Section Five: The Past Cause of Back Pain
Heard like this.
At one time, the Buddha was at the Great Anavatapta Spring together with five hundred great bhikṣus. They were all Arhats, possessing the six supernormal powers, with only one bhikṣu as an exception, namely Ānanda.
At that time, the Buddha said to Śāriputra, “In the distant past, in the city of Rājagṛha, during a great festival, the people gathered together. In the country at that time there were two wrestlers: one was born into the kṣatriya caste, and the other was born into the brahmin caste. They also both attended the gathering. At that time, the two wrestlers held a wrestling match. The brahmin wrestler said to the kṣatriya wrestler, ‘Do not use your strength to throw me down. After the contest is over, I will give you many coins and treasures.’ The kṣatriya wrestler then did not compete with his full strength, allowing the brahmin wrestler to appear to win easily. Both of them received praise and together accepted the king’s reward, but the brahmin wrestler did not fulfill the promise he had made to the kṣatriya wrestler. When the next festival came, they again gathered and held a wrestling match. The brahmin wrestler again asked the kṣatriya wrestler to let him win the contest and promised the same compensation. The kṣatriya wrestler again yielded, and the result was as before. The brahmin wrestler again received the reward, but he still did not fulfill his promise. This happened three times.
“At a later festival, the brahmin wrestler again said to the kṣatriya wrestler, ‘The compensation I promised before, I will pay to you in full today.’ The kṣatriya wrestler thought to himself, ‘This man has deceived me many times. Not only has he failed to repay me, he has also harmed my interests. Today I will make him pay the price.’ The kṣatriya wrestler smiled and said to the brahmin wrestler, ‘You have already deceived me three times. Today I no longer need your things.’ Then the kṣatriya placed his right hand on the brahmin wrestler’s neck, seized the waistband of his trousers with his left hand, and, using the strength of both hands, broke the brahmin wrestler’s spine as one would break sugarcane. Holding him up, he spun him around three times so that everyone saw it, and then violently threw him to the ground. The brahmin wrestler died at once. The king and ministers all cheered and rejoiced, and they bestowed one hundred thousand coins upon the kṣatriya wrestler.”
The Buddha said to Śāriputra, “Do you know who the kṣatriya wrestler who killed the brahmin wrestler was at that time? He was I myself. The brahmin wrestler was Devadatta.”
The Buddha said to Śāriputra, “At that time, because of greed and anger, I killed that wrestler. Because of these causes and conditions, I fell into hell and underwent the long sufferings of boiling and whipping for several thousand years. Now I have accomplished Abhisaṁbuddha, and all afflictions have already been eliminated. Yet because of the residual cause and effect from that time, to this day I still have the affliction of pain in my back.”
At that time, the Buddha recited a verse concerning the causes and effects of former lives:
“When wrestling at a festival gathering, I intended to defeat my opponent.
In one motion I threw him down to the ground, causing his spine to break.
Because of these causes and conditions, I long endured the suffering of hell.
The residual harm left from a former life has caused my present pain in the back.
The cycle of cause and effect never decays or perishes; it does not vanish into empty space.
One should carefully protect these three causal relations, and not violate the 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 Śāriputra, “Look at me, the Tathāgata. All evil actions have already been eliminated, and all good actions have already been fulfilled. Devas, nāgas, ghosts and spirits, emperors, ministers, and people all marvel at my merit. Even so, I still cannot avoid the causes and conditions of former lives. How much more so, then, for those foolish people who have not yet attained the Way?”
The Buddha said to Śāriputra, “You should protect the three precepts of the body, the four precepts of speech, and the three precepts of the mind. Śāriputra, you should learn these.”
When the Buddha spoke these words, Śāriputra, the five hundred Arhats, the Eight Legions, devas and sprits, having heard the Buddha’s teaching, all accepted it with great joy and practiced it.
Dharma Torch 