transitory collection, and manifested the resultant state of stream entry right where they sat. Having seen the truths, they went for refuge and took the fundamental precepts.
“Lord Śāriputra,” said the householder, “for as long as I live, please accept from me your provisions of clothing, food, bedding, seat, and medicines to cure the sick.”
Śāriputra replied, “There are other householders I must help as well. Please allow me to go.” At this, he rose from his seat and departed.
After the householder had seen the truths, gone for refuge, and taken the fundamental precepts, he began to give gifts and make merit. From time to time he would also extend an invitation to Venerable Śāriputra and make food for him. After eating, Venerable Śāriputra would give the remaining food to the dog.
The dog was very happy with Venerable Śāriputra. He was so happy that whenever Venerable Śāriputra came to the house, he greeted him, licked his feet, and circumambulated him three times while wagging his tail. Whenever Venerable Śāriputra came to give a Dharma talk and the time came for him to leave, the dog escorted him a little distance, then circumambulated him three times before he went away.
One day Venerable Śāriputra came to the house again, took his food, and gave a Dharma talk to the householder. As he was departing, the dog followed him outside onto the main road, licked his feet, and circumambulated him three times while wagging his tail. As the dog was returning to the house, some other dogs tore him apart, killing him. He died filled with joy at the thought of the elder monk Śāriputra, transmigrated, and took rebirth in the same house, in the womb of the householder’s wife.
Venerable Śāriputra knew just how the dog had been killed by the other dogs after they had parted. He contemplated where the dog would take rebirth, and saw that it would be in the same house, in the womb of the householder’s wife. Upon seeing this, out of love for the dog he went to the householder’s home alone, without attendants.
The householder saw that Venerable Śāriputra was alone, without companions or attendants, and he inquired, “Noble one, why have you come here alone, without companions or attendants? Noble one, is there no one at all who could attend you?”
“Where shall we find attendants, if one such as yourself does not grant them to us?” replied Venerable Śāriputra.
The householder said to him, “Lord Śāriputra, my wife has conceived, so if we have a son, noble one, I shall offer him to you as an attendant.”
“The virtuous keep their promises,” said Venerable Śāriputra. Having spoken thus, Venerable Śāriputra departed.
After nine or ten months had passed, the householder’s wife gave birth to a child who was well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, and beautiful, though his eyes were small. At the elaborate feast celebrating his birth they asked, “What name should we give this child?” And they named him, saying, “Since the child’s eyes are small, his name will be Little Eyes.”
They reared young Little Eyes on milk, yogurt, butter, ghee, and milk solids, and he flourished like a lotus in a lake. As he grew up he studied letters, tallying, and arithmetic; the study of seals, lending, deposits, and commerce; and the examination of cloth, jewels, gems, incense, medicine, elephants, horses, and arms and armor. He became skilled in writing, skilled at reading, learned, decisive, industrious, a master of the eight types of examination.
One day Venerable Śāriputra saw that the time had come for Little Eyes to go forth. In the morning he donned his lower garment and Dharma robes, and, carrying his alms bowl, he went for alms in Śrāvastī. As he went for alms, he eventually came to the householder’s home, and there sat on the seat prepared for him.
After he had taken his seat, Venerable Śāriputra reminded the householder, “Householder, before this child was born you granted him to me as an attendant. The virtuous keep their promises, do they not? Didn’t you yourself make such a promise?”
“Yes, noble one, I did make just such a promise,” the householder replied, and he took the child by his two hands, offered him to Venerable Śāriputra, and told him, “Child, before you were born, I offered you to the noble one. Therefore go, and be an attendant of the noble one.”
The child said, “This will be of benefit to me,” and with those words he followed Venerable Śāriputra away.
Venerable Śāriputra brought the child to the monastery, where he led him to go forth as a novice and instructed him. Still in his novitiate, the child cast away all afflictive emotions through diligence, practice, and effort, and manifested arhatship. As an arhat, free from the attachments of the three realms, his mind regarded gold no differently than filth, and the palms of his hands as like space itself. He became cool like wet sandalwood. His insight crushed ignorance like an eggshell. He achieved the insights, superknowledges, and discriminations. He had no regard for worldly profit, passion, or acclaim. He became an object of offering, veneration, and respectful address by Indra, Upendra, and the other gods.
One time after he had attained arhatship, he saw scars on Venerable Śāriputra’s feet as he was anointing them and asked, “Preceptor, how did you get these scars?”
“Child,” Venerable Śāriputra told him, “think on how I got these scars.”
“I see it was I who bit him in a previous life as a dog,” thought the novice. “And I see the life from which I died, transmigrated, and took rebirth as a dog.” He saw that he had died and taken rebirth as that dog, and he also saw that for five hundred lifetimes he had died as a dog, transmigrated, and taken rebirth only as a dog.
He thought, “Had my preceptor not thought of me, where would I have taken rebirth in the future when I died there and transmigrated?” Reflecting in this way, he saw himself taking birth again as that very dog. In the same way he saw himself for five hundred future lives dying, transmigrating, and taking birth over and over only as a dog.
“It was he who saved me from falling so low!” he thought further. “By establishing me in the unsurpassed, supreme welfare of nirvāṇa, my preceptor undertook a difficult task for me, over and over again. What method is there to repay the kindness of one’s preceptor, other than service and respect? When I take full ordination I won’t be able to offer such service—but oh! By remaining a novice for as long as I live I can continue to serve him respectfully.”
With this in mind, he said to Venerable Śāriputra, “Preceptor, for as long as I live I shall serve my preceptor with respect,” and Śāriputra replied, “Do as you wish, my child.”
One day the monks asked him, “Little Eyes, why don’t you take full ordination?”
“I must repay the kindness of my preceptor,” he told them. “By remaining a novice for as long as I live, I shall be able to serve him respectfully.”
“What particular kindness did your preceptor do for you?” they asked.
He told the monks the story in detail, whereupon the monks inquired of the Blessed Buddha, “Lord, what action did Little Eyes take that ripened into his birth as a dog, such that, if Venerable Śāriputra had not thought of him, he would have taken rebirth only as a dog for five hundred lifetimes, and what action did he take that once he had died as a dog he transmigrated and took birth once again as a human into a family of great means, prosperity, and wealth? What action did he take that he pleased the Blessed One, did not displease him, went forth in the doctrine of the Blessed One, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifested arhatship? What action did he take that ripened into his having small eyes?”
“Monks,” explained the Blessed One, “Little Eyes committed and accumulated the actions himself at a previous time. Monks, the actions that he committed and accumulated did not ripen into the external element of earth. They did not ripen into the element of water, nor the element of fire, nor the element of wind. The actions he committed and accumulated, both virtuous and nonvirtuous, ripened into nothing but his own aggregates, sense bases, and constituent elements.
“Monks, in times past, in this fortunate eon, when people lived as long as twenty thousand years and the tathāgata, the arhat, the totally and completely awakened buddha possessed of insight and perfect conduct, the sugata, the knower of the world, the tamer of persons, the charioteer, the unsurpassed one, the teacher of humans and gods, the blessed buddha known as Kāśyapa was in the world, there lived in the city of Vārāṇasī a certain householder, prosperous and wealthy, a person of vast and magnificent means, endowed with the wealth of Vaiśravaṇa—with wealth to rival Vaiśravaṇa’s.
“One day his wife conceived, and after nine or ten months had passed, she gave birth to a child who was well proportioned, pleasing to the eye, and beautiful. When he grew up he found faith in the doctrine of the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa, and after asking for his parents’ permission, went forth.
“Once he had gone forth, he studied the Tripiṭaka and became a proponent of the Dharma with all the eloquence of his wisdom and freedom. Having acquired provisions of clothing, food, bedding, a seat, and medicines for the sick, he thought to himself, ‘How wonderful! With all the profit and acclaim I’ve gained, I can see to the welfare of fellow practitioners of the holy life.’ And he served the twofold saṅgha in accordance with the Dharma.
“One evening, one of his duties, that of serving the evening drink, fell instead to an arhat monk. After distributing the evening drink to the saṅgha, the arhat was weary, so he went to his quarters, crossed his legs, and sat down.
“The evening drink still needed to be served to the benefactors, who began to ask the other monks, ‘Whose turn is it today to serve the evening drink?’
“They replied that today it was the monk so-and-so’s turn. The one who was normally appointed to serve them, seething, closed his eyes as if asleep and said, ‘It’s the one whose eyes are like this—I’ll find him!’
“Having said this, he went to the arhat and said, ‘Lord, for your sake I’ve pleased all our benefactors and patrons, and respectfully served your every need. Now that you’ve enjoyed all I’ve given you in faith, do you come home to sit and sleep like a dog?’
“Thereupon the arhat thought, ‘It’s not right for this emotionally afflicted person, who has become so abased, to circle in saṃsāra and meet with great suffering.’ Reflecting in this way, he thought, ‘I have to help him.’
“With this thought he said to the monk, ‘Lord, do you know who I am? And do you know who you yourself are?’
“ ‘I know that you have gone forth,’ he replied, ‘as have I.’
“ ‘Though we two are like brothers in having gone forth,’ the arhat said, ‘you are an ordinary person, bound by every fetter, whereas I am an arhat, liberated from every fetter. You’ve spoken harshly to me. You must acknowledge your mistake. Otherwise you are certain to roam in saṃsāra and meet with great suffering.’
“Hearing his words, the monk was flooded with great regret. He bowed down at the monk’s feet, asked his forgiveness, and with renewed vigor offered his respectful service to the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha. All his life, he practiced pure conduct and served the saṅgha in accord with the Dharma.
“At the time of his death, he prayed, ‘Oh, but by the root of virtue of my having gone forth in the doctrine of the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa, my practice of pure conduct all my life, and the service I rendered in accord with the Dharma, wherever I am born, may it be into a family of great means, prosperity, and wealth! May I please and not displease Uttara, the young brahmin prophesied by the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa to be the next blessed buddha. Going forth in his doctrine alone, may I cast away all afflictive emotions and manifest arhatship. May I not meet with the results of the wrongful act of speaking harshly to fellow practitioners of the holy life.’
“O monks, what do you think? The one who was of service then is now the novice Little Eyes. The act of speaking harshly to the arhat ripened such that for five hundred lifetimes he took rebirth as a dog, and had the monk Śāriputra not thought of him, he would have taken rebirth only as a dog for five hundred more lifetimes.
“The act of becoming angry, closing his eyes in imitation of the arhat, and saying, ‘It’s the one whose eyes are like this—I’ll find him!’ ripened into his birth as a human being whose eyes were just like that. The act of praying at that time, ‘By this root of virtue, wherever I am born, may it be into a family of great means, prosperity, and wealth. May I please and not displease Uttara, the young brahmin prophesied by the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa to be the next blessed buddha. Going forth in his doctrine alone, may I cast away all afflictive emotions and manifest arhatship,’ ripened such that he was born into a family of great means, prosperity, and wealth.
“So it is, monks, now that I myself have become the very equal of the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa—equal in strength, equal in deeds, and equal in skillful means—that he has pleased me, not displeased me, go forth in my very doctrine, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifested arhatship.”
When the Blessed One was in Śrāvastī, there lived a certain householder, prosperous and wealthy, a person of vast and magnificent means, endowed with the wealth of Vaiśravaṇa—with wealth to rival Vaiśravaṇa’s. When the time came for him to marry he took a wife, and they enjoyed themselves and coupled. But even though they enjoyed themselves and coupled, they had no children.
They desired a son, so the householder supplicated the gods. He prayed to Paśupati, Varuṇa, Kubera, Śakra, Brahmā, and the rest, and to the deities of the pleasure groves, the forest deities, the deities of the crossroads, the deities of forks in the road, the deities who receive strewn oblations, the deities of his inherited tradition, and the deities who are in constant attendance of righteous persons.
While it is often said that praying to deities can cause a boy or a girl to be born, this is not true. If children could be made just by praying, every family would have them a thousand times over, like a universal monarch. In fact, there are three circumstances that allow for the birth of a child: a child is born when (1) lust arises in the parents and they have intercourse, (2) the mother still has her menstrual cycle and is approached by a gandharva, and (3) the gandharva’s mind is either attached or angry.
Still, the householder remained intent on his prayers, and a great being took birth in his wife’s womb who was well renowned and had gained his final birth, had the good fortune to soon be liberated due to gathering the accumulations, had his sights set on nirvāṇa and had turned away from saṃsāra, had no desire for the states of rebirth in cyclic existence, and who had now assumed his final body.