Third Section: The Past Cause of Headaches
Heard like this:
At one time, the Buddha was at Anavatapta Spring, accompanied by five hundred great bhikṣus, all of whom were Arhats, possessing the six supernatural powers, except for one bhikṣu, who was different. It was Ananda.
The Buddha said to Sariputta, “In the distant past, in the great city of Rajagriha, there was a famine, and the price of grain was extremely high. People were scavenging for bones, crushing them to boil and drink the juice, digging up the roots of various plants to sustain their fragile lives. At that time, one liter of gold could only be exchanged for one liter of grain. In Rajagriha, there was a large village called Kije, with several hundred households. Not far to the east of the village, there was a pond named Fish-Abundant. The people of Kije village went with their families to the Fish-Abundant pond, where they stopped to fish in order to satisfy their hunger. The fishermen would place the fish they caught on the shore, and the fish would jump and struggle on land.
“At that time, I was a young child, just four years old. I saw the fish jumping and felt very happy. There were two types of fish in the pond: one was called the Grain Shell and the other was called the Multi-tongues fish. These fish began to speak to each other, saying: ‘We have not harmed humans, yet we are innocently eaten by them. We vow to take revenge on them in the future.’”
The Buddha then said to Sariputta, “Do you know the villagers of Kije at that time, young and old, men and women? They are the present-day Shakya clan of Kapilavastu. The child at that time was me. The Grain Shell at that time was King
Virūḍhaka, and the Multi-tongues fish was the present-day Prime Minister of King Virūḍhaka, a Brahmin named Evil-tongues. At that time, I struck the heads of the jumping fish with a small stick, and because of this cause, I fell into heck and suffered for endless years. Although I have now attained supreme and perfect enlightenment, because of this residual karma, I suffer from headaches whenever King
Virūḍhaka slaughters the Shakya clan.”
The Buddha then said to Sariputta, “Do you know how serious my headaches are? Sariputta, when I first began to feel the pain, I said to Ananda, ‘Get me a bowl that can hold four liters of water and bring it to me.’ Ananda did as I instructed, and I dipped my finger in the sweat on my forehead and dropped it into the water. The water immediately evaporated and disappeared. It was like a large pot that has been heated all day; when just one drop of water is added, it evaporates instantly. The heat of the headache was like that. Even if there were a cliff beside Mount Sumeru, a yojana or a hundred yojanas wide, if it were exposed to the heat from my headache, it would evaporate completely. Sariputta, this is the Tathagata’s headache.”
At that time, the Buddha recited the following verse about the causes and effects of past lives:
“In the past, there was a village called Kije, and a child in Kije,
Caught fish and placed them on the shore, the child struck their heads with a wooden stick.
Because of this karmic cause, I endured long suffering in heck,
In a place called the Black Rope Heck, where I suffered the prolonged torment of being boiled and burned.
Because of this residual karma, I now suffer from headaches,
And when the Shakya clan was slaughtered, the one who committed the evil deeds was King Virūḍhaka.
The cycle of cause and effect will never vanish, nor will it disappear into thin air.
We should protect these three types of cause and effect and not violate the moral conduct of body, speech, and mind.
I myself have become the honored Buddha, the leader of the three realms,
And thus I recount the karmic causes of past lives, here at Anavatapta Spring.”
The Buddha said to Sariputta, “Look at me, the Tathagata. All my evil deeds have been eliminated, and all my good deeds have been fully accomplished. the Heavenly beings, Nāgas, gods and spirits, kings, and subjects all marvel at my merits. Even so, I still cannot avoid the karmic consequences from past lives. How much more so for those ignorant beings who have not yet attained the Way?”
The Buddha then said to Sariputta, “You should learn this, as should all Arhats and all sentient beings. “
The Buddha then said to Sariputta, “You should protect the three precepts of the body, the four precepts of the speech, and the three precepts of the mind. Sariputta! You should learn this.”
As the Buddha spoke these words, Sariputta, the five hundred Arhats, the Anavatapta Nāga King, the Heavenly beings, Nāgas, Yakṣas, Gandharvas, Asuras, Garudas, Kinnaras, Mahoragas, all the beings gathered, listened to the Buddha’s teachings and accepted them with great joy, following them in practice.
Dharma Torch 