Chapter 26: The heaven demon disturbs the Buddha.

(Chapter 26) A Brief Talk about The Scripture of Forty-Two Chapters Said by Buddha 

Co-translators in the time of Eastern Han Dynasty, China(A.D. 25 - 200) : 

Kasyapa Matanga and Zhu Falan (Who translated the said Scripture from Sanskrit into Chinese. )

Translator in modern time (A.D.2018: Tao Qing Hsu (Who translated the said Scripture from Chinese into English.)

Teacher and writer for explaining the said Scripture: Tao Qing Hsu

Chapter 26: The heaven demon disturbs the Buddha.    

The heaven god devotes the jade girl to the Buddha so as to spoil the will of the Buddha. The Buddha said,” Leather bag with much filth inside, you come here for what? Go! I don’t use it. The heaven god is more respectful for the Buddha and thus inquires the meaning of Dao. The Buddha explains it to him, who immediately attains the fruit of Srotāpanna.  

The heaven god here means the heaven demon. The heaven demon here is transformed by the heaven god in order to examine the heart and mind of Buddha.   The heaven demon has the evil will to deliberately spoil the virtuous will of anyone. Meanwhile, he has the magical power to appear and change any forms and appearances of anything to deceive, threaten or bully anyone so as to achieve his evil goal. At the same time, he can use his magical power to kidnap the will of humans so as to control the kidnapped humans to do evil things. They are beings in heaven and also have a lot of children and grandchildren.

When Buddha Shakyamuni meditated in sitting and proved the fruit of Dao under the Bodhi tree, the heaven god wanted to examine whether Buddha Shakyamuni proved the fruit of Dao or not. The Dao here also means the absolutely truth, the nature of emptiness, the empty stillness, the no-thinking and the no-doing.  

Therefore, the heaven god transformed his children to be the sexy and beautiful girls so as to lure Buddha. Jade girls here mean the sexy and beautiful girls. They danced and sang songs so as to attract the Buddha. When Buddha Shakyamuni had seen them, he said, “You are leather bag with much filth inside. You come here for what? Get out of here. I don’t need these dirty leather bags.”  

The Buddha had practiced the perception and thinking of the white bones, which is a method to break the obsession with anyone. We have introduced it in the article of the Chapter 24.

In the eyes of Buddha, what he had seen is not the appearance of the sexy and beautiful girls, but their filth inside their body. If our body has been X-rayed, we know that our intestines are full of feces. Our bladder also accumulates a lot of urine. If we have basic medical knowledge, we know that the cells in our body are dying and metabolizing at any time. In fact, our body accumulates the waste of many dead cells. Secondly, our body has full of toxins and a little cancer cells. Meanwhile, there are many different bacterial and viruses in our bodies, which will cause us to be sick and aging. When the knowledge of humans was not opened, they also thought that a woman's menstruation was dirty. So, inside of our body, it might not be clean, but "filthy".

Our whole skin in our body is like the leather bag which has much “filth” inside. To have such concept is a convenient method, which would help us to eliminate the obsession with anyone. However, in fact, we don’t need to insist that inside of human body is filthy, because the human body has its own natural situation. But, we know that it finally will lead to the aging, disability and eliminated. Even how sexy and beautiful girls, who can not avoid such natural changing.

The heart and mind of Buddha Shakyamuni was very stable. He was neither lured nor affected by the girls and the heaven god. The heaven god was thus more respectful for the Buddha Shakyamuni. And he was humble to inquire the meaning of Dao from Buddha. The Buddha explained it to him, just like the chapter 2 said by Buddha. The heaven god immediately attained the fruit of Srotāpanna, which means the wisdom of the heaven god has been enlightened and he has proved the wisdom in the level of Srotāpanna. Srotāpanna is the transliteration of Sanskrit. The level and wisdom of Srotāpanna can save itself from the suffering of life and death. But, it cannot save others from the suffering of life and death.

This chapter explains that the heart and mind of the Buddha is stable, and cannot be affected by any outside situation. He will not be tied by the inner or outer erotic desire. It also explains that the Buddha not only can be the teacher of human beings, but also can be the teacher of the heavenly beings.

It is also the target of reference for the person who learns Buddha for self proving the fruit of Dao. When one person is enlightened and proving the fruit of Dao, the heaven god will come to examine and test this person. The way will be according to the personal conditions and which will be different for every one. When this person is passing the examination, the heaven god will confirm it and congratulate this person. So, whether one person proves the fruit of Dao or not, it might deceive the masses. However, it cannot deceive itself and the heaven god. That is what we have to know.

Supplementary note: Dao is transliterated from Chinese, meaning way and method, deeper meaning as a system of learning or religion. Dao is Tao, which is transliterated from Chinese. The original meaning of Dao is the way and path, and it is extended to be the truth of life that we can learn and practice in our lives.

Supplementary note: Dao is transliterated from Chinese, meaning way and method, deeper meaning as a system of learning or religion. Dao is Tao, which is transliterated from Chinese. The original meaning of Dao is the way and path, and it is extended to be the truth of life that we can learn and practice in our lives.