Chapter 2? Something happened to Ananda! (Part 1: different versions)
The original text of "The Surangama Sutra on the Head of the Great Buddha":
At that time, King Posani was His father, the king, tabooed the practice of fasting in the sun. Please invite the Buddha's palace to welcome the Tathagata. Extensive collection of treasures and exquisite delicacies. At the same time, he also visited all the great Bodhisattvas. There are again elderly lay people in the city. At the same time, the rice monk stood in front of the Buddha to answer. The Buddha ordered Manjushri to lead Bodhisattvas and Arhats to attend to the Lords. Only Ananda accepted the invitation first. Even if you haven’t traveled far away, it’s better to be a monk. There is neither the Supreme Being nor the Acharya. On the way, he returned alone and had no offerings. Ananda held the instrument in real time. Begging in every city you visit. In the end, Tan Yue thought that he was the master of the restaurant. There is no question about the surname of the Pure Ksāri and Chandala. Fang Xing and others are kind and do not choose the humble. The intention is to achieve immeasurable merit for all sentient beings. Ananda knows the Tathagata World Honored One. Hexubhu mentioned Mahakasyapa. For an Arhat, the mind is uneven. I admire the Tathagata for his enlightenment and clear up all doubts and slanders. Passing by the city god, Xubu Guo Gate. Strictly regulate the majestic manners and solemn rituals. At that time, Ananda was begging for food and went into a sexual chamber. A modern girl suffered a great illusion. Use the Brahma mantra of Sapikara to enter the adultery mat. Obscene touching will destroy the body.
After another summer retreat was completed, and the criticism and self-criticism were over, King Pasenadi of Gion was going to hold a fast for the anniversary of his father's death, and invited the Buddha and the great Bodhisattva to come to the palace to celebrate the fast. King Pasenadi was born in the same month and day as the Buddha. On the day of his birth, the royal city was filled with tiny lights, like the bright moonlight, so his father named him Moonlight. Some people say that it was because of the Buddha's virtues. Like sunlight, King Pasenadi's virtues were also very noble, so he was named Moonlight. In addition, because his father hoped to defeat all enemies when he grew up, he was also called Victorious Army.
King Pasenadi also had great respect for the Buddha. He knew that this Summer Retreat and Monk Retreat had just ended, which coincided with the death anniversary of his father, so he stayed in the palace. Various delicious fasting meals were prepared in the palace, and the Buddha and the great Bodhisattvas were invited to come to celebrate the fasting. At the same time, the highly respected laymen in the royal city also prepared fasting meals in their respective homes, and planned to invite other disciples of the Buddha to come. Yingzhai.
The Buddha ordered his chief disciple Manjushri Bodhisattva to arrange for all the Bodhisattvas and Arhats to attend the fasting ceremony. As the Dharma Master, the Buddha should naturally go to the palace to attend the fasting ceremony, while other ministers For the fasting meals of the chief ministers and laymen, the great Bodhisattvas and Arhats should be the ones to take part in the fasting meals. It's just that the Buddha's cousin Ananda accepted the invitation of other fasting masters in advance and went to fast. He couldn't make it back in time, so he couldn't catch the fast this time.
Ananda means rejoicing. King Suddhodana, the father of Sakyamuni Buddha, has been very distressed because of Prince Siddhartha’s becoming a monk. When he heard someone report When the Buddha became enlightened, he was even more mixed with joy and sorrow, and the emotions in his heart were indescribable. It happened that King Hufan, the king's brother, sent someone to report that a prince had just been born, and the whole country celebrated, so he named the prince Qingxi, that is, Ananda. When Ananda grew up, he looked very much like the Buddha. He almost had all the various appearances, beauty, and majesty that the Buddha had. Therefore, in the eyes of others, this Ananda was really a very handsome and good-looking young man. When the Buddha was fifty-five years old, that is, when Ananda was twenty-five years old, he was converted into a monk by the Buddha. Until the Buddha reached nirvana at the age of eighty, Ananda served the Buddha for twenty-five years. Among the disciples of Sakyamuni Buddha, he was the most learned person.
When Ananda came back from the place where he had fasted, everyone had already gone to fast, and there was no fasting meal in Gion, so Ananda had no choice but to follow the Buddhist rules. Begging for alms.
At this time, Ananda’s calamity came. There was no senior bhikkhu to accompany him, and no teacher to guide him. He went into the city to beg for food alone. Ananda’s appearance He was very handsome, well-liked by everyone, and when Ananda was begging for alms, he displayed the dignity taught by the Buddha to the fullest. Therefore, there was the basic reason for being entangled by women.
With cause, what is fate? Ananda's own destiny is that he has always been a good listener and listened to various Dharma doors taught by the Buddha, but the Dharma is the Dharma and he is himself. He has never used the principles of the Dharma to guide himself. He only hopes that he is the cousin of the Buddha and the Buddha. If you have become a Buddha, then with the guidance of the Buddha, you should be able to achieve enlightenment and fruition without any effort (it is said that when one person attains enlightenment, chickens and dogs ascend to heaven!), therefore, he has never truly understood the principles of the world, and has no The power of transcendental concentration.
This is a bit like some people who are studying Buddhism nowadays, who are bent on looking for achievers who have supernatural powers that everyone has rumored and praised. And when they find them, they are really very respectful. When the master says east, it is east. When the master says west, it must be west. I just hope that with the blessing of the master, I can achieve it easily. However, these people have never understood that the true method of respecting the master is not like this, but to think and practice according to the Dharma, to support the master with the Dharma, to correspond to the guru, to the original mind, and to wisdom.
Ananda laid the foundation for himself to suffer embarrassment based on the mentality of "there is a Buddha in everything". Therefore, when he met the fate of an external woman down there, especially the fate of a five-hundred-year-old husband and wife, no scriptures or spells worked, and he almost failed completely.
This Ananda, when he was begging for food on the street, was still able to restrain himself according to the Buddha's teachings and arrange his monk's clothes properly, because the Buddha's requirements were A monk can only go to a maximum of seven households a day to beg for food. If he passes through these seven households without begging for any food, he will be hungry that day. Therefore, in Ananda's heart, he prayed that he would be able to beg for food before the last family, otherwise the Buddha, all the Bodhisattva Arhats and even the first-time monks would have gone to eat well, but I would be hungry.
Moreover, according to the requirements of the Buddha, during the process of begging, one cannot be selective about the families who come to beg for food, but should beg with equality, regardless of whether the family is A noble family, but also a butcher's slave. Why do you ask for this? Because there once was the Venerable Kassapa, because the ancestor was a celestial being, his body was so bright that he could no longer see the lights, so he was called the Drinking Light clan. Among the monk disciples of Sakyamuni Buddha, Venerable Kassapa is the first person to practice Buddhism. When Venerable Kassapa was begging for food, in order to add blessings to the poor people, he went to the poor people's homes to beg for food. Subhuti, as mentioned above, considered not letting the rich people live. Their fortunes were getting worse, so they specially selected wealthy people to beg for food. The great layman Vimalakīrti gave these two sages a lesson in their faces for being selective about the people who begged. The difference between wealth and wealth, and learning Buddhism is to solve the various concepts of duality and opposition. Only when the duality is completely eliminated can we talk about wisdom. Venerable Kasyapa and Subhuti were unable to deal with Vimalakīrti’s criticism, and only Manjushri Bodhisattva could deal with Vimalakīrti’s wisdom. Therefore, among the many disciples of the Buddha in the Vimalakīrti Sutra, only Manjushri Bodhisattva could. On behalf of the Buddha, he went to visit the great layman Vimalakirti who was ill. After Vimalakirti taught Kassapa and Subhuti, they could no longer be picky when begging. They could only pass by the houses of seven households, rich or poor, along the road to beg.
When Ananda was begging for food along the road in a dignified manner, his outer edge finally appeared and he passed a house. There are two mothers and daughters in this family. The mother was a lowly caste in the caste system at that time, so she was called Madanga, and the daughter was called Madanga. The woman saw Ananda solemnly and peacefully begging for food on the street. He was round and handsome, and she fell in love with him immediately. He begged his mother to use Brahma's spell to confuse Ananda and let Ananda become husband and wife with her.
Under the spell of Maha Brahma, Ananda was seduced by Madanga. He immediately did not know the north, south, east, and west. It was also because his past karma had matured, so he walked in. In the home of Madagascar. Madagascar was inexplicably happy. She watched with her eyes and smiled in her heart. She kept touching and scratching with her hands, and she was about to get to the point.
Regarding the process of the Madagava preparing to possess Ananda under the influence of her mother’s phantom spell, in the Tripitaka, except for the Shurangama Sutra, In addition to this statement, there are several different statements. After sorting out the other statements, I found that the process is described in very detail, just like a documentary. I personally like it better, so I will insert it here.
This woman’s mother was a sanitation worker who cleaned the royal city. In the caste system at that time, she belonged to a lowly caste. But this does not prevent her from believing in Brahma and has been reciting Brahma's mantras.
One day, after Ananda followed the crowd into the royal city to beg for food, when he was preparing to return to Gion along a waterside, he felt a little thirsty, so he asked a man next to him to ask for help. The woman asked for some water. This woman was Madanga. She told Ananda: "I am a person of low status and cannot provide you with water." Ananda said: "I am a monk and I have no distinction between the rich and the poor, the high and the low, so you can safely give me water. Let me drink some water." Just like that, Ananda returned to Gion after drinking the water.
But curiosity can really kill the cat! This woman, for the first time, saw someone regardless of caste, and there was no discrimination against a woman from a lower caste like herself. Moreover, the young man was still so handsome. He followed Ananda and saw Ananda clearly entering Gion. Then she came back to her mother and said, "Mom, I have fallen in love with a young man, and I must marry him. You know the magic, and you must help me." Her mother asked which family the young man belonged to, and Mordenga girl answered that he was from A monk who went to Gion was named Ananda. After hearing this, her mother told her daughter: "There are two kinds of people for whom my spell cannot have any effect. One is a person who has given up desire, and the other is a dead person. I heard that the Buddha in Gion and his My disciples are all people who have no desire. I am afraid that there is nothing I can do. Besides, King Pasenadi has always been very pious to the Buddha. If he hears that I use mantras to confuse his disciples, I am afraid that our whole family and even the entire caste will be destroyed. It’s not certain that they will all be killed.” Because the desire in her heart was unbearable, Madanga lay down on the ground, rolled around, and asked her mother to help her lure Ananda over, and said that she would not marry anyone except Ananda in this life. Her mother only had one daughter to depend on. She couldn't bear to see her daughter in such pain, so she promised to find a way.
The next day, Madanga's mother came forward and invited Ananda to her home to fast. When a monk goes to a believer's home to observe the fast, he follows him to that person's home. When he arrived at Madenga Nu's home, Ananda realized that this was a Hongmen Banquet.
Madanga's mother said to Ananda: "My daughter must marry you as your wife." Ananda said: "I hold the precepts established by the Buddha. I cannot She has a wife." Madenga's mother said, "If my daughter can't marry you, she will commit suicide. You can't just ignore her, right?" Ananda replied, "I can't help her. I always listen to the Buddha and cannot have sex with women.” From this question and answer, we can clearly understand that Ananda is determined not to engage in sexual intercourse because he has become a monk and has taken the precepts not to engage in sexual intercourse. He couldn't tell any more reasons to convince Madenga and her mother.
In the situation where neither party can convince the other, my territory is at my mercy! Madanga's mother used Brahma's spell to trap Ananda at home. The process of the spell is as follows: After taking a bath, Madenga's mother wore white clothes, carefully smeared the ground with cow dung from the snow-capped white cows, then tied colorful silk threads everywhere, and prepared four bowls of water and four bowls of water. Blood, four bowls of various perfumes, four bowls of cake paste, four knives, four horns, four arrows, eight lamps, four skeletons of dead people, spread the ground with flowers, burn incense, circle it three times, and then light a fire , kneel down facing the east, and after reciting the incantation, please ask the gods, demons, Gandharvas, fire gods, or earth gods. As long as you hear my incantation and enjoy my offering, you must ask Ananda to listen to my orders. .
Under the influence of this spell, Ananda could not escape from other people's homes. Whenever he wanted to leave, it was like walking into a pit of fire. Waiting until evening, Madenga's mother had her daughter decorate her home with lights and flowers, and prepare a new bedding. She was about to consummate her husband's marriage with Ananda. At this critical moment, Ananda finally had a glimmer of understanding and lamented: "I am a monk who followed the Buddha and became a monk, and a bhikkhu that everyone respects, but I am violating the precepts like this today! Buddha! Please save me quickly. ! ”
Ananda’s prayer was perceived by the Buddha’s spiritual thoughts, and the Buddha recited a mantra that could relieve the fear and fear of all living beings, and said : "Keeping the precepts can relieve all sentient beings from the troubles and heat, keeping the precepts can eliminate all ignorance and foolishness, and keeping the precepts can make everyone happy and praise. If I have strictly observed the precepts, then my attendant should be able to come back."
Under the influence of the Buddha’s divine mantra, the effect of the Brahma mantra issued by Madanga’s mother disappeared. Ananda finally found this opportunity, and learned from Madanga The family rushed out and quickly returned to Gion. The Buddha taught Ananda a new mantra and said: "This mantra is a mantra spoken by the six Buddhas in the past. Anyone who recites it can avoid all disasters and be free from any evil obstacles. Even Brahma and the King of Heaven, Sakyamuni, can , the four heavenly kings must also recite this mantra respectfully, but the only thing is that the fixed karma cannot be changed. "In fact, what the Buddha means is, Ananda, you still have fixed karma and it is difficult to escape, so you have not stepped up your practice. ! But Ananda didn't think so. He thought that if the Buddha used his supernatural power to save me this time and imparted this magical spell to me, then I wouldn't have anything to worry about.
When Madanga found out that Ananda had run away, she told her mother. Her mother said: "This must be the Buddha using his divine power to destroy my spell. Buddha His magical power is really incomparable to me, and I have no choice." Madagascar still didn't give up, thinking: "The spell won't work, so I will use my beauty to impress him every day. ""
The next day, Madagascar got up early, dressed herself up in her best clothes, and came to the city gate to wait for Ah. It is difficult to go into the city to beg for food. Sure enough, Ananda had something to rely on, so he came to the city to beg for food as usual. At the gate of the city, the two people met. Ananda thought that he had a new divine spell to protect him, so he didn't care about it, and went into the city to beg for food on the street; while Madagava was extremely happy and followed Ananda into the city with a big smile, looking at Ananda's face for a while, and then looking at Looking at Ananda's feet, I kept looking at them. The more I looked at them, the happier I became. I felt that this young man was really a lovely person. Ananda had no choice now. He couldn't get rid of him, and he couldn't scold him. He had to maintain his dignity. How could he beg for food? Ananda was so embarrassed and embarrassed that he had no choice but to turn around and return to Gion, closing the gate tightly. Madagascar also followed and stood guard at the gate of Gion. After waiting for a long time, it turned out that Ananda was really determined this time, so he went home crying sadly.
Ananda finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the Madanga girl had gone back. He hurried to the Buddha and reported to the Buddha: "That girl has been following me again today. I can't even beg for food. Please think of a way." The Buddha thought: "I have already hinted that this is a fixed karma, and you can't hide from it. Besides, you don't have the ability to solve this problem. It seems that you still need my help!" He comforted Ananda and said, "Don't worry, I'll help you solve this problem, but you still need to practice harder in the future. With me under my protection, you can relax."
Ananda rushed out of the garden gate and chased Madanga back. Madagascar thought that Ananda was going to agree to the marriage, so she was very happy and followed Ananda to the Buddha's presence.
The Buddha asked Madagava: "Why have you been following Ananda?" Madagava replied: "I think Ananda is handsome. Besides, he is a monk and has no marriage." And I have never been married. I just hope to get married to Ananda." The Buddha then asked: "Marriage requires your parents' approval. Do your parents agree?" Everyone listens to me. If you don’t listen to me, I will act like a fool and she will agree.” Of course, Madagascar only thought this in her heart and would not tell the Buddha. The Buddha said: "Then you still have to invite your parents over. I want to ask clearly in person." Madanga thought to herself that her marriage to Ananda should be almost done now. My mother must have listened to me; now listen to the Buddha His tone seemed to have no objection. I happily went home and invited my mother to come to Gion to see the Buddha.
After Madanga's mother paid obeisance to me, the Buddha asked: "Are you really going to marry your daughter to Ananda?" Her mother replied: " Just like what the Buddha said, I hope to marry my daughter to Ananda as my wife." The Buddha said, "Well, please go home and your daughter will stay here, because Ananda lives here. ." Madenga's mother returned to her home.
Just as Madagascar was looking at Ananda, filled with joy and thinking that her wish could finally come true, the Buddha asked Madagasa: "Is Ananda a monk?" Bhikkhu, if you want to marry her, you must first shave your head and become a monk like her. Are you willing?" Madanga thought to herself, "As long as I can be with Ananda, what does it mean to shave my head and become a monk?" The Buddha said, "You should go home and discuss it with your mother before deciding." When Madanga's mother heard that the Buddha wanted her daughter to become a monk, she was furious. Said: "There are so many famous families in the royal city, and there are so many good young men who can be controlled by my spell. Why do you insist on this Ananda who I have no control over?!" Mordenga The girl said resolutely: "I will not marry anyone but Ananda in this life, no matter what the price! If you really love me, mother, please don't stop me from becoming a monk." Her mother scolded angrily: "You rebellious child! What a shame. !" But Madenga Nu was still very determined, and her mother had no choice but to obey her.
Madagascar returned to the Buddha and told the Buddha that her mother had agreed to all the requests and that there was no problem in becoming a monk. Following the Buddha's verse, Madagascar's hair naturally fell off, her cassock was naturally worn on her body, and she became a monk. I thought to myself: Are we going to prepare for a wedding next? Wearing a cassock to hold a wedding is really unique!
However, what Buddha said next changed the whole incident drastically. The Buddha asked Madagava: "What do you love about Ananda? What do you love about him?" Madagava looked at Ananda as if her eyes could radiate stars, and said affectionately: "I love Ananda, I love him." His eyes like lotus flowers, his straight nose, his moist lips, his beautiful ears, his soft and charming voice, his flowing walking posture, I love everything about him." Buddha said: "Oh. ! I saw that there was still eye wax in his eyes; I saw that there was sticky mucus in his nose; I saw that there was dirty saliva in his mouth; I saw that there was earwax in his ears. ; The body is also full of smelly feces and unclean yellow water. As long as a man and a woman have sex, there will be fishy secretions. With these secretions, children will be born; When you have a child, you will have the pain of raising a child and the pain of separation through death. What is there to love about such a body?" Of course, in addition to these impure views, the Buddha also talked about the faults of desire. , observing the precepts leads to heavenly enjoyment, suffering sets in and destroys the path, and other holy truths. It was also because of the maturity of Madenga's good destiny that she followed the Buddha's teachings and continued to ponder and comprehend it deeply. Finally, she was able to understand it with a happy mind and directly attained the status of Arahant of the Four Fruits. After getting rid of all worries, of course there would be no need to bother Ananda.
Ananda finally got rid of this embarrassment, but in front of him, the modern girl achieved Arahantship, and he still stayed where he was. This was really a new embarrassment!
Personally, I feel that the above version is more in line with the situation at that time, but based on the "Surangama Sutra", it can also form its own system and explain the entire Buddhism. The great secret, so let us continue according to the version of the Shurangama Sutra.
There is a saying in the original text that "the body of the precepts will be destroyed". What does that mean?