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Global Lamrim II

Lecture No. 0286

Lamrim Volume 1:  P37LL10 ~ P38-L3

Tape No: NA

Date: 14 Jun 2022

Topic: Causes and conditions of building Odantapuri Monastery

So where did  Master Atisha receive the teaching of the Great Detailed Explanation? What was  the place? You still remember, right? That place is called ‘’Odantapuri”, right!  Regarding the name of this monastery, there is another story. Before telling this story, we will first introduce the practice of resurrecting the dead. The practice of resurrecting the dead may sound a little terrifying, but it is actually an achievement both Buddhist and non-Buddhist practitioners could have. There are many accounts of such practice found in biographies,  books on Buddhism history, and  monastery journals.  Tantra practitioners or those who aspire to quickly  accumulate blissful merits would also apply such a practice; or, for the sake of obtaining gold, some practitioners would transform corpse into gold; some would engage in the practice to  transform corpse into  riding vehicle. This practice can be applied productively. [00:48]

As for the non-Buddhist mentioned in this story, he intended to obtain one of the eight achievements which was the precious sword. The cultivation of accomplishing these eight achievements was practised by both Buddhists and non-Buddhists. Through casting spell on  a corpse for a period of time, the corpse would become a resurrected corpse,  and it would jump up. At this moment, one of the two – the practitioner or his assistant – had to restrain the corpse which would by now jump up, and the other person would cut off the tongue of the corpse. The amputated tongue would immediately turn into a precious sword;  The holder of this sword could travel anywhere and would become all powerful; there is nothing he could not do.  I am not sure whether the holder of the sword clasps the sword or sits on the sword. Anyway, the tongue is no longer the tongue; it turns into a precious sword. [01:28]

Let’s get back to Rinpoche’s Introduction.  (Chinese text, page 110) Here, Master Ngawang Rab-te (we translated as Venerable Yu in the past) made a lot of annotations in regard to the history of  Odantapuri Monastery. Rinpoche began  the story: in the past, there was a non-Buddhist who  practised resurrecting the dead – which we have just introduced. This practice is to enable dead corpse to walk;  that is the “vetalasiddhi”, which is one of the eight siddhis in the Tantric training. There is such kind of practice  among Buddhists as well. If the practice is successfully achieved,  the corpse  will turn into gold. This non-Buddhist wanted to practice resurrecting the dead. However, he couldn’t possibly make it without a helping hand. Thus, he asked a Buddhist lay practitioner to help out and told the lay practitioner,  “While I am performing the ritual of resurrecting the corpse, if you are able to  cut off the tongue of the resurrected corpse and give it to me,  the entire corpse would all turn into gold, and the gold will be all yours.” I believe this took a lot of courage. What if the layperson could not restrain it? What if he just could not bear to cut off the tongue or too terrified to do so? Anyway, we don’t know whether the layperson made the gallant effort for the gold or because these two were friends; it is not clearly documented. Anyhow, the layperson agreed to help out. [02:48]

If the resurrection of the corpse (vetalasaddhi) is achieved,  its tongue will turn into a precious sword. Holding the sword, one would be able to travel to the peak of Mount Meru, and fly to the celestial realm.  They began the practice. A few days after practising resurrecting the dead,  the corpse began to regain body temperature. A few more days later, the corpse could move; a few more days later,  the practitioners could see the tongue of the corpse moving. Initially, the tongue would stick out but retract right away. If the tongue could be cut off at the first time it stuck out, that was the best;  that layperson was asked to help cut off the tongue of the corpse.  However, we are not sure whether this layperson was too scared or not proficient enough, or due to other reasons, he did not cut the tongue off at the first instance because the tongue retracted so fast that he missed it on the first attempt.  If the tongue could be obtained at the  second time, secondary achievement would be obtained.  However, the second time the tongue stuck out, alas! This layperson missed it again. [03:59]

At the  third time, the layperson made a desperate effort because if he missed cutting off the tongue  at the third time, the resurrected corpse would come back to life, and it would wipe out that entire place. Thus, with no other option, the layperson hardened himself.  The  layperson placed his mouth close by the corpse and waited. At the third time,  as soon as the tongue was out, the layperson gripped the tongue of the corpse with his teeth. Upon reading this part, I think this layperson really did it with all his might; he cut off the tongue with his precious sword!  As what we just said earlier, if the tongue  was not amputated, the  resurrected corpse would come back to life, it would harm people and destroy the entire area. Therefore, at the third time, as the layperson bit  the tongue, he amputated it. The moment he cut it off, the tongue turned into  a precious sword.  Then, the layperson said, “Well! Please first lend me the sword, because I would like to fly to the sky and take a look at the scenery”. The original deal was that if this practice was achieved, the non-Buddhist would take possession of the precious sword, and the corpse which had been turned into such a huge piece of gold would belong to the layperson. This layperson gave quite some deliberation. He could first rode on the sword and flew to the sky, then he could  get the gold later. So, he took off for the scenery first. Thus,  with the precious sword held in his hand, he arrived instantly at the  peak of Mount Meru, and viewed the scenery.   [05:25]

With the borrowed sword, he flew to the peak of the mountain and viewed the four great continents and eight sub-continents. After viewing one round, the layperson kept his words and returned the sword to the non-Buddhist because the deal was agreed before the practice that the sword belonged to the non-Buddhist. The non-Buddhist kept his words as well. Since that entire corpse had already turned into gold, it was no longer that scary. He sliced off the flesh from the golden corpse  - the flesh should be gold bar!  All was gold. The non-Buddhist advised him that as long as the bone was not exposed while slicing the flesh,  the flesh – it was  this gold bar - would regenerate. However, if the bone was exposed while slicing the flesh, the flesh would not regenerate.   [06:08]

This layperson thus  made use of these gold pieces – the gold that was obtained with much arduousness -  to construct  Odantapuri Monastery.  Moreover, it was built based on the view he had of Mount Meru, the four great continents and the eight sub-continents while he was in the celestial realm. It seemed that the gold was inexhaustible; with the gold, he made offerings to hundreds of renunciates and lay practitioners of this monastery. He was their sponsor for many years. [06:43]

What are your thoughts after listening to this part? This is the dependant-arising factor of Odantapuri Monastery. [06:51]

讲次 | 0286 (2020-12-24 ~ 2020-12-27)

标题 | 能飞聚落建寺因缘

《广论》段落 | P4-L2 ~ P4-L4 此后乃至三十一岁……正法中枢要处者。

入门段落 | 第1册 P110-L1 ~ P111-L7 接下来语王尊者......作为他们的施主。

备注 | 四家合注《白话校注集》第1册 P120-LL6注释② ~ P121-L4注释④完 能飞聚落......无所不至。

(更新日期: 2022年6月14日)

00:00

那么阿底峡尊者在什么地方听受《大毗婆沙论》呢？在什么地方？还记得吧！那个地方叫“能飞聚落”，对吧！谈到这个寺院的名字，又有个故事。在讲这个故事之前，我们先要介绍一个起尸修法。起尸修法乍听起来好像有点恐怖，但是它实际上是为内、外道所共通的一种成就法，在传记、教法史、寺志里面记载是满多的，内道修密者或者为了快速累积福德资粮也会修，或者为了得到金子，把尸体化成黄金、作为坐骑而修，都是有用途的。00:48

而在这个公案中的外道，他是为了获得八种共通成就的宝剑成就，透过对尸体施咒，经过若干时间之后尸体就成了起尸，然后尸体就会跳起来。这个时候修法者与修法者的侍者，必须有其中的一个人，把这个跳起来的尸首压制住，另一个人把尸首的舌头割下来。割下来的舌头立刻就变成宝剑了，然后持之即能上天下地，无所不能。不知道是抱着宝剑，还是坐在宝剑上，总之这个舌头就已经不是舌头，它化成宝剑了。01:28

我们看 110 页仁波切讲的，说接下来语王尊者对于能飞聚落这座寺院的历史就做了很多注解。就开始讲故事：以前有个外道他就修起尸法——刚才我们介绍那个起尸法。起尸法就是让死尸起来行走，就是起尸悉地，这也是密法的八种悉地之一，内道徒也有。如果修成了的话，这具死尸就会变成金子。这位外道要修起尸法，可是要如果没人帮助的话，是没法修成的。所以他就请一位内道的居士来帮忙，就告诉他说：“我在修起尸的时候，如果你能把尸体的舌头砍下来给我，那剩下来的这个尸体全部会变成金子，然后这些金子就全归你了。”我在想这也要很有勇气，万一按不住呢？万一不忍心割下来，或者感到害怕呢？但是那个居士不知道是不是为了这些金子就奋勇前行，还是他俩是朋友，搞不清楚记载。总之，那个居士就答应去帮忙修了。02:48

起尸法如果修成了，舌头就会变成一柄宝剑，拿着这个宝剑可以去到须弥山顶，可以飞到天界去。然后他们就开始修了，起尸法修了几天之后，这个尸体就开始回暖，再过几天尸体就会动，再过几天就看到他舌头在动了。一开始的时候舌头会伸出来，一下又缩回去了，如果在第一次能用宝剑把舌头割取下来的话，是最上等的，请那位居士帮忙就是要帮割尸体的舌头这件事情。但是这位居士不知道是由于惊恐，还是由于技术不熟练，还是由于什么问题，他没有在第一次就割下舌头，说是因为缩得太快了，第一次就没有割到。如果在第二次取得，就可以得到次等的成就，但是第二次那个舌头伸出来了，哇！这个居士又没能割下来。03:59

到了第三次，那个居士就拼了，因为第三次如果不割下来的话，那个起尸复活了之后，就会把整个地方都毁灭掉。所以这个居士也是没办法了，他就发了这样的狠心，等到第三次，那居士就把自己的嘴巴凑过去，等到舌头一伸出来，他就用自己的牙齿把尸体的舌头咬住。看到这里，我觉得实在是太拼了，居然用宝剑把它割下来！刚才我们说了，如果舌头不割下来，起尸复活，那就是遗害整个地方，就会被毁灭，所以这个居士居然在第三次连咬带割就把它割下来了。割下来之后，舌头马上就变成宝剑了。然后那个居士就说：“啊！你宝剑先借给我，因为我想飞上天去看风景。”因为他俩当初谈的是，如果修成了的话宝剑归那个外道，这个变成黄金的尸体，这么大一块金子就给居士。这个居士考虑还满多的，他先骑了宝剑飞翔，然后还可以得到金子，所以他就先去看风景了。于是手持宝剑，一下子就到了须弥山顶，就看到了风景。05:25

他借剑飞翔到了山顶，全览四大洲与八小洲。看了一圈回来之后，因为当初在修法说好了，这个宝剑是归外道的，所以他非常守信用就把宝剑还给了外道。然后外道也很守信用，那个整具的尸体就早已经变成黄金，再也没有那么恐怖，所以他就把这个金尸的肉割下来，应该就是金块吧！都是黄金。嘱咐他只要不要割到见骨头，肉——就是这个金块——都可以长回来的，一旦割到见骨头，肉就长不回来了。06:08

这个居士就用这些金子——这来之不易的金子，建造了能飞聚落这座经院，而且是按照他在天上所看到的须弥山及四大洲、八小洲的格局盖了这个寺院。并且那金子好像是用不完，就用这些金子奉养这座寺院里的百位比丘与百位居士，在很多年里都作为他们的施主。06:43

不知道听到此处你们在想什么？能飞聚落这个寺院是这样的一个缘起。06:51