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A Manual of Budhism, In Its Modern Development, K. Spence Hardy, 1880 - Complete Book

English

519 of tJionght (aramana, the thought that arises from contact with sensible objects) and thoaght and sorrow united produce fear. (3.) Manosanchetana, the third, includes the thoughts that have entered into the mind and there abide, continued thought, or reflection ; it produces birth in one or other of the three modes of existence. (4.) Winydna, the fourth, includes all that is the subject of consciousness, and produces nAma and nipa. As when a parent, in order that he maj be enabled to cross a wide desert, when all other food fails him eats the flesh of his own son, but with the utmost disgust ; so must these four kinds of nourishment be regarded with absolute aversion, inasmuch as thej produce birth and the sorrows connected therewith. When a cow has a sore that breeds worms, pain is produced through phassa, t/ouch ; but he who is without phassd is like a cow that has got no skin. As when a weak man is taken by two strong men, and cast into a pit of burning charcoal, so by the power of karma, derived from its two constituent properties, merit and demerit, through the instrumentality of manosan- ch^tand, are the unwise beings cast into the pit of successive existence. As the man who is pierced by 300 darts endures severe pain, so is he who is under the influence of wiay^na. They who are released from the influence of the four modes of ihdra are not subject to birth. 20. Dasawidha-irdhiy or ten Sujpematural Powers, — There are ten irdhis, the first three of which are accounted as the chief. (1.) Adishtdna, the power to produce, by an effort of the mind, a hundred, or a thousand, or a hundred thousand figures, like the person's own. (2.) Wikurwana, or wikumbans^ the power to disappear from the sight of men, or to assume any form that is different to the person's own, whether it be that of a child, young man, nac^a, garunda, yaka, or raksha. (3.) Manama, the power to make any figure whatever, accord- ing to the person's own will. (4.) Guyana weppdra, the power received from the former possession of gnyana, knowledge, which preserves its possessor from the consequences of any danger to which he may be ex- 520 A MANUAL OF BUDHISM. posed, either at the moment when the danger occmrs, or at some other time. During fche childhood of Bakkula there was a festival at his father's house in the city of Kosambes, when his mother took him to the river Yamuna to bathe. After she had washed him, she placed him upon the bank, and returned to bathe herself; but in the mean time he fell from the bank into the river and was swallowed hj a fish, that swam towards Benares, a distance of thirty yojanas, where it was caught in a net. The fisherman who took it sold it to a nobleman, whose wife, on seeing it, said that she would prepare it herself, as it was too fine a fish to be entrusted to the hands of a servant ; but when the lady ripped it open, she saw that it contained a child, at which she was greatly pleased, as she said she must have done some meritorious act in a former birth to have received in this way such a beautiful child ; so she adopted it as her own. Bat as Bakkula^s own mother heard of the manner in which he had been preserved, she went to Benares and claimed him. The wife of the nobleman was un- willing to give him up ; so they referred the matter to the king; who said that as one had borne him and the other had bought him, their interest in him was equal, and he decided that he should belong to both. On this account he was called Bakkula, as belonging to two kulas, or races. After he grew upiie resided, in great splendour, six months at Benares and six at KosambsB, and went between the two cities in a boat by the river Mahi. When ninety years of age he heard bana from Budha, at the time he resided at Kosambsa, by which he was induced to leave all his possessions and become a priest. After this he lived ninety years more ; and throughout the whole of this period he never felt any disease for a single moment. By Budha he was declared to be the chief of that class of his disciples who were free from disease; and he became a rahat. The mother of Sarkicha was near the time of her confinement when she died ; but as her friends were preparing her body to be burnt upon the funeral pile, the child cried. Those who were near heard the voice ; and as they knew thereby that the child was alive, they took the body down, and released it from its confine- ment after which they delivered it to its grandmother to be brought up ; and in time he embraced the priesthood and became a rahat. X. THE ETHICS OF BUDHISM. 521 Bhupdla was bom in Bajagaha, of a poor feimilj. One day ho went with, his father into the forest to procnre firewood ; bnt on their retnm, when near the gate, the bnllock that drew their cart slipped the yoke over his neck, and ran awaj into the citj. The father then lefb the cart nnder the care of Bhupdla, whilst he at- tempted to catch the bnllock ; but in the mean time the gate was shut, and he was nnable to retnm to his child. In the night Bhnpdla saw many yakds and pr^tas come out of the city that were going to the cemeteries in search of flosh, bat none of them did him the least harm, and he remained in perfect security. In the course of time he became a rahat. Thus it is not possible that any one can perish, or be exposed to a danger ending in death, who has the merit to obtain nirw&na in the same birth. (5.) Samidhi-wippara. — The power that is received from having possessed sam^dhi in a former birth, which preserves its possessor from danger, either immediately or at some other time. At one time Seriyut and Mugalan resided together at Kapdtak- andara, which was so called from the number of doves in its neighbourhood. Early one morning Seriyut went into the open air, when he saw two yakds, one of whom struck him a blow upon the top of his head, the sound of which reverberated loudly in the ten directions ; but in the moment when the hand of the yakd was uplifted, Seriyut thought of nirwana, by means of which the blow to him was but as the alighting of a fiy upon his head, whilst to the yakil it was as painful as if he had struck a solid rock. The priest Sajiwa resided near a village of herdsmen, who one day found him in abstract meditation at the foot of a tree. Sup- posing that he was dead, they prepared a funeral pile, wrapped the body in his robe, covered it over with dry grass, and then set it on fire in two places. But though the pile and the grass were consumed, no harm happened to the priest, not even a thread of his robe was singed. Another priest, Khanu-kondanya was lost in meditation at the foot of a tree, when 600 robbers came up, who had been plundering a neighbouring village ; and as they thought it was a quiet place, where no one could disturb them, they resolved upon remaining there a little time to rest. When they saw the priest, they took him for a pillar, so they heaped up around him their loads of 522. A MANUAL OF BUDHISM. plunder ; bat after they had rested awhile, and were about to re- sume their loads, as the time appointed by the priest for the exercise had passed away, he was restored to consciousness, and began to move. On seeing this the thieves cried out in alarm, and were about to prepare for their safety in flight, when Khanu- kondanya called out to them and said, *' Be not afraid ; I am a priest." Being thus encouraged, they approached him reverently, when he said bana to them ; and they subsequently became priests, and finally rahats . There was an updsildLwa called Uttard, daughter of Purnaka, upon whose head the courtezan Sirima, out of hatred, poured a vessel of boiling oil. But Uttara looked at her in the same moment with affection, and the oil fell harmless to the ground, like water poured upon the lotus. Sdmawati was the faithful queen of the monarch of Udeni ; but there was a brahman, Magandhiya, who thought to have her dis- graced, that his own daughter might be elevated in her place. For this purpose he secretly put a nay^ in the lute of the queeo, and then told the king that she had a serpent concealed, with the intent to kill him. No sooner did the king hear this, than he took up a bow, and placed it to his shoulder with a poisoned arrow ; but at the same moment the queen looked at him with afEection, and he remained motionless as a statue, unable to send the arrow.