Preface to the Commentary on the Samantapāsādikā (一切善見律注序)

Ashoka's Conversion to Buddhism

Once, King Bimbisara had one hundred princes. Ashoka killed all of them, except for his own younger brother, Prince Tissa, born of the same mother. For four years after the killings, he ruled the kingdom without being formally crowned. After four years had passed, two hundred and eighteen years after the Tathagata's Final Nirvana, he received the coronation and unified the entire continent of Jambudvipa. Through the majestic power of his coronation, these miraculous feats were manifested. The king's power extended downward for a full yojana into the earth and equally upward into the sky. Every day, the gods brought sixteen jars of water, carried in eight loads, from Lake Anavatapta. The king had deep faith in the sacred teachings; of these, eight jars were offered to the community of monks, two jars were given to the sixty thousand monks who had mastered two collections of scriptures, two jars were given to his first wife, Asandhimitta, and four jars were reserved for himself. Each day, the gods also brought soft, shiny, fragrant Nāgarāja willow twigs from the Snow Mountains. These were enough for the daily tooth-cleaning needs of the king, his wife, sixteen thousand courtesans, and sixty thousand monks. They also brought daily medicinal amala fruits, golden-colored medicinal harītakī fruits, fragrant and delicious mango fruits, as well as five-colored upper and lower garments, yellow cloths, and celestial beverages from the Chandatāpa Lake. Every day, the Nāga kings brought various kinds of incense, perfumed powders, and ointments from the dragon palace, along with precious, seamless fine cloth and eye medicine. Every day, parrots brought nine thousand lotus seeds that grew in the Chandatāpa Lake; mice would peel off the outer skin without damaging a single grain. This rice was used throughout the king's lands. Bees made honey, bears struck hammers in the smithies, and Kālabingu birds came to sing sweet melodies, all as offerings to the king.

Nature endowed this king with unexcelled majesty. One day, he sent a tribute of golden chains to pay homage to the four past Buddhas. A dragon named Kaluo, whose lifespan spanned an entire kalpa, carried the king to a great bed sheltered by a white canopy, surrounded by offerings of hundreds of colorful water-born and land-born flowers. The king, clad in fine silk and attended by sixteen thousand courtesans, said, "Now my two eyes will reflect the image of the perfectly enlightened one, the supremely wise turner of the noble Dharma, who possesses infinite wisdom." Upon seeing the dragon take the form of the Buddha, the king paid homage for seven days. This form possessed eighty distinctive marks and was endowed with the thirty-two major characteristics of a great being. His radiant light of perfect merit suffused his golden body, like white lotuses and blue lotuses blooming on the water's surface, or like stars shining brilliantly in the void. Hues of blue, yellow, red, and other colors enveloped his body in a halo of light, just as a rainbow atop a golden mountain is encircled by shimmering lightning flashes, or as if decorated with pure and lovely banners, canopies, and garlands. This sight captivated even the eyes of Brahmas, humans, gods, dragons, and yakshas, never causing them to tire of looking.

When King Ashoka first ascended the throne, he followed non-Buddhist paths for three years. In the fourth year, he turned to the Buddha’s teachings. His father, King Bindusara, had been a supporter of the Brahmins. Every day, he offered food to sixty thousand Brahmins and ascetics known as Parivrajakas. Ashoka continued this tradition from his father, also giving alms at the palace.

One day, while standing by a window, he saw these ascetics eating. Though their outward appearance seemed calm, their behavior was undisciplined. He thought to himself: “This is no way to give alms properly. I should find a suitable place and manner for doing so.” Then he said to his ministers: “Each of you should go and summon the ascetics or Brahmins you personally respect, and invite them to the palace so we may offer alms.”

The ministers replied: “Excellent, Your Majesty!” They each brought various ascetics—Parivrajakas, Ajivakas, and Nirgranthas—and said: “Great King, these are our arhats (holy ones).”

The king then had many seats of different heights prepared in the palace. He said: “Let them come in.” As they entered, he instructed: “Each of you may sit on a seat that feels suitable for you.” So some sat on bamboo seats, others on wooden seats. Seeing this, the king understood: “In their hearts, there is no true realization.” He then gave them appropriate food and drink, and sent them on their way.

Time passed. One day, Ashoka stood by a window and saw a young novice monk named Nigrodha walking past the palace. The novice’s mind was calm and controlled. His faculties were peaceful, and his demeanor was dignified. The king wondered: “Who is this?”

Nigrodha was the son of Prince Sumana, the eldest son of King Bindusara. There is an old story: King Bindusara was ill, and Prince Ashoka left his province of Ujjain and returned, seizing control of the entire capital. He captured Prince Sumana. On that very day, Prince Sumana’s wife, Queen Sumana, was in her tenth month of pregnancy. She disguised herself and fled, eventually reaching a village of outcasts. Near the home of an elder outcast, she rested under a banyan tree. A tree spirit called out: “Sumana, come here!” The spirit, using its power, manifested a house and said: “Live here.”

The queen entered the house, and on that very day, she gave birth to a son. Because the banyan tree spirit had protected him, she named the child Nigrodha (which means “banyan tree”). The elder outcast, recognizing her as a woman of a noble family, provided food for her every day. The queen lived there for seven years, and Nigrodha grew to be seven years old.

At that time, an arhat named Mahavaruna saw that this child’s spiritual potential was now ripe, so he stayed there, thinking: “The time for him to renounce the world has come.” He told the queen to let Nigrodha become a monk. As soon as the child’s head was shaved, he attained arhatship.

One morning, after dressing and performing his duties toward his teachers, Nigrodha took his robe and bowl and decided: “I should go to the house of my mother, who is a lay devotee.” He set out. To reach her home in the city, he entered the southern gate, passed through the city center, and left through the eastern gate.

At that time, King Ashoka (Dharma King) was strolling and happened to look out of an eastern window. In an instant, in the courtyard before the king’s palace, he saw the novice monk Nigrodha, who was calm in all his senses, peaceful in mind, with his eyes focused appropriately. The king then thought: “This child’s mind is not scattered, unlike others whose minds are confused and restless like deer. His body, whether bending or stretching, radiates great brilliance. Surely his inner being must have transcended worldly laws.” The moment the king saw him, faith and compassion arose in his heart. Why was this? In a past life, when he was accumulating merit, this novice was the king’s elder brother and a merchant. Therefore, it is said.

Then the king, moved by compassion and unable to restrain himself, sent his ministers, saying, "You should summon that novice monk." They searched for a long time. Again he sent two or three people, saying, "You should return quickly." The novice monk walked in his own original manner. The king acknowledged a suitable seat and said, "You may sit." Though the novice looked around, he saw no other monks present. He approached the king's seat under the white parasol and gave a signal to the king to take his bowl. Seeing him come near that seat, the king thought, "Now this novice monk alone is the master of this house!" The novice handed his bowl into the king's hands, then climbed onto the bed seat and sat down.

The king had all the milk-rice and chewable food that he had prepared for himself redirected to them. The novice monk took only enough food, both soft and chewable, to sustain himself. When the meal was finished, the king said, "I wish to know the instruction that the Master gave to you."

"Great King, I know only a portion of it."

"Venerable sir, tell it to me."

"Very well, Great King." And he recited the section on heedfulness from the Dharma Verses, the discourse suited to the king, bringing him delight. When the king heard, "Heedfulness is the path to the deathless, while heedlessness is the path to death," he said, "Venerable sir, you should recite all that you know."

After expressing his joy, he said, "I will provide the venerable one with food for eight people each day." The novice monk said, "Great King, I will give these to my preceptor."

"What kind of person is your preceptor?"

"One who reproves what is blameworthy and what is not, and who brings people to remorse."

"Venerable sir, I will give you another eight shares in addition."

"Great King, I will give these to my teacher."

"What kind of person is your teacher?"

"One who guides people into the Dharma, one under whom one should train in this holy teaching."

"Good, venerable sir. I will give you another eight shares in addition."

"Great King, I will give these to the monastic community of monks."

"Venerable sir, what is this community of monks?"

"Great King, it is through my teacher and preceptor that we may go forth, receive ordination, and obtain full ordination."

The king's joy grew even greater, and he said, "Venerable sir, I will give you yet another eight shares in addition." The novice monk accepted, saying, "Very well."

The next day he entered the royal palace with thirty-two monks to receive his meal. The king then provided another thirty-two monks with food, saying, "Come tomorrow as well and receive food together with the venerable one." In this way the number increased day by day, until the food supply that had supported sixty thousand brahmins and mendicants was cut off. Within the palace, food was now regularly provided to sixty thousand monks. This was the great generosity shown to the greatly revered Elder Nigrodha.

The great elder Maudgalyayana? No—the great elder Nigrodha conferred the Three Refuges and Five Precepts upon the king, the royal family, and the ministers, establishing for ordinary lay believers a basic faith that was firm and unshakable. The king also ordered the building of great monasteries such as the Ashoka Garden, where meals were regularly provided for sixty thousand monks. Throughout the entire Jambudvipa, in eighty-four thousand cities, he had eighty-four thousand monasteries built and eighty-four thousand Buddha halls adorned. All of this was done by the king's command; nothing was done without the king's command.

One day, the King held a great almsgiving ceremony at the Ashoka Garden Monastery, seated in the midst of an assembly of sixty thousand monks. After providing for the Sangha according to the four requisites, he asked: "Venerable sir, how many divisions of the Dharma did the Blessed One teach?" "Great King, as far as is known, there are nine divisions; when grouped by collection, there are eighty-four thousand Dharma collections." The King gained faith in the Dharma and commanded: "For each Dharma collection, a monastery should be provided." He had his ministers disburse nine billion six hundred million gold pieces in a single day, saying, "Now, you should build one monastery in each city — eighty-four thousand monasteries in eighty-four thousand cities." And the King himself began construction of the great Ashoka Monastery at the Ashoka Garden. The Sangha declared that the Elder Indragupta possessed great spiritual power and great might, and that he who had destroyed all taints would be the pillar of the new construction. The Elder, through his own spiritual power, completed each unfinished portion of the work. Thus, in three years, the construction of the monastery was completed.

One day, a report reached the capital city. The ministers presented it to the king: "Your Majesty! The eighty-four thousand monasteries have been completed." The king had a great drum beaten throughout the city: "For the next seven days, a monastery offering festival shall be held. Everyone shall observe the eight precepts. Preparations for the monastery offering festival should be made both inside and outside the city."

After these seven days, the king, radiating majestic splendor, surrounded by his fourfold army of several hundred thousand, proceeded through the city—adorned with the utmost beauty and glory of Amaravati, the divine capital, and graced by a courageous and diligent multitude—and arrived at the monastery. The monastic community stood at the center. In that moment, eight hundred million monks, nine million six hundred thousand nuns, and moreover one hundred thousand monks who had destroyed all defilements had assembled. They thought: "If the king himself witnesses this unparalleled undertaking, he will have exceedingly deep faith in the Buddha's sacred teaching." Thereupon, they performed the miracle of the unfolding of the world. The king stood in the Ashoka Garden and looked in all four directions. As far as the great ocean, across the entire Jambudvipa, he beheld the radiance shining everywhere from the grand monastery offering festival of the eighty-four thousand monasteries. Seeing this majestic beauty, the king was filled with great joy and thought: "Has anyone before ever inspired such joy as this?" He asked the monastic community: "Venerable sirs! In the teaching of the Buddha of the Ten Powers, what do people say—who has given great generosity, and whose generosity is great?" The monastic community singled out the great elder Maudgalyayana's son Tissa.