The Dhammapada with Parables, Fascicle 1
Long ago, King Pasenadi of Sāvatthī came
to the Buddha’s monastery, paid homage to the Buddha with utmost sincerity, and
respectfully declared, “With the most genuine heart, I, your disciple, have
arranged food offerings at the major crossroads throughout the kingdom, and I
invite the Buddha and the whole monastic community to receive these offerings. I
have done this so that the people of the kingdom will recognize the exalted
nature of the Buddha, and to provide sentient beings with the opportunity to
hear the Buddha expound the five precepts and uphold them. May they thus
distance themselves from harmful influences and abandon all wrongdoing, and
through their meritorious qualities, may national calamities and disasters be
eradicated.”
The Buddha said, “What a king of wholesome
faculties! You lead your people through the path of the Dharma, enabling them
to receive abundant blessed retribution in their future lives!” The king
personally prepared a vegetarian feast with the people and respectfully invited
the Buddha and the assembly of monks to travel throughout the country to
receive offerings. After the Buddha and the assembly of monks had finished
receiving and partaking of the meal the king had prepared for them, the Buddha
ascended his seat at the main crossroads to preach the Dharma to the king and
the people.
Among the assembly were two merchants who
were also listening to the Dharma. One of them felt a surge of joy and praise
arise in his heart and thought, “Oh, Buddha! You are like an emperor, and your
disciples are like loyal ministers. You expound the Buddha Dharma, and your
disciples recite, practice, and proclaim it. Our king is truly wise because he
recognizes the Buddha’s nobility and is willing to submit to him respectfully, even
inviting him to receive offerings.”
Yet the other merchant, overcome by
arrogance, gave rise to a single thought: “How foolish this king is! He already
possesses such wealth and power, lacking nothing in worldly matters. Why, then,
does he show such reverence and make offerings to the Buddha?” After making
offerings to the Buddha, the two continued their journey.
The merchant who harbored wholesome
thoughts developed a heart of rejoicing and praise toward the Buddha. As a
result, he attracted the protection of the assemblies of the Four Great
Heavenly Kings and the Dharma guardian deities of dragons and heavens. However,
the merchant who harbored evil thoughts attracted malevolent spirits of the
lowly paths, causing the wine he swallowed to blaze like flames within his gut.
His mind thus clouded, he stumbled and fell outside the pavilion where he and
the other merchant had been resting, and lay drunk in the middle of the road.
The next day, a caravan of five hundred carts happened to pass by, and
tragically, the merchant was crushed to death under their wheels. (Part 1/3)
One merchant lay dead in the road, crushed beneath five hundred carts. But what became of the other—the one whose heart had filled with joy and praise? A single kind thought was about to change his life beyond anything he could imagine…
#Buddha #karma #Dharma #retribution #transmigration
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