So then, indeed, to those who have wholly imbibed the virtue of forbearance and are great in keeping their tranquillity there is nothing unbearable. [Thus is to be said when discoursing on the virtue of forbearance, taking the Muni for example. On account of the vices of rashness and wrath, taking the king for example, this story is also to be told, and when expounding the miserable consequences of sensual pleasures, saying: 'In this manner sensual pleasures lead a man to become addicted to wicked behaviour which brings him into ruin.' It may also be told with the object of showing the inconstancy of material prosperity.]
This story is also extant in the Avadânakalpalatâ, in pallava 38, as appears from the Anukramanî, verse 15 (yah kshântisîlah sântyâbhûk khinnângo 'py avikâravân), but this part of the work has as yet not been published nor is it found in the Cambridge MSS.
XXIX. The Story of the Inhabitant of the Brahmaloka.
Since the tenets of unbelief are blameable, those who are possessed by the vice of clinging to a false belief are especially worth commiserating by the virtuous. This will be taught as follows.
One time the Bodhisattva, our Lord, having gathered by a constant practice of dhyâna a store of good karma, obtained, it is said, a birth in the Brahmaloka, in consequence of the ripening of that merit. Nevertheless, owing to his having always been conversant with commiseration in his former existences, that high happiness of the Brahmaloka, which he had obtained as the effect of the excellence of his dhyâna, did not destroy in him his longing for the task of benefiting others.
1. By indulging in sensual pleasures, however material, worldly people become utterly careless. But a frequent absorption in the delight of meditation, however ideal, does not hide the desire for benefiting others from (the mind of) the pious.
Now one time it happened that the High-minded One was passing his looks over the Region of Sensuality[201] below (his Brahma-world), where Compassion finds its proper sphere of action, since this is the region visited by hundreds of different forms of sufferings and calamities, and containing the elements for moral illnesses, disasters, injuries against living beings, and sensual pleasures. And he perceived the king of Videha, named Aṅgadinna, erring in the wilderness of a wrong belief, partly by the fault of his intercourse with bad friends, partly also in consequence of his being ardently attached to false thoughts. That king had got this persuasion: 'there is no other world after this; how could there be anything like result ripening out of good or evil actions?' and in conformity with this belief his longing for religious practices was extinguished, he was averse to performing the pious works of charity, good conduct (sîla), &c., felt a deep-rooted contempt for such as led a religious life, and owing to his want of faith, bore ill-will to the religious law-books. Being inclined to laugh at tales concerning the other world, and showing but little respect and honour to Sramanas and Brâhmans, whom he held in little esteem, he was exclusively given up to sensual pleasures.