Читать книгу Garland of the Buddha’s Past Lives (Volume 1) - Aryashura - Страница 51

2.1

T

he Lord acquired the Good Teaching for us through hundreds of difficult feats. One should therefore listen to it reverently.

Tradition has handed down the following story.

When he was a Bodhi·sattva, the Lord once lived as king of the Shibis.* He acquired this position through an accumulation of pure deeds that had become ingrained in his nature by repeated practice over a limitless period of time.

From as early as his childhood, he delighted in serving his elders and took pleasure in self-discipline. Loved by his people, he applied his natural intelligence to purify his mind by studying various branches of knowledge. Blessed by fortune, he was endowed with energy, prudence, strength, and power, and protected his people as if they were his offspring.

2.5

Hordes of virtues suited to the three pursuits*

seemed to have joyfully set up camp in him,

glittering radiantly as a group,

their splendor unimpaired by clash or conflict.

Like a facade for those inflated with arrogance,

a terrible calamity for fools,

and a drug for the small-minded,

success was in him exactly what the word states.

His exalted nature, compassion, and wealth

made him an exemplary king

who delighted at seeing beggars’ faces

gleam brightly with joy on receiving their desire.