Translating Classical Buddhism to Modern English

The Numerical Discourses

Chapter 16: The Fire Extinguished

（九） 梵志 9. The Brahmin
聞如是： 一時，佛在舍衛國、祇樹、給孤獨園。 1. Thus I have heard:1 One time, the Buddha was staying at Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park in Jeta’s Grove of Śrāvastī.
爾時，尊者阿那律在拘尸那竭國本所生處。 爾時，釋、梵、四天王及五百天人，并二十八大鬼神王，便往至尊者阿那律所。 到已，頭面禮足，在一面住。 復以此偈歎阿那律曰： 2. It was then that Venerable Aniruddha was in the homeland near Kuśinagara. At the time, Śakra, Brahmā, the four god kings with five hundred lesser gods, and the twenty-eight great yakṣa kings2 paid a visit to Venerable Aniruddha. When they arrived, they bowed their heads at his feet and stood to one side. They then praised Aniruddha in verse:
  • 「歸命人中上，
    眾人所敬奉！
    我等今不知，
    為依何等禪？」
  • “Homage to the best of humans,
    Who is honored by the host of humans!
    Now, we don’t know
    What meditation is the basis for this?”
爾時，有梵志名曰闍拔吒，是梵摩喻弟子。 復至尊者阿那律所，頭面禮足，在一面坐。 爾時，彼梵志問阿那律曰： 「我昔在王宮生，未曾聞此自然之香。 為有何人來至此間？ 為是天、龍、鬼神、人、非人乎？」 3. Then, there was a brahmin named *Javata3 who was a disciple of Brahmāyu. He also visited Venerable Aniruddha, bowing his head at his feet and sitting to one side. That brahmin then asked Aniruddha, “I was once born in a king’s palace, but I’ve never smelled a natural fragrance like this. What sort of being has been here? Was it a god, a nāga, a yakṣa, a human, or a non-human?”
爾時，阿那律報梵志曰： 「向者釋、梵、四天王及五百天人，并二十八大鬼神王，來至我所。 頭面禮足，在一面住。 復以此偈而歎我曰： 4. Aniruddha then told the brahmin, “It was Śakra, Brahmā, the four god kings with five hundred lesser gods, and the twenty-eight yakṣa kings who came to visit me. They bowed their heads at my feet and stood to one side. They also praised me with this verse:
  • 「『自歸人中上，
    眾人所敬奉！
    我等今不知，
    為依何等禪？』」
  • “‘Homage to the best of humans,
    Who is honored by the host of humans!
    Now, we don’t know
    What meditation is the basis for this?’”
梵志問曰： 「以何等故，我今不見其形？ 釋、梵、四天王為何所在？」 5. The brahmin asked, “But why don’t I see their bodies? Where are Śakra, Brahmā, and the four god kings now?”
阿那律報曰： 「以汝無有天眼故也，是故不見釋、梵、四天王及五百天人，及二十八大鬼神王。」 Aniruddha replied, “You don’t have the heavenly eye, so you don’t see Śakra, Brahmā, the four god kings with five hundred lesser gods, or the twenty-eight yakṣa kings.”
梵志問曰： 「設我能得天眼者，見此釋、梵、四天王及二十八大鬼神王耶？」 6. The brahmin asked, “So, if I were to obtain the heavenly eye, I would see Śakra, Brahmā, the four god kings with five hundred lesser gods, and the twenty-eight yakṣa kings?”
阿那律報曰： 「設當得天眼者，便能見釋、梵、四天王及五百天人，并二十八大鬼神王。 然復，梵志，此天眼者何足為奇。 有梵天名曰千眼。 彼見此千世界，如有眼之士，自手掌中觀其寶冠。 此梵天亦如是，見此千世界無有罣礙。 然，此梵天不自見身所著衣服。」 Aniruddha replied, “If you were to obtain the heavenly eye, you would see Śakra, Brahmā, the four god kings with five hundred lesser gods, and the twenty-eight yakṣa kings. But, brahmin, this heavenly eye is an extraordinary ability. There is a Brahmā King named Thousand Eyes. He looks at this thousand world cosmos like a man who has good eyesight examines a jeweled crown in his own hands. This Brahmā is likewise as he looks at this thousand world cosmos without obstruction. Even so, this Brahmā doesn’t see the clothes that he is wearing.”4
梵志問曰： 「何以故千眼梵天不自見形所著服飾？」 7. The brahmin asked, “Why doesn’t that Brahmā Thousand Eyes see the clothes that adorns his own body?”
阿那律曰： 「以其彼天無有無上智慧眼故，故不自見己身所著服飾。」 Aniruddha said, “That god doesn’t see the clothes that adorns his own body because he lacks the unsurpassed wisdom eye.”
梵志問曰： 「設我得無上智慧眼者，見此身所著服飾不耶？」 8. The brahmin asked, “If I were to obtain this unsurpassed wisdom eye, would I see the clothes that adorns this body?”
阿那律曰： 「若能得無上智慧眼者，則能見己形所著服飾。」 Aniruddha said, “If someone were to obtain the unsurpassed wisdom eye, then they could see the clothes that adorns their own body.”
梵志問曰： 「願尊與我說極妙之法，使得無上智慧之眼。」 9. The brahmin asked, “Please, Venerable, explain to me the subtle Dharma so that I will attain this unsurpassed wisdom eye.”
阿那律曰： 「汝有戒耶？」 10. Aniruddha asked, “Do you have the precept?”
梵志問曰： 「云何名之為戒？」 The brahmin asked, “What do you call the precept?”
阿那律曰： 「不作眾惡，不犯非法。」 Aniruddha said, “Not doing any evil and not violating the Dharma.”
梵志報曰： 「如此戒者，我堪奉持如此之戒。」 11. The brahmin said, “If that is the precept, I could accept and observe it.”
阿那律曰： 「汝今，梵志，當持禁戒，無失毫釐。 亦當除去憍慢之結。 莫計吾、我染著之想。」 12. Aniruddha said, “Now, brahmin, you should observe this precept without losing a bit of it. You must also leave behind the bondage of pride. Don’t form defiling notions about the self or oneself.”5
時，梵志復問阿那律曰： 「何者是吾？何者是我？何者是憍慢結？」 13. The brahmin again questioned Aniruddha, “What is the self, and what is myself? What is the bondage of pride?”
阿那律曰： 「吾者是神識也，我者是形體之具也。 於中起識生吾、我者。 是名為憍慢結也。 是故，梵志，當求方便，除此諸結。 如是，梵志，當作是學。」 Aniruddha said, “Self is the spirit consciousness, and oneself is the endowment of a physical body. Self and oneself are born when awareness arises. This is called the bondage of pride. Therefore, brahmin, you should pursue the methods that remove these bonds. Thus, brahmin, you should train yourself.”
梵志即從座起，禮阿那律足，遶三匝而去。 未至所在，於中道思惟此義。 諸塵垢盡，得法眼淨。 14. The brahmin then rose from his seat, bowed at Aniruddha’s feet, circled him three times, and departed. Before he had reached where he was going, he considered this goal while he was on the road. His dust and defilement were ended, and his Dharma eye was clarified.
爾時，有天昔與此梵志親友。 知識梵志心中所得諸塵垢盡，得法眼淨。 爾時，彼天復往至尊者阿那律所，頭面禮足，在一面住。 即以此偈歎阿那律曰： 15. There was then a god who had once been this brahmin’s friend. This god knew that the brahmin had attained the end of dust and defilement in his mind and had clarified his Dharma eye. The god then returned to visit Venerable Aniruddha, bowed his head at Aniruddha’s feet, and stood to one side. The god then praised Aniruddha with verse:
  • 「梵志未至家，
    中道得道跡。
    垢盡法眼淨，
    無疑無猶豫。」
  • “Before that brahmin was home,
    He found the path while on the road.
    With defilements gone and Dharma eye clear,
    He has no doubts or uncertainties.”
爾時，尊者阿那律復以偈告天曰： 16. Venerable Aniruddha then told that god in verse:
  • 「我先觀彼心。
    中間應道跡。
    彼人迦葉佛
    曾聞此法教。」
  • “I examined his mind earlier.
    Being inbetween, he should’ve been on the path.
    That man had heard the Dharma
    That was taught by the Buddha Kāśyapa.”
爾時，尊者阿那律即其時離彼處，在人間遊。 漸漸至舍衛國。 到世尊所，頭面禮足，在一面住。 爾時，世尊具以法語告阿那律。 阿那律受佛教已，便從坐起，頭面禮足，便退而去。 17. Venerable Aniruddha then went touring among the people when he left that place. He gradually made his way to Śrāvastī. He visited the Bhagavān, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and stood to one side. The Bhagavān gave Aniruddha a full teaching of the Dharma. After accepting the Buddha’s teaching, Aniruddha then rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and then withdrew and departed.
爾時，世尊告諸比丘： 「我聲聞中弟子，得天眼第一者，所謂阿那律比丘是。」 18. The Bhagavān told the monks, “The monk Aniruddha is the disciple among those who have heard my voice who is best at obtaining the heavenly eye.”
爾時，諸比丘聞佛所說歡喜，奉行。 19. When the monks heard what the Buddha taught, they rejoiced and approved.

Notes

  1. For the source text, cf. T125.2.580c9-1b14. I’m not aware of any direct parallels for this sūtra. It’s one of a group of sūtras in EĀ that provide background stories for when disciples were declared by the Buddha to be the best at a given skill or attribute. [back]

  2. Śakra, Brahmā, the four god kings, five hundred lesser gods, and the twenty-eight great yakṣa kings. C. 釋、梵、四天王及五百天人，并二十八大鬼神王. Except for Brahmā, these are all divinities who lived on Mount Sumeru in Buddhist mythology. Śakra (a.k.a. Indra) ruled the Trayastriṃśa Heaven at the peak of Sumeru, and the four god kings acted as his vassals, each ruling a city a little lower on each side of the mountain. The five hundred other gods were likely the inhabitants of these cities. The twenty-eight yakṣa kings were the leaders of the yakṣa armies that defending the gods against the asuras. They lived on the lower parts of Mount Sumeru, which was quite gigantic at 84,000 yojanas in height. [back]

  3. *Javata. C. 闍拔吒 (EMC. ʒɪă-bʌt-ṭă = G. jabata?). This is a guess based on the transliteration. There are a couple possible S. words that it might be related to: One is javādi, a kind of perfume. Another is the verb javate, which can mean “to be quick, urge, incite, inspire, hurry.” The perfume connection seems possible given the character’s detecting the presumably pleasant smell of the gods in the story, but he also inspires the discourse by Aniruddha.

    In Pali sources, Brahmāyu’s disciple Uttara was dispatched to investigate whether the Buddha possessed the thirty-two signs of a great man. [back]

  4. the clothes that he is wearing. C. 身所著衣服. This curious expression is perhaps the result of a phonetic confusion of S. vastra and vartma or vṛtta, which are nearly homophones in P. (vattha and vaṭṭa). The former means “clothes,” while the latter mean “a course” or a “cycle,” which Buddhists used metaphorically for the cycle of rebirth. In P. sources such as MN 49, Brahmā is said to be ignorant of other realms of rebirth, which here seems to have changed somehow to his own clothes. Beyond this explanation, I can only surmise that there may have been some esoteric metaphor that is left unexplained. [back]

  5. the self or oneself. C. 吾、我. Both of these words in C. serve as first person pronouns, and ordinarily I would read them as a single word. Aniruddha defines them below as referring to a spiritual soul (神識, lit. “spirit consciousness”) and the physical incarnation of a person (形體之具, lit. “endowment of the bodily form”). As such, they apparently stood for a permanent and an impermanent self. Aniruddha is likely speaking to the brahmin about the Brahmanical belief in an eternal soul and tells him that it is not different than the body, arising with awareness. He doesn’t say that it isn’t real, but implies that it is at best as impermanent as one’s body. I’ve tried to approximate the difference by translating the two words as “self” and as a reflexive pronoun. [back]

Translator: Charles Patton

Last Revised: 25 November 2024

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