Venerable Jingjie
Master Xuanzang’s teacher was the Indian scholar
Śīlabhadra. In his last years, Śīlabhadra suffered unbearable illness. At
that time, Manjushri Bodhisattva appeared to him and said: "Twenty
lifetimes ago, you were a king who ruled with cruelty and oppressed the people.
According to karma, you should have fallen into the Mortar-and-Pestle Hell to
endure immense suffering after death. Why did you not descend into hell?
Because at the moment of your death, you heard the sound of the Buddha’s name and
the recitation of scriptures. This prevented you from falling into hell.
Afterward, you were reborn as a monk for twenty lifetimes, diligently observing
precepts. Because of this, your past karmic creditors could not find an
opportunity to seek repayment from you.
Why have they found you in this lifetime? Because your spiritual practice in
this life is exceptional. With the accumulated merit of your past twenty
lifetimes, when you take your final breath, you will ascend directly to the
inner court of Tushita Heaven. There, you will await the descent of Maitreya
Bodhisattva to the human world to attain Buddhahood, at that point, you will be
freed from samsara.
To resolve the karmic debts from twenty lifetimes ago, you must now transform
the heavy suffering of the Mortar-and-Pestle Hell into a lighter form of
retribution. Although you have not fallen into hell, the agony of your illness
is equivalent to the torment of hell itself.”
After hearing these words, Śīlabhadra lamented, “I cannot endure this
suffering. I want to kill myself.”
Manjushri Bodhisattva warned him, “If you commit suicide, you will fall
directly into hell and endure the sufferings in hell.”
This story serves as a lesson. Some people have done practice and are confident
that they have upheld the precepts without breakage all their lives. These people may still undergo some suffering
in old age but this is part of the process of attaining liberation from
birth-and-death (samsara). Enduring such suffering with patience and increasing
your practice instead is the way to transcend the Three Realms (samsara).
