"Two black lions" indeed crouched before him for a time
this night, "licking their lips and waving their tails;" but their
appearance was to "try," and not to attack him; and when they saw him
resolute, they "drooped their heads, put down their tails, and
prostrated themselves before him." This of course is not an historical
account, but a legendary tribute to his bold perseverance.
CHAPTER XXX
THE SRATAPARNA CAVE, OR CAVE OF THE FIRST COUNCIL. LEGENDS.
SUICIDE OF A BHIKSHU.
Out from the old city, after walking over 300 paces, on the west of
the road, (the travellers) found the Karanda Bamboo garden,[1] where
the (old) vihara is still in existence, with a company of monks, who
keep (the ground about it) swept and watered.
North of the vihara two or three le there was the Smasanam, which name
means in Chinese "the field of graves into which the dead are
thrown."[2]
As they kept along the mountain on the south, and went west for 300
paces, they found a dwelling among the rocks, named the Pippala
cave,[3] in which Buddha regularly sat in meditation after taking his
(midday) meal.
Going on still to the west for five or six le, on the north of the
hill, in the shade, they found the cavern called Srataparna,[4] the
place where, after the nirvana[5] of Buddha, 500 Arhats collected the
Sutras. When they brought the Sutras forth, three lofty seats[6] had
been prepared and grandly ornamented. Sariputtra occupied the one on
the left, and Maudgalyayana that on the right. Of the number of five
hundred one was wanting. Mahakasyapa was president (on the middle
seat). Amanda was then outside the door, and could not get in.[7] At
the place there was (subsequently) raised a tope, which is still
existing.
Along (the sides of) the hill, there are also a very great many cells
among the rocks, where the various Arhans sat and meditated. As you
leave the old city on the north, and go down east for three le, there
is the rock dwelling of Devadatta, and at a distance of fifty paces
from it there is a large, square, black rock. Formerly there was a
bhikshu, who, as he walked backwards and forwards upon it, thought
with himself: - "This body[8] is impermanent, a thing of bitterness and
vanity,[9] and which cannot be looked on as pure.[10] I am weary of
this body, and troubled by it as an evil." With this he grasped a
knife, and was about to kill himself. But he thought again: - "The
World-honoured one laid down a prohibition against one's killing
himself."[11] Further it occurred to him: - "Yes, he did; but I now
only wish to kill three poisonous thieves."[12] Immediately with the
knife he cut his throat. With the first gash into the flesh he
attained the state of a Srotapanna;[13] when he had gone half through,
he attained to be an Anagamin;[14] and when he had cut right through,
he was an Arhat, and attained to pari-nirvana;[15] (and died).
NOTES
[1] Karanda Venuvana; a park presented to Buddha by king Bimbisara,
who also built a vihara in it. See the account of the transaction in
M. B., p. 194. The place was called Karanda, from a creature so named,
which awoke the king just as a snake was about to bite him, and thus
saved his life. In Hardy the creature appears as a squirrel, but Eitel
says that the Karanda is a bird of sweet voice, resembling a magpie,
but herding in flocks; the /cuculus melanoleucus/. See "Buddhist Birth
Stories," p. 118.
[2] The language here is rather contemptuous, as if our author had no
sympathy with any other mode of disposing of the dead, but by his own
Buddhistic method of cremation.
[3] The Chinese characters used for the name of this cavern serve also
to name the pippala (peepul) tree, the /ficus religiosa/. They make us
think that there was such a tree overshadowing the cave; but Fa-hien
would hardly have neglected to mention such a circumstance.
[4] A very great place in the annals of Buddhism. The Council in the
Srataparna cave did not come together fortuitously, but appears to
have been convoked by the older members to settle the rules and
doctrines of the order. The cave was prepared for the occasion by king
Ajatasatru. From the expression about the "bringing forth of the
King," it would seem that the Sutras or some of them had been already
committed to writing. May not the meaning of King {.} here be extended
to the Vinaya rules, as well as the Sutras, and mean "the standards"
of the system generally? See Davids' Manual, chapter ix, and Sacred
Books of the East, vol. xx, Vinaya Texts, pp. 370-385.
[5] So in the text, evidently for pari-nirvana.
[6] Instead of "high" seats, the Chinese texts have "vacant." The
character for "prepared" denotes "spread;" - they were carpeted;
perhaps, both cushioned and carpeted, being rugs spread on the ground,
raised higher than the other places for seats.
[7] Did they not contrive to let him in, with some cachinnation, even
in so august an assembly, that so important a member should have been
shut out?
[8] "The life of this body" would, I think, fairly express the idea of
the bhikshu.
[9] See the account of Buddha's preaching in chapter xviii.
[10] The sentiment of this clause is not easily caught.
[11] See E. M., p. 152: - "Buddha made a law forbidding the monks to
commit suicide. He prohibited any one from discoursing on the miseries
of life in such a manner as to cause desperation." See also M. B., pp.
464, 465.
[12] Beal says: - "Evil desire; hatred; ignorance."
[13] See chap. xx, note 10.
[14] The Anagamin belong to the third degree of Buddhistic saintship,
the third class of Aryas, who are no more liable to be reborn as men,
but are to be born once more as devas, when they will forthwith become
Arhats, and attain to nirvana.
