The story of how two sons, Pure-Store and Pure-Eyes, at the behest of their mother, Pure-Virtue, brought their father, King Wonderful-Adornment, to have faith in the Lotus Sūtra has always inspired me. And that’s why I suppose I was so taken by the story of the first meeting of Śākyamuni with his father, Śuddhodana (which means Pure Rice), after Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha. Both involve children performing miracles.
All of this comes up because I recently finished reading The Fo Sho Hing Tsan King, A Life of Buddha written by Aśvaghoṣa Bodhisattva and translated from Sanskrit into Chinese by Dharmaraksha in 420 CE. The Fo Sho Hing Tsan King was translated into English by Samuel Beal and originally published by Oxford in 1883. The book is the 19th volume of Oxford’s The Sacred Books of the East edited by F. Max Müller in 1883.
Chapter 19 of The Fo Sho Hing Tsan King details the “Interview between Father and Son.” Here’s the pertinent section that comes to mind when I read the story of Pure-Store and Pure-Eyes and their father, King Wonderful-Adornment:
Knowing that Buddha was now returning to his country [the king’s spies] hastened back and quickly announced the tidings, ‘The prince who wandered forth afar to obtain enlightenment, having fulfilled his aim, is now coming back.’
The king hearing the news was greatly rejoiced, and forthwith went out with his gaudy equipage to meet (his son) ; and the whole body of gentry (sse) belonging to the country, went forth with him in his company.
Gradually advancing he beheld Buddha from afar, his marks of beauty sparkling with splendour two-fold greater than of yore; placed in the middle of the great congregation he seemed to be even as Brahma raga.
Descending from his chariot and advancing with dignity, (the king) was anxious lest there should be any religious difficulty (in the way of instant recognition); and now beholding his beauty he inwardly rejoiced, but his mouth found no words to
utter.He reflected, too, how that he was still dwelling among the unconverted throng, whilst his son had advanced and become a saint (Rishi) ; and although he was his son, yet as he now occupied the position of a religious lord, he knew not by what name to address him.
Furthermore he thought with himself how he had long ago desired earnestly (this interview), which now had happened unawares (without arrangement). Meantime his son in silence took a seat, perfectly composed and with unchanged countenance.
Thus for some time sitting opposite each other, with no expression of feeling (the king reflected thus), ‘How desolate and sad does he now make my heart, as that of a man, who, fainting, longs for water, upon the road espies a fountain pure and cold;
‘With haste he speeds towards it and longs to drink, when suddenly the spring up and disappears. Thus, now I see my son, his well-known features as of old;
‘But how estranged his heart! and how his manner high and lifted up! There are no grateful outflowings of soul, his feelings seem unwilling to express themselves; cold and vacant (there he sits); and like a thirsty man before a dried-up fountain (so am I).’
Still distant thus (they sat), with crowding thoughts rushing through the mind, their eyes full met, but no responding joy; each looking at the other, seemed as one who thinking of a distant friend, gazes by accident upon his pictured form.
‘That you’ (the king reflected) ‘who of right might rule the world, even as that Mândhâtri râga, should now go begging here and there your food! what joy or charm has such a life as this?
‘Composed and firm as Sumeru, with marks of beauty bright as the sunlight, with dignity of step like the ox king, fearless as any lion,
‘And yet receiving not the tribute of the world, but begging food sufficient for your body’s nourishment!’
Buddha, knowing his father’s mind, still kept to his own filial purpose.
And then to open out his mind, and moved with pity for the multitude of people, by his miraculous power he rose in mid-air, and with his hands (appeared) to grasp the sun and moon.
Then he walked to and fro in space, and underwent all kinds of transformation, dividing his body into many parts, then joining all in one again.
Treading firm on water as on dry land, entering the earth as in the water, passing through walls of stone without impediment, from the right side and the left water and fire produced!
The king, his father, filled with joy, now dismissed all thought of son and father; then upon a lotus throne, seated in space, he (Buddha) for his father’s sake declared the law.
‘I know that the king’s heart (is full of) love and recollection, and that for his son’s sake he adds grief to grief; but now let the bands of love that bind him, thinking of his son, be instantly unloosed and utterly destroyed.
‘Ceasing from thoughts of love, let your calmed mind receive from me, your son, religious nourishment; such as no son has offered yet to father, such do I present to you the king, my father.
‘And what no father yet has from a son received, now from your son you may accept, a gift miraculous for any mortal king to enjoy, and seldom had by any heavenly king!’
The miracles of children, the salvation of fathers, all part of a whole: the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Flower Sutra, the Dharma for Bodhisattvas, the Dharma Upheld by the Buddhas.
