Eugene Watson Burlingame

“ Thus hatred has been quenched by love. This, your majesty, is what my father meant when he said to me in the hour of death: ‘For, dear Dīghāvu, hatreds are not quenched by hatred. Nay rather, dear Dīghāvu, hatreds are quenched by love.’”
Thereupon Brahmadatta king of Kāsi exclaimed: “O how wonderful, O how marvelous, that this Prince Dīghāvu should understand in its fulness a matter which his father expressed so briefly!” And he restored to him the army and vehicles and territory and treasuries and storehouses of his fathers, and gave him his daughter in marriage. ”

“ Hearing this, the ogre thought: “What this youth says is true, every word of it. From the body of this lion of a man, my stomach would not be able to digest a fragment of flesh even so small as a kidney bean. I’ll let him go!” Terrified with the fear of death, he let the Future Buddha go, saying: “Youth, you’re a lion of a man! I’ll not eat your flesh. Do you, this moment released from my hand, even as the moon is released from the Jaws of Rāhu, go gladden the circle of your kinsfolk and well-wishers!” ”

“ As the elephant went out of the city, he trumpeted the Heron’s Call, making the multitude tremble and quake, and frightening them away. He broke down the stockade, seized the king of Kosala by the top-knot, and carried him and laid him at the Future Buddha’s feet. And when men rose to kill him, he would not let them, but set the king free with the admonition: “Henceforth be careful; do not presume on the youth of the prince.” ”

“ On a certain occasion the Teacher addressed the monks as follows: “Monks, contact with the corrupt is a bad thing, an injurious thing. Indeed, why should it be necessary to discuss the injurious effect on human beings of contact with the corrupt, when in times past even a senseless mango tree, with flavor as sweet as the flavor of celestial fruit, through contact with sour, unpalatable nimbs, turned sour and bitter?” ”

“ Bereft of thee, thy father will be plunged into the darkness of sorrow, and will not for long endure to live. That body of thine, which would suffer even from the torch of the sun’s rays,—how can it endure the agony of being devoured by the griffin? How comes it that Fate and the king of the snakes were able to discover thee, the only son of ill-starred me, though the world of the snakes is wide? ”

“ And having approached, he said this to the Brahman who was the house-priest of Brahmadatta king of Kāsi: “Sir, your female friend is with child. And this craving has arisen within her: She desires at sunrise to see a fourfold army drawn up, clad in armor, standing in a pleasant place, and to drink the rinsings of swords.” “Very well, O king, we also will see the queen.” ”

“ When Jīmūta-vāhana was become of age, his father made him crown-prince. Thus did he become the fairy-prince. And when he had become the fairy-prince, the ministers of the kingdom came to him and said: “O fairy-prince, do reverence always to this wishing-tree, for it grants all desires, and cannot be resisted by any living creature. For so long as we possess this tree, we cannot suffer injury of any kind from anyone, even from Indra, king of the gods, much less from any other.” ”

“ The Future Buddha thought: “Since I have been ruling righteously, no men at all have come for litigation, the hubbub has ceased, the place of litigation has become abandoned. The time has come for me to find out whether I have any fault. If I know, ‘This, for example, is a fault in me,’ I will get rid of it and have to do with good qualities only.” From that time on he mingled with indoor-folk and tested them with the question, “Is there anybody who says I have a fault?” ”

“ In comparison with the career of the Future Buddha, devoted to the performance of good works, unselfish, generous to the point of sacrificing his own body and blood,—the career of the monk, isolated from the world, selfish, seeking by meditation to uproot craving for worldly pleasures and life and riches, seemed low and mean. ”

“ As for wealth, if it be not used for the benefit of others, it is like lightning which for an instant stings the eye, and then flickers and vanishes. Therefore if this wishing-tree which we possess, and which grants all desires, be employed for the benefit of others, we shall reap from it all the fruit that it can give. ”

“ In times past, when Brahmadatta ruled at Benāres, the Future Buddha was reborn as a quail, and made his home in a field of clods, turned up by the plow. One day he said to himself: “I will seek food in a foreign region.” So he left off seeking food in his own region and went to the edge of a wood. Now while he was picking up food there, a hawk saw him and attacked him with violence and caught him. As the hawk was carrying off the quail, the quail thus lamented: “I am indeed mighty unfortunate, I possess very little merit,—I who walked in forbidden ground, in a foreign region. ”

“ Thus, by the recitation of this stanza, did the Future Buddha preach the Doctrine. And the spirits of the forest made the forest ring with their applause. Then said the Future Buddha: “Just as our teacher, putting forth effort by wrong means, at the wrong time, caused the Rain of Riches, and thus himself met destruction and became the cause of others’ ruin, precisely so whoever else besides shall exert himself, seeking advantage for himself by wrong means, shall himself come to ruin and shall become the cause of others’ ruin.” ”

“ A deer saw them,—also a boar, an elk, a buffalo, an ox, a rhinoceros, a tiger, a lion, and an elephant. Seeing, each asked: “What’s this?” “The earth is collapsing here!” Each ran away. Thus, in the course of time, there was an army of animals a league in size.
At that time the Future Buddha, seeing that army running away, asked: “What’s this?” “The earth is collapsing here!” When the Future Buddha heard this, he thought: “No such thing! The earth is collapsing nowhere! It must certainly be that they failed to understand something they heard. ”

“ For if, at that time, the Future Buddha had not come to the rescue, they would all have run down into the sea and perished. It was through the Future Buddha that they obtained their lives.
Hearing a Vilva fruit fall,—“rat-a-tat,”—the hare ran.
Hearing the hare’s words, a host of animals were frightened.
Those who have not attained consciousness of their portion,
Those who follow the voice of others,
Those who are given to heedlessness,—the foolish,—
They attain what others attain. ”

“ They must have come with the thought in their minds: ‘We will make these men throw away their water, weaken them, and devour them.’ The foolish caravan-leader who went first was not resourceful. Undoubtedly he must have thrown away the water at their behest, grown weary, and been devoured; the five hundred carts must stand as full as ever. To-day we shall see them. Do not throw away even so much as a dribble of water, but drive ahead as fast as ever you can. ”

“ Infinite is the Doctrine! Infinite is the Order!”
When the Future Buddha had thus pointed out that the virtues of the Three Jewels are infinite, he said: “Meditate on the virtues of these Three Jewels.” Having so said, in order to point out that living beings are finite, he continued: “Finite are creeping things,—snakes, scorpions, centipedes, spiders, lizards, rats and mice!” ”

“ For many centuries, it has been a common belief in India that when a human being dies, he is at once born again. If he has lived a good life, he will be born again on earth as the child of a king or of a rich man, or in one of the heavens as a god. ”

“ When that wicked man thus entered the earth, the tree-spirit resident in that forest-grove thought: “An ungrateful man, a man who will betray his friends, cannot be satisfied, even if he be given the kingdom of a Universal Monarch.” ”

“ Sire, I am Sakka king of gods! Sire, I am Sakka king of gods!”
The more, monks, Sakka king of gods proclaimed his name, the more did that ogre become ill-favored and dwarfish. And having become more ill-favored and dwarfish, he then and there disappeared.
Then, monks, Sakka king of gods sat down in his own seat, and appealing to the gods of the Thirty-three, uttered at that time the following stanzas:
I am not easily vexed in spirit,
I am not easily led into a turning,
I do not cherish anger long, be sure;
Anger has no abiding-place in me. ”

“ Then the god Vishnu, pleased with his mighty prowess, condescended to say to him: “I am pleased with thee; choose some boon.” Then the griffin, angry because his mother had been made a slave, asked the following boon of Vishnu: “May the snakes become my food!” Vishnu granted him this boon. Now Indra, king of the gods, listened to the conversation, and when the griffin, by his mighty prowess, had obtained the drink of immortality, he said to him: “O griffin, take steps to prevent the foolish snakes from consuming the drink of immortality, and to enable me to take it away from them again.” ”

“ One should not beg or seek to get what is dear to another.
Odious does one become by asking overmuch.
When the Brahman asked the dragon for the jewel,
Never again did the dragon let himself be seen.
Having thus addressed him, the older ascetic comforted him, saying: “Henceforth grieve not;” and went back again to his own hermitage.
[106] Said the Teacher: “Thus, monks, even to dragons, though the World of Dragons wherein they dwell is filled to overflowing with the Seven Jewels, begging is offensive. How much more so must it be to human beings!” ”

“ And sitting on one side, those monks reported the matter to the Exalted One.
“The heretics, O monks, the wandering ascetics, are blind, without eyes; know not good, know not evil; know not right, know not wrong. Knowing not good, knowing not evil, knowing [80] not right, knowing not wrong, they quarrel and brawl and wrangle and strike one another with the daggers of their tongues, saying: ‘This is right, that is not right;’ ‘This is not right, that is right.’”
In olden times, in this very city of Sāvatthi, there was a certain king. ”

“ At that time a certain wise man saw those monkeys working away in the king’s garden, and said to them: “Master-monkeys, why are you pulling up by the roots every one of those young trees and watering them plentifully or sparingly according as the roots are large or small?” The monkeys replied: “That’s what the monkey who is our leader told us to do.” When the wise man heard that reply, he thought: “Alas! alas! Those that are fools, those that lack wisdom, say to themselves: ‘We’ll do good.’ But harm’s the only thing they do!” And he uttered the following stanza ”

“ Having so done, he took the five weapons which his teacher gave him, bowed to his teacher, departed from the city of Takkasilā, and girded with the five weapons, struck into the road leading to Benāres. On the way he came to a certain forest infested by an ogre named Sticky-hair. Now at the mouth of the forest men who saw him tried to dissuade him from entering, saying: “Sir prince, do not enter this forest; an ogre named Sticky-hair lives here; he kills every man he sees.”
The Future Buddha, confident of himself, fearless as a maned lion, entered the forest just the same. ”

“ Now that man went to Benāres, and in the course [22] of his walks came to the street of the ivory-carvers. And seeing the ivory-carvers making various kinds of ivory products, he asked: “But, sirs, how much would you make if you could get the tusk of a real live elephant?” “What are you saying, sir! The tusk of a live elephant is far more valuable than the tusk of a dead elephant.” “Very well! I’ll fetch you the tusk of a live elephant.” Accordingly, obtaining provisions for the journey and taking a sharp saw, he went to the place of abode of the Future Buddha. ”

“ And again: “The head of every person has been cut off so many times in the course of his past lives, either as a human being or as an animal, as to cause him to shed blood more abundant than all the water contained in the four great oceans.” ”

“ So saying, he let the parrot also go back.
Ungratefulness of man.
“Now,” thought the Future Buddha, “I’ll test the king!” He went and passed the night in the king’s garden, and on the following day, having put on beautiful garments, entered the city on his round for alms. At that moment that king, that betrayer of friends, seated on the back of his gloriously adorned state elephant, accompanied by a large retinue, was making a rightwise circuit of the city. Seeing the Future Buddha even from afar, he thought: “Here’s that false ascetic, come to live with me and eat his fill! ”

“ Once upon a time the Exalted One was in residence at Jetavana, near Sāvatthi. Now at that time there entered Sāvatthi for alms a company of heretics, both monks and Brahmans, wandering ascetics, holding heretical views, patient of heresy, delighting in heresy, relying upon the reliance of heretical views. There were some monks and Brahmans who held this doctrine, who held this view: “The world is eternal. This view alone is truth; any other is folly.” But there were other monks and Brahmans who held this view: “The world is not eternal. This view alone is truth; any other is folly.” ”