One day, Emperor Shi Tianwang's longevity was about to come to an end, and he was sad and unhappy in his heart.
At this time, all the gods, dragons, ghosts and gods saw this and asked one after another, "Why do you have such a sad face?"
Emperor Shi replied, "My life is about to end, and the signs of death have already appeared. Now that the Buddhadharma has fallen, I am afraid that There is no merciful great Bodhisattva living in the world anymore, I don’t know where I will go in the future, so I am worried!”
The gods, dragons, ghosts and spirits said, “In the human world, there is a King Sapoda who practiced the Bodhisattva’s Dharma extensively on weekdays and kept the precepts. Perfect, virtuous, merciful to sentient beings, benevolent to sentient beings, and prosperous; soon, you will become a Buddha, if you return to him, you will be able to grow the Dharma body, and eliminate all doubts!"
In order to test Sapoda The king, therefore, ordered Vishou Karma, the king of the border guard, to say, "Today, this king wants to test whether King Sapoda is truly compassionate, sympathetic to all living beings, and even a practitioner who practices the bodhisattva path as it really is. Please incarnate as Dove, I will turn into a big eagle, and I will chase after him, to the throne of King Sapoda. The dove you turned into pretends to be frightened and begged for protection from the king. If King Sapoda really does With kindness in your heart, you will definitely accept your return, so that you can quickly know the truth and the false." After saying this
, Vishou Karma turned into a dove, and the king of the gods became a big eagle, fiercely following behind the dove. , relentlessly pursued.
The pigeon flew all the way to the throne of Sapoda in panic, and when it saw King Sapoda, it hurriedly got into the king's armpit, out of breath, begged Sapoda King to protect his little life.
At the same time, the big eagle, who was chasing after him, also came to the front of the temple, and when he saw the pigeon, which was about to be achieved after all the hard work, was protected by King Sapoda under his sleeve, he said with a fierce look: "I I have been hungry for several days, and I have run out of patience, the pigeon beside you is the food I found, return it to me quickly!"
Seeing this, King Sapoda replied slowly: "I once vowed to save all sentient beings and protect all sentient beings. Today I should save this pigeon, how can I return it to you, and let you kill your life to worship your internal organs. What about food and clothing?"
The eagle was even more reluctant to be outdone, and retorted: "King, you said that you would save all sentient beings, but if you cut off my food today, I would also not be able to live. Don't I belong to all sentient beings? King Sapoda
then asked the big eagle kindly: "What food do you need to satisfy your hunger? As long as the pigeon can be spared, I will do my best to meet your needs!"
"Only freshly killed, hot meat, I just ate it!" Daying said mercilessly.
King Sapoda thought to himself, "It asks to eat hot meat that has just been killed, but if I kill one to save one, it is unreasonable; since I have made a great vow to save all sentient beings, I should save all sentient beings by myself. So King Sapoda
immediately drew his knife and cut off a piece of flesh from himself, and gave it to the eagle in exchange for the dove's life.
At this time, the big eagle said again: "King, you should treat all living beings equally. Although I belong to the animal world, I should not be biased. If you want to exchange this meat for the life of a pigeon, should you use a scale to measure the two? Are their weights the same?"
The king of Sapoda asked others to bring scales, put the dove on one end, and the cut meat on the other. . . .
A strange thing happened, even though King Sapoda kept cutting off the flesh on his body, until the flesh on his body was almost cut off, he still couldn't balance the weight of the pigeon on the other end of the scale.
At this time, King Sapoda tried his best and stood up staggeringly, wanting to climb up on the weighing pan with his whole body in exchange for pigeons. Immediately, due to lack of strength, he fell to the ground and lost consciousness; after waking up, King Sapoda blamed himself and said, "In order to save all sentient beings, I must stand up bravely, and all sentient beings fall into the sea of sorrow. , I vowed to save everything, why am I still so lazy and confused! The suffering I am suffering now is far less than the suffering that all sentient beings suffer in hell; The merits and blessings of the good dharma, if this short-lived and impermanent physical body is also regarded as suffering, how much more is it that the centrality of hell is depressing and
tormenting sentient beings in great suffering?" King Sapoda kept making great wishes. I wanted to stand up, fell to the ground again and again, and still stood up! Down and up, down and up!
Seeing King Sapoda doing this, the eagle asked, "Now you should know that you regret it, right? Let it go! Your life is the most important, the pain is on your own body, who will suffer for you! I still advise you to be smart and obedient. Give me the dove, so maybe you can save your life, continue to enjoy your blessings, and be the king of a country!"
"I don't regret it at all! I have lost countless lives in the beginningless calamity, but it is of no benefit at all. To all sentient beings, now I would like to swear by this body to seek the Buddha's way." Sapoda replied resolutely.
Suddenly, miraculously, King Sapoda boarded the weighing pan in a fit of vigour, and the two ends were instantly balanced. King Sapoda shouted with joy: "I did it! I did it! The weighing pan is finally balanced! The dove is finally rescued!
" A rain of perfume and fragrant petals rained down from the sky.
When the gods and goddesses witnessed this kind deed of saving their lives, they all sang together: "He is a true Bodhisattva, and he will become a Buddha soon." What do you want from such a precious thing?”
King Sapoda replied, “I am determined to save all sentient beings. I do not seek honor and happiness
. Don't you have the slightest remorse?" "No."
"I saw your body trembling and your breath was dying, but you said that you never regretted it. What evidence do you have for this?"
King Sapoda replied, "I have no regrets in my heart from beginning to end; if what I said If it's true, let my body be restored to its original state immediately!" As soon as King Sapoda finished speaking, his body really returned to its original appearance, and he truly fulfilled his great compassion and wish to save all sentient beings.
At this moment, people and heaven celebrate together, rejoice and rejoice, recite good deeds, and sigh that it has never happened before.
King Sapoda is the predecessor of Shakyamuni Buddha who practiced the Bodhisattva way in the past.
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