The Venerable An Shigao \u5b89\u4e16\u9ad8\u5c0a\u8005<\/p>\n
From causes made in lives gone by
\nComes your present life;
\nResults you\u2019ll get in lives to come,
\nAre born from what you do right now.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nLiving beings on the wheel of rebirth in the six paths cannot avoid cause and effect. If you are wealthy now, it is because you were generous in previous lives; if you are poor, it is because you were stingy. To know what your future lives will be like, look at what you are doing now. If you foster merit and practice giving now, you will certainly be wealthy; if you do not, you certainly will be poor. You do not need spiritual powers, the Heavenly Eye, or the knowledge of past lives to understand this principle.<\/p>\n
The High and Venerable Bhikshu An Shigao, also named An Qing (\u5b89\u6e05), was born the son of the King and Queen of Anxi (\u5b89\u606f), Parthia, a small kingdom near India. From birth he was extraordinarily intelligent and mastered medicine, divination, astrology, and physiognomy while still young. He not only studied the sciences of man, but also learned the languages of animals and birds. When wild animals spoke, he knew what they said, and when the birds had a conversation, he understood.<\/p>\n
One day, while on a holiday with many friends, he heard a swallow say to its flock, \u201cSomeone will send us food today!\u201d An Shigao told his companions what the swallow had said, but they refused to believe him. In a short while, someone came with provisions for the birds, and everyone thought it was very strange that he could understand the language of birds. (Confucius\u2019 disciple Gong\u2019ye Chang [\u516c\u51b6\u9577] also had this ability.)<\/p>\n
An Shigao studied thoroughly and well; when his father died, An Shigao became King. All the officials brought their problems to him. If it wasn\u2019t this problem, it was that problem. \u201cThis is too much trouble!\u201d he finally said, and abdicated the throne in favor of his uncle. He had never married, and as a Buddhist layman he held the Precepts purely. Now he left home to become a Bhikshu.<\/p>\n
A friend of his, a very intelligent Bhikshu, had, like An Shigao, learned the Buddhadharma quickly. What this Bhikshu would hear once he never forgot. But this Bhikshu had a temper. If people came to make offerings to him but didn\u2019t add a lot of reverent words of praise, he would fly into a rage and shout, \u201cI don\u2019t want your offerings!\u201d<\/p>\n
An Shigao said to him, \u201cFriend, your wisdom is equal to mine, but your hatred is much greater. I fear that in the future you will fall. If I am not certified to the fruit of Arhatship, I won\u2019t be able to help you, but if I attain the Way, I shall find you and take you across. Now, I am going to Canton, in China, to receive the retribution from a former life.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Canton, during the reign of Emperor Huan (\u6853\u5e1d) of the Eastern Han Dynasty, (147-168 A.D.), the government was in disorder and many bandits roamed the streets. Upon his arrival, An Shigao passed by a young man, who immediately took out a knife and said, \u201cNow thatI have met you, I am going to kill you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGo right ahead, kill me,\u201d An Shigao replied, \u201cbut may I ask why you hate me so?\u201d<\/p>\n
The young man was puzzled, \u201cI really don\u2019t know,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I wanted to kill you the moment I saw you. I feel that you are evil.\u201d<\/p>\n
An Shigao said, \u201cYou don\u2019t know why you want to kill me, but I do. It is because in a previous lifetime l killed you. I have come here today only because l want you to kill me.\u201d Then he stretched out his neck and asked the man to kill him. His face didn\u2019t show the slightest trace of fear, just like the Second Patriarch in China, Huike (\u6167\u53ef), who bared his neck for the executioner. The boy cut off An Shigao\u2019s head and An Shigao died. Everyone exclaimed, \u201cThis person did not fear death, since he said, \u2018Because I had killed you before, you have to kill me now.\u2019 This is very strange.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crowd dispersed and the soul of An Shigao returned to Anxi (\u5b89\u606f\u5e1d\u570b) to be reborn as the King\u2019s son once again. When he was sixteen, he again left home to become a monk, and immediately went to save his former friend and his former murderer. He found his former murderer in Canton, no longer young but middle aged.<\/p>\n
An Shigao asked him, \u201cDo you remember that on such and such a day you killed a Bhikshu?\u201d
\nThe man said, \u201cYes,I remember. Have you come to take revenge?\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cNo, I have not come to take revenge. I am the person you killed. I was reborn in Anxi Country and now I have come back to China to tell you of the cause and effect. You kill me and l kill you. There is no end to this. But don\u2019t be afraid, I won\u2019t kill you now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man thought to himself, \u201cIt has been many years since l killed that man, and this monk is a foreigner. So he must be telling the truth; how else could he know these things?\u201d<\/p>\n
An Shigao said, \u201cI have told you the cause and effect. Now, I must go to save my old friend from my past life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is your friend?\u201d said the man.
\n\u201cIn Jiangxi (\u6c5f\u897f).\u201d
\n\u201cGood, I\u2019ll go with you.\u201d<\/p>\nSo they went together to Lu Mountain (\u5eec\u5c71) in Jiangxi with a party of over thirty people. At Lu Mountain, by the shore of Gongting Lake (\u48bc\u4ead\u6e56), there was a temple with an extremely magical Spirit living inside. If travellers lit incense and bowed to the Spirit, their boats would travel safely across the waters. But if they did not, big waves would capsize their boats. Once a businessman asked the Spirit if he could take the bamboo that grew within the temple. The spirit didn\u2019t reply, so the businessman grabbed the bamboo and ran. His boat was swamped and he was drowned. The bamboo floated right back to the temple. The people said, \u201cHe is truly a powerful Spirit, truly a powerful Spirit!\u201d and for a thousand miles around, everyone knew about the Spirit that lived in Gongting Temple (\u48bc\u4ead\u5edf).<\/p>\n
When An Shigao\u2019s party arrived at the lake, those who believed in the Spirit went to bow to him while An Shigao stayed in the boat. The Spirit said, \u201cThere is a Shramana on your boat. Invite him here!\u201d When they told An Shigao, he said, \u201cIt is just this Spirit whom I have come to take across.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFriend,\u201d he said to the Spirit, \u201cyou still have that big temper, don\u2019t you? When someone slights you, you capsize his boat. You have killed many people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Spirit said, \u201cI don\u2019t know what to do! I am a Spirit who manages an area of about a thousand miles. But when l die, I shall certainly go to the hells for the crimes I have committed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t worry,\u201d said An Shigao, \u201clast life you were my friend and I have come to help you. Now, knowing your errors, show yourself!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t!\u201d said the Spirit. \u201cEveryone would die of fright.\u201d<\/p>\n
An Shigao insisted, \u201cImpossible. They won\u2019t be afraid. Now appear and let me see you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Spirit had been hiding behind the bed. Slowly his head rose up, the head of a big snake\u2014a mahoraga who could eat five people in one gulp. An Shigao explained the Dharma to the snake and recited mantras for him. The big snake cried; tears fell like rain. He said, \u201cSoon l shall die, but l won\u2019t leave this ugly corpse here. I am going to a big marsh in Shanxi (\u5c71\u897f) to die.\u201d<\/p>\n
An Shigao returned to the boat and as it cast off from the dock, the mahoraga appeared in the sky above the mountain tops and bowed to An Shigao. Everyone waved goodbye to him. That was the end of the mahoraga.<\/p>\n
Later on their voyage, a young boy appeared on the boat and bowed to An Shigao. He listened carefully while An Shigao explained the Dharma to him, and then disappeared. An Shigao told his followers, \u201cThis boy was the former Gongting Lake Temple Spirit; he returned to thank me.\u201d From that day on, no matter what anyone prayed for at the Gongting Lake Temple, there was no response. What is more, in Shanxi in a big marsh, the enormous body of a snake, measuring several miles long, appeared. The village there is now called \u201cSnake Village.\u201d Soon everyone knew about this incident and many more people came to believe in the Buddhadharma.<\/p>\n
When they disembarked, An Shigao handed his former murderer a box, saying, \u201cI have to go to Guiji (Kuaiji, \u6703\u7a3d) to receive more retribution. In four years, open this box and see what is inside. If anything should happen to me, please see that I am buried properly.\u201d<\/p>\n
As he passed through Guiji (Kuaiji, \u6703\u7a3d), he walked behind two men fighting in the street. One of them raised a club to strike his opponent, cracked open An Shigao\u2019s head on the backswing, and killed him.<\/p>\n
Four years later, the box was opened and in it were these words:
\n\u201cLayman Chen Hui (\u9673\u60e0) venerates me, and
\nBhikshu Senghui (\u50e7\u6703) guards my Chan Dharma.\u201d<\/p>\nAt that time no one understood these words, but later, a layman named Chen Hui, venerated An Shigao, and a Dharma Master named Senghui, propagated the Sutras that An Shigao had translated.<\/p>\n
An Shigao dwelt in China for twenty years. Although a foreigner, he learned Chinese quickly and translated over thirty Sutras with great accuracy.<\/p>\n
That An Shigao, a Monk of such high virtue, had to undergo a severe retribution such as this, should warn us not to look lightly on cause and effect and casually lose our tempers. The Gongting mahoraga had been a Bhikshu in his last life, but fell to rebirth as a snake because he liked to get angry. Everyone thought he was magical. Who would have guessed that he was such a weird thing? Had it not been for An Shigao\u2019s vow to save him, he would have been in serious trouble.<\/p>\n
An Shigao had been extremely filial to his father and mother. Later, when he went to China, everyone recognized him as a Virtuous High Monk. Because his father had been a king, the people called him Lord An.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Venerable An Shigao \u5b89\u4e16\u9ad8\u5c0a\u8005 From causes made in lives gone by Comes your present life; Results you\u2019ll get in lives to come, Are born … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1752","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gbm-online.com\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gbm-online.com\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gbm-online.com\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gbm-online.com\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gbm-online.com\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1752"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gbm-online.com\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1753,"href":"https:\/\/www.gbm-online.com\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1752\/revisions\/1753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gbm-online.com\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}