Thu, 02 Jul 2009
The Drowned Merchant
Lama Phurbu Tashi told a story last night that I first heard from Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche. Here's the fuller version from Khenpo.
In a previous life the Buddha was the son of a widowed mother. His father had been a merchant sailor and had been lost at sea. Because the mother feared her son would also be lost, she concealed his occupation from him and told him he was firewood collector instead. So each day he would collect the wood, sell it, and give the two small coins to his mother. One day the other firewood collectors told him, this is not your caste, you should not be doing this work. So the son asked his mother what his occupation really was, and she told him that he was a porter. So he hired himself out as a porter and each day gave the five small coins he earned as wages to his mother. Then the other porters shunned him, saying this is not your caste. So the son went back to his mother and asked what his occupation really was. His mother told him the truth, that he was the son of a sea merchant, but that she had lied to keep from losing him as well. The son signed up on a ship bound for the Jewel Islands, thinking he would become a rich merchant. He told his mother that he was leaving to make his fortune, and she fell to the ground and grabbed hold of his legs, begging him not to go. He kicked her in the head to get her to let go, and left for the ship, which sailed that day.
During the voyage a huge storm came up and the ship capsized. He grabbed a hold on a barrel and floated to the nearest island. Really, he had drowned, but he imagined that he was still alive. When he arrived on the island, he came to a house with two women. The women took him in and fed him and clothed him, and became his partners as well. After a while he became restless and wanted to see what else was on the island. So he left the two women and travelled on. After some days his provisions had run out. He saw a house with five women, who took him in and fed him, and he had sexual relations with the five of them, as he had with the two women before. But he didn't want to settle down so he continued his wandering.
One day he came to a black iron fortress with large fierce guards at the ramparts. He asked to be let in so he could refresh himself and sleep indoors for the night. The guards opened the doors, but when he came in the guards grabbed him and pulled him along to a prison cell. Inside the cell was a man with an iron band circling his head so tightly that his brains gushed out. The son asked the man what he was being punished for. The man said that in his previous life he had kicked his mother in the head. A loud voice then said, "Let him who is bound be freed and he who is free be bound." So the guards took the iron band and put it on the son's head. The pain was excruciating. But instead of feeling anger or fear, the son, who was the future Buddha, felt great compassion for everyone who suffered and for everyone whose actions would lead to similar punishments in the future. As a result of this sincere compassion, he died in that realm and was reborn in the realm of the devas.
