Lecture No. 0219
Global Lamrim II
Lecture No. 0219
Date: 2020-05-04 ~ 2020-05-06
Topic: The Story of Dharma Protector, King Ashoka
[00:00]
In the previous session, we mentioned that the Nalanda Monastery housed all Mahayana scriptures, and there were over 9 million scrolls. While I was discussing the Nalanda Monastery with our monastics, they were all fascinated with deep longing. Think about that: back then, India did not have typography industries, so all the scriptures were hand-written copies, manuscripts were mainly transcribed on the leaves of pattra palm tree or on tree barks. However, during that time [despite all the disadvantages], many eminent practitioners achieved their first attainments then! [00:31]
The Nalanda Monastery was built on the birthplace of Sariputra, and Sariputra was the renowned principal disciple of Buddha. As for Emperor Ashoka, I would like to give you a brief introduction of him. Emperor Ashoka was prophesized by Buddha to be the Dharma protector king of ancient India between 304 BC to 232 BC. Ashoka was transliterated from Sanskrit, which means “One without Sorrow”. He was a small boy named Virtue Victorious in his previous life. As a child, he was typically fond of playing with mud! He had such great fortune that while playing with mud, he saw Buddha on his alms round. Upon seeing Buddha, Virtue Victorious felt exuberant. Since there was not much for a child to make an offering, the young boy came up with an idea: offering the mud as if it were food to Buddha, then the child made an aspiration to become a king. [01:24]
Buddha prophesized that one hundred years after Buddha would go into nirvana, this boy would be reborn as a universal monarch commanding the Jambudvipa continent by the name of Ashoka; he would distribute Buddha’s relics in 84 thousand stupas to benefit living beings. This King would be the descendent of Emperor Ajatashatru, who is the prince to the King of Bindusara. His mother was the daughter of a Brahman family. Initially, other concubines were jealous of his mother and forced her to do a lot of laborious work. However, because she was very conscientious towards the Emperor and able to understand the Emperor’s mind, she later became the First Lady. After she gave birth to Ashoka, no one dared to bully nor pick on her, maybe even stopped being jealous towards her, thus the prince was named “One without Sorrow”. Sounds like this child brought good luck and a carefree life to his mother. “One without Sorrow” was a very nice name. The aforementioned was part of the historic account of Ashoka. [02:16]
Another account in the History of the Indian Buddhism states: Emperor Ashoka was born in the northern India territory; his father was King Nemita of Champarana, and his mother was the wife of a merchant. Because the Emperor was relieved of his previous sorrows after Ashoka was born, Ashoka was thus named “One without Sorrow”. At youth, he mastered all sorts of literature and martial arts. Ashoka displayed special interest in martial arts practice. Because he offered sand to Buddha in the previous life, Ashoka did not have good looks in this life. Thus, Ashoka did not gain much favor from the Emperor. This is strange! Would any parents dislike their children due to their lacking in appearance? When the child does not have attractive appearance, parents may instead take pity on the child; will it be so? [02:58]
At that time, there was an astrologer who was an expert, upon reading, he immediately saw that despite Ashoka’s mediocre looks, he would become the Emperor. Then the astrologer hinted it to the minister. At that time, the Emperor, father of Ashoka, often sent him to quell traitors without giving him any weapons. Then, the Earth Deity would emerge from the ground and offer weapons to Ashoka. When Ashoka arrived at the kingdom of betrayal, that kingdom will surrender itself prior to the attack. Hence, the territory [of Maurya Empire] continued to expand. Seems like Prince Ashoka was a very capable warrior who was protected by the deities. [03:34]
Later, due to disharmony between the prime minister and the crown prince, the prime minister shared the prediction of the astrologer with five hundred ministers. Joining hands, they assassinated the crown prince and helped Ashoka to ascend the throne. However, Emperor Ashoka faced contempt from many ministers and palace maids were displeased with him; thus Ashoka brutally executed five hundred ministers and five hundred palace maids, the commoners instead addressed him as “Chandashoka”, meaning “Ashoka the Cruel”, with the adjective “Chand”. It looks like this account of history illustrated his brutality. Later on, he hired a villain who killed both of his parents, Girika, to build a torturing chamber, named Pleasure Hell*. The torments were mimicked after those of the hell realm. [*The Pleasure Hell, according to legend, was an elaborate torture chamber with its exterior visually pleasing, decorated with beautiful ornaments, trees and flowers. However, inside the chamber all sorts of cruel instruments of torture were furnished.] [04:08]
During that time, there was a monastic who accidentally walked into that torture chamber, and was about to be burned or killed. The monastic pleaded, “Would you postpone the execution for 7 days?” His request was granted. The monk studied and meditated diligently. During the seven days, he visualized filthy faeces and urinary excretion, defiled internal organs; developed disenchantment, meditated under joyful perseverance and attain Arhatship. The villain applied all sorts of methods to torture him, but the monastic remained unharmed. Seeing this, the villain quickly reported to the Emperor. When the news spread, the Emperor and populace went to check it out. Then, this Arhat – the monastic, who walked into the chamber by mistake – immediately knew, “Ah! The time to mature these beings is here." And the Arhat demonstrated great magical power and informed the Emperor of the prophecy from Buddha. The Emperor realized the exceptional value of this, repented his past deeds, and took refuge in the Three Jewels. The once known-to-be Emperor Ashoka the Cruel, took refuge! To eliminate the fear of the living beings, Ashoka promptly destroyed the torturing chamber. [05:11]
Then, abiding by Buddha’s prophecy, Emperor Ashoka called on the help from spirits and gods. They constructed eighty-four thousand stupas to house Buddha’s relics in one day. All were completed in one day, so people changed his name to Dharmashoka, meaning ”Ashoka the Great”. People changed how they address him quickly; his name was changed instantly. He then invited Venerable Upagupta to propagate Buddha’s good qualities and enlightening beings in the ten directions. The Emperor himself was rid of stinginess when making offerings to Buddha Sangha, he did that tens of thousands of times. Besides, he also encouraged whomever he ran into to cultivate good fortune by giving generously! [05:44]
I am not sure if you all have once been encouraged to be more generous and to cultivate more good fortune? Nowadays, if people come to ask us to accumulate blissful merits by giving more generously, we would think they all come to ask for money. However, if the advice came from the Emperor, we wouldn’t think it this way because we would feel that the Emperor wouldn’t be after our money as he has lots of them. If the advice is from a fellow practitioner, we would feel, “Eh! Why is that you constantly talk about this, persuading us to give more to cultivate good fortune?” [06:09]
In his old age, Emperor Ashoka wanted to emulate Elder Sudatta. Do you remember the story of Elder Sudatta? We [Dream Lotus Culture & Art Foundation] staged a play based on that story. Sudatta covered the ground of a site with gold to offer to Buddha, right? Emperor Ashoka also vowed to offer 10 billion units of gold. Upon making offering of 9.6 billion, unfortunately, Emperor Ashoka fell seriously ill. Think about it; this emperor made such generous offerings, his sons and ministers would worry that if the Emperor was so enthusiastic in making offerings like that, the state treasury might be depleted through these offerings, thus they halted offerings. [06:44]
Because the amount of offering only stood at 9.6 billion, it was still short of 0.4 billion. When attending to a sickly emperor, the attendant would serve food using gold and silver plates, Emperor Ashoka would tell his attendants to offer these gold and silver plates to the monastics. In the end, the attendants brought only half of an amalaka fruit for him. The Emperor then instructed his attendant to notify the senior monk in the monastery, saying: “This is the final offering from the Emperor.” This amalaka fruit was the last offering from the Emperor. [07:21]
After receiving the half of an amalaka fruit, the senior monk gathered the monastics and said, “You all have witnessed that despite Emperor Ashoka’s reign over the world, enjoying worldly pleasures, now he is under the control of his ministers; he could not even have a say as to how to handle his own possessions. He has only the half of an amalaka fruit at his disposal.” As the Emperor made this offering to the monastics with an earnest heart, the senior monk instructed for the monks to put this half of an amalaka fruit into the soup; every monastic could then have a bit of it. And the senior monk also exhorted them, “Hence, we should cultivate a deep sense of disenchantment with regards to cyclic existence! The joyfulness of fame and wealth would soon deteriorate, the power in hand also would diminish soon after; life and death are truly abominable!” [08:09]
When Emperor Ashoka was on his deathbed, he asked his assistant minister Radhagupta, “Who can be at ease in this world?” Radhapupta replied, “Only Worldly Honored Buddha is at ease.” Then Emperor Ashoka put his palms together and vowed, “Other than the state treasury, I offer all the territories I own to Buddha’s community. All the merits I have accumulated in this life, I am not striving for a rebirth in the human or heavenly realms, but for the speedy attainment of this supreme state that is at ease.” With that said, he sealed with his teeth on the imperial edict and gave it to that assistant minister; then he passed away. We can say that this virtuous thought and dedication before his death is very praiseworthy. Later, this assistant minister opened a discussion with the other ministers, and together, they offered 0.4 billion gold to the monastics, in exchange for all the territories Ashoka donated on his deathbed. Finally, the last wish of Emperor Ashoka was fulfilled. [09:07]
This is the story of the distinctively renowned Emperor Ashoka! During his course of cultivating generosity, he offered the gold plates and silver plates to the monastics despite having nothing left. At the end, he got the half of an amalaka fruit – a king who owned so much land and subjects, they ended up giving him only half of an amalaka fruit – Ashoka still offered that portion of a fruit to the monastics, and vowed, “Other than the state treasury, I offer all the territory I own to Buddha’s community!” It was because of what he said, later his sons and the ministers conceded to offer the 0.4 billion gold to make up for what was short. Thus, let’s reflect on ourselves: do we usually have such perseverance in cultivating generosity? Such an act of generosity is truly admirable! [09:49]
【全球广论 II 讲次: 0219】
讲次 0219
标题 护法国王阿育王的故事
日期 2020-05-04 ~ 2020-05-06
广论段落 P2-L6 ~ P2-L8 此中传有二派释仪……应如后释。
备注 四家合注《白话校注集》 第1册 P96-注释②~ P97-注释②完 阿育王 佛所授记的古印度护法国王……参照藏传说法稍作补充。
00:00
上一次我们讲到那兰陀寺收集了所有的大乘经典，有九百多万卷经。跟法师们讨论那兰陀寺的时候，其实法师们都是心驰神往的。想想那时候印度没有印刷术，所有的经函都是手抄本，而且主要是贝叶经，还有树皮为纸这样抄下来的，可是那个时候出了那么多大成就者！ 00:31
那兰陀寺建寺的地址是舍利弗的出生地，舍利弗是赫赫有名的佛陀的大弟子。那么关于阿育王，我想给大家稍稍介绍一下。阿育王是佛所授记古印度的护法国王，在公元前 304～232 年间。阿恕伽是他梵语的音译，义译就是无忧，前世为德胜童子，他在小孩的时候就像小孩一样都喜欢玩土嘛！玩土的时候，他是太有福报了，就看到了佛陀托钵在乞食。他看到佛陀的时候就心生大欢喜，因为一个孩子也没有什么可以供养的，就想：把那个土当作食物，供养给了佛陀，然后发愿成为王。 01:24
佛陀就为他授记：于佛陀涅槃百年后这个童子当作转轮王，统领南赡部洲，名阿恕伽，分佛舍利做八万四千佛塔，饶益有情。此王为阿闍世王的后代，频头莎罗王的王子。他的母亲是婆罗门女，原先他的母亲为其他的后宫所嫉妒，专门服苦役，她因为善解国王的意思，后来成为了第一夫人。由于生下了阿育王以后，别人就再也不敢欺负她、不敢打扰她，可能也不敢嫉妒她了，所以就取名为无忧。好像这个小孩给他的母亲带来了幸福、无忧的生活──非常美好的一个名字。这是其中的一段关于阿育王的记载。 02:16
但在《印度佛教史》中又有这样的记载，说阿育王出生于北印度的赡巴阿拿境，父亲为日种国王涅米大，母亲原来是商主的妻子。因为阿育王出生的时候国王消除了之前的忧恼，所以叫无忧。年少的时候他就通达了各种文学和武术，喜欢练武。因为他的前世以土供佛，所以他今生的身形鄙恶，长得不是很好，所以不为王所爱念。很奇怪！父母会因为小孩长得不好而不喜欢吗？有的时候因为这个小孩长得不好，父母可能会更怜惜他一些，会不会这样呢？ 02:58
但是那个时候有个占相师是很厉害的，他一占相就知道虽然他有点不那么好看，但是一定会成为国王，所以就暗告大臣。当时国王常常遣他去攻打其他的叛国，但是却不给他兵器，这个时候地神就从地上涌现，然后奉上了兵器。到了那个背叛的国家之后，还没有开始进攻，那个国家就自己投降了，于是国土就逐渐地扩大。看来是一个能征善战的王子，天神共护。 03:34
后来因为宰相与太子不和，于是把相师的预言告诉了五百大臣，然后就谋杀太子，帮助阿育王登基。但是阿育王受到许多大臣的轻视、宫女的不喜，所以残杀了五百大臣及五百宫女，百姓改称为恶阿育王──前面有“恶”字，看起来这段的描述是很残忍。后来他又招了杀父杀母的这个恶人──耆梨，做了一个酷刑房，名叫爱乐狱，其中的刑法是比照地狱的。 04:08
当时有一个出家人，失误就走到了那个酷刑房里，然后马上就会被烧或者被杀了。这个出家人就哀求说：“可不可以缓刑七日啊？”后来就被答应了。他就精进用功，在七日之中见屎尿、内脏种种不净，生厌离心，精勤修道，证得了阿罗汉果。然后恶人以各种方式施刑，但是都不能害到他。于是就赶快去报告给国王，消息传开之后，国王和百姓就一起观看。然后这位阿罗汉──当初误入这个刑房的沙门，就知道：啊！度化大家的时候到了，所以就现大神通，并且告诉国王世尊的授记。国王心生稀有，忏悔前愆，然后皈依佛门──这个曾被称为恶阿育王的就皈依了！为了除掉众生的怖畏，他把那个刑房爱乐狱就直接毁坏掉了。 05:11
其后，这个国王遵从着佛的授记，召唤鬼神相助，于一日中就建造了八万四千佛舍利塔，一天就造完了，所以人们改称为正法阿育王。人们对他的称呼改得也满快的，马上就改了。然后又迎请了优婆毱多尊者宣扬佛的功德，教化十方。阿育王自己是完全没有悭吝心地供养佛僧，数以万计，而且他也是见人就劝、见人就劝，劝百姓布施修福啊！ 05:44
我不知道大家有没有被劝过要多布施啊、要多修福啊？现在看起来劝我们布施修福的，好像都是来要钱的，但是要是国王劝我们的话，我们就不会有这种心，因为觉得国王不会要我们的钱，因为他有的是钱。要是一个同行善友劝我们，我们就会觉得：欸！你怎么老说这个事情，劝我们布施修福呢？ 06:09
阿育王晚年的时候，想要学习须达长者。须达长者那个故事记得吧？我们还把它编成了戏剧演过。他把地全铺成金子供佛，对吧！阿育王也发愿供养百亿的黄金。当供养到九十六亿黄金的时候，很不幸地，阿育王就生病了，而且病得很重。想想，这个国王这么能供养，王子、大臣会有些担忧啊！怕王库空虚、都供出来了，所以就不再供养。 06:44
因为才九十六亿，还差四亿，但即使是拿个金盘子、银盘子──那个侍从会端进去为这个生病的国王送食物嘛──国王仍然将金盘子还有银盘子这些物品，告诉他的侍从去供养布施给僧众。最后只给国王送了半颗庵摩罗果。然后国王就嘱咐他的侍从去报告寺院里的上座说：“此是国王最后供养。”这个庵摩罗果是国王最后的供养。 07:21
上座收到了半颗庵摩罗果之后就召集僧众说：“你们看到阿育王统治天下受用快乐，现在大王被臣属所控制，连自己的财物都无法自主，只剩这半颗庵摩罗果能随意得用。”因大王以殷重心来布施于僧众，于是上座就交代典座，将半颗庵摩罗果放入羹汤里面，让所有的僧众都能够受用，上座也就由此教诫众僧说：“因此啊，要对生死轮回深生厌恶！荣华富贵的快乐不久就会败坏，权势自在也是不久就会失去，生死实在是非常地可恶啊！”08:09
后来阿育王临命终的时候，就问他的辅相罗提毱提说：“在此世中，谁得自在？”答曰：“唯圣世尊，得大自在。”然后阿育王就合掌发愿：“唯除库藏，四海一切尽供佛僧。此生所积一切功德，不求世间人天果位，只愿速成圣位得大自在！”说完他就以齿印──就是用牙咬的──去封诏书，然后就把它给了那个辅相，随即命终。可以说他在命终之前的这个善念、这个回向，还是非常非常令人钦佩的。所以后来这个辅相与大臣就共同商议，就把四亿黄金供僧，赎回了四海国土。终于圆满了阿育王的最后的心愿。 09:07
赫赫有名的阿育王！在他修布施的时候，最后什么都没有了，金盘子、银盘子都去供僧。后来得到了半颗庵摩罗果──拥有那么多的国土和那么多臣民的国王，最后只给国王送了半颗庵摩罗果──他还拿那个半颗庵摩罗果去供僧，并且发愿说：“唯除库藏，四海一切，所有国土全部供僧！”正是因为他这样说了，所以后来大臣和王子才把那四亿的黄金补上。所以看一看，我们平常对于修布施有没有这样的精勤啊？这样的一种布施真的是令人钦佩啊！ 09:49