Friday, 03/28/2025
The story of Buddha
The Patient Prince
Update: 08/10/2007
"World Honoured One. Ajita is my disciple who\r\nhad engaged in austerity practice with diligence for over 5 years, has experienced\r\npeace of mind and the deep meditation and attained the third stage of\r\nSainthood - anagamita (Non-returnner). Although He continues to make every\r\neffort, he can not attain Arhatship. He has firmly insisted on being instructed\r\nhow to practice to achieve Sravaka. On Meditation of the mind, I obseved him\r\nsuffer the effects of heavy negative karma so I suppose it is difficult for him\r\nto attain what he wishes. However, he is not pleased with his present\r\nattainment and determined to attain the top stage of Sravaka (Arhatship) at any\r\ncost. I find my power of practice is not strong enough to help him, so could\r\nyou please enlighten him so that he can fulfill his wish, please?"
After Venerable Maha Kassapa had finished speaking, Ajita kowtowed\r\nto Buddhas and said: " The teacher of devas and humans. Could you please\r\nopen your heart and enlighten me? I can not realize what karma has obstructed\r\nmy way of cultivation, so I can not improve my achievement despite my hard\r\neffort in practice."
The Buddha calmly told him that: "You have a good question,\r\nso listen carefully and ponder over the following story which will give you a\r\nclear explanation. "Once upon a time, in uncounable past lives, the Great\r\nLight Brilliant Buddha came into this world to preach and save numerous beings.\r\nAt that time, the king of Benares, Brahma Mara, whose son was Patient Prince?\r\nNot only did the Prince hold strong beliefs in Buddhism, stay away from killing\r\nbeings but also performed ten meritorious deeds, the six virtues of perfection,\r\nhad dedication to practice, took no interest in throne and devoted him to\r\nattaining Supreme Bodhi.
In the country, a bourgeois named Sunmoon Sound hired\r\nhundreds of servants, but he had his only son who had a psychiatric disorder.\r\nOne day, his son went crazy, held a knife and looked for someone to kill for no\r\napparent reason. He became severely depressed about his son's illness. His love\r\nfor his son was so overwhelming that he brought a censer full of burning\r\nagarwood incenses, scattering flowers around thefour gates of the citadel and\r\nclaimed: "I will give all my property to whoever can cure my son without\r\nregret."
Meanwhile, the Prince was taking a walk around the citadel.\r\nMoved by his deep paternal love for his son, heupturned palms to heaven and\r\nprayed silently that: "My Gods of medicine! For the bourgeois' profound\r\npaternal love for his son, could you please rescue his son?"
No sooner had he finished praying than the fairy Sunlight\r\nwho was in practice on a snowy mountain heard the earnest plea and left. He\r\ncame to the bourgeois and said: "His illness comes from a fever which has\r\nentered his heart and made him crazy. His illness can be cured only if his body\r\nis applied with the blood of a patient virtuous practitioner and he is allowed\r\nto drink the ground marrow of a kind hearted and generous person."
After hearing these words, the bourgeois looked thoughtful\r\nand depressed. Seeing a fretful look on the bourgeois' face, the Prince asked\r\nhim in sympathetic voice: "What troubles make you so anxious?"
\r\nThe bourgeois told the Prince what the fairy said about his son's illness and\r\nthe fairy suggested a hard-to-find remedy that he should have extracted the\r\npatient cultivator’ s blood, spread his body and taken the merciful person’s\r\nbone marrow, ground it to tiny pieces and let him drink until he recovered. Now\r\nhe was thinking about how to extract his bone marrow to cure his son.
The Prince comforted him: "The Buddhist scriptures\r\nteach that those who afflict their parents will fall into evil ways." Now\r\nthat you want to save his life, you are about to destroy your body, so your son\r\nwill be certainly re-born in the three evil paths of existence and it\r\nwill be hard for him to escape these bad realms ofexistence. Let me do it for\r\nyou." So saying, the Prince stabbed himself with a sharp knife to get\r\nblood and marrow. The illness of the bourgeois'son was cured and he got well\r\nsoon after taking the remedy made from the Prince's blood and bone marrow.
As for the prince, after his donation of blood and marrow to\r\nsave people, it caused the heavens to vibrate and the earth to\r\ntremble six times. Sakka, Lord of the Devas, Brahma and the princes flocked\r\nto the place where the Prince was and praised his great courage and power.\r\nThen, they asked him:" Why did you save beings regardless of your life?\r\nThe reason of the action is just because of compassion or for the wish to be\r\nre-born in the realm of Deva to enjoy great heavenly blessings and further\r\nbecoming Lord of the Devas or Wheel-Turning King?"
The Prince explained: "What interests me most is\r\npracticing to reach Supreme Bodhi. If my prayer was answered, so please return\r\nme to my former shape." After the prayer, he immediately resumed his\r\nformer shape and he looked better and healthier. Then, he read a verse:
When I become the Buddha one day
I will save the Deva and human beings
Regardless of hardship
With a deep affection for all
I will help them to enter the Nirvana
Where permanent peace exists.
After the verse, the Devas offered flowers and treasure to\r\nthe Prince. Also, at that moment the bourgeois had his servants take all of his\r\ntreasure to offer the Prince to express gratitude for saving his son's life.\r\nThen, the Prince distributed all of the treasure to all the poor in the\r\ncitadel.
Having finished the story, the Buddda turned to Maha Kassapa\r\nand said:" Venerable Maha Kassapa! The king of Benares at that time was\r\nthe former birth of my father now. It was you, Maha Kassapa, the bourgeois in\r\nthe story and his son was the Bikkhu Ajita. Sakka, Lord of the Devas is\r\nVenerable Sariputra and the Patient Prince was me, Sakyamuni."
Translated into English by Mr. Tran Xuan Thanh, layman.