Читать книгу Garland of the Buddha's Past Lives (Volume 2) - Aryashura - Страница 41

“If the joy of following you

were a laborious notion,

why would I pursue something

painful to me and disagreeable to you?

But as I am incapable

of living without you,

please pardon me if

I defy your orders!”

21.15

And although he spoke to her this way two or three times, she was still unwilling to turn back. So the Bodhi·sattva decided to show her equanimity.

Followed by his wife as a chakra·vaka* bird is followed by its mate, he wandered through villages, cities and towns until one day, after he had eaten, he practiced meditation in an isolated spot in the forest. The area was splendid and immaculate and adorned by various trees and thickets. Sun rays, resembling attentive servants, filtered through the thick shade here and there like moonlight, and the ground was sprinkled with the pollen of various flowers. When it turned to evening time, the Bodhi·sattva rose from his meditation and stitched together robes made up of rags from dust-heaps. Not far from him, his ascetic wife adorned the root of a tree, illuminating it like a deity with the power of her beauty and focusing on a meditation practice taught to her by her husband.

At that time a king happened to arrive in the area while making a tour of the forest groves. The spring season had produced an abundance of delightful sprigs and the woods buzzed with swarms of bees roaming around making honey. ________