A Record Of Buddhistic Kingdoms - Being An Account By The Chinese Monk Fa-hien Of His Travels In India And Ceylon (a.d. 399-414) By James Legge
- Page 149 of 190 - First - Home
The Fire Was Extinguished, And
The Water Became Cold.
In the middle (of the caldron) there rose up a
lotus flower, with the bhikshu seated on it.
The lictors at once went
and reported to the king that there was a marvellous occurrence in the
naraka, and wished him to go and see it; but the king said, "I
formerly made such an agreement that now I dare not go (to the
place)." The lictors said, "This is not a small matter. Your majesty
ought to go quickly. Let your former agreement be altered." The king
thereupon followed them, and entered (the naraka), when the bhikshu
preached the Law to him, and he believed, and was made free.[5]
Forthwith he demolished the naraka, and repented of all the evil which
he had formerly done. From this time he believed in and honoured the
Three Precious Ones, and constantly went to a patra tree, repenting
under it, with self-reproach, of his errors, and accepting the eight
rules of abstinence.[6]
The queen asked where the king was constantly going to, and the
ministers replied that he was constantly to be seen under (such and
such) a patra tree. She watched for a time when the king was not
there, and then sent men to cut the tree down. When the king came, and
saw what had been done, he swooned away with sorrow, and fell to the
ground. His ministers sprinkled water on his face, and after a
considerable time he revived.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 149 of 190
Words from 39780 to 40032
of 51126
