Ancient Cultivation Stories: Cultivation of Speech

During the time of Jiaye Tathagata, there was a young monk who sang well. Because of his abilities he usually looked down upon the other monks while singing songs of praise of the Buddha together with them. He believed that his voice was superior to others with its clear, rich and deep qualities. He behaved arrogantly and always demonstrated that he was extraordinary.

An old monk with a hoarse voice couldn't sing songs of praises well. The young monk always ridiculed this old monk and told him how disgusting his voice was. He, of course, didn't know the old monk had already attained the level of Arhat.

One day, the old monk asked the young monk: "Do you know me?"

The young monk answered: "I have known you for a long time. You are the old monk singing with a hoarse voice, making people uncomfortable."

The old monk replied: "Although I can not sing well, I have already freed myself from the bondage of life and death and have no worry in this human world."

Upon hearing this, the young monk was panic-stricken and felt ashamed. He pleaded forgiveness from the old monk. But the karma had already been established. He had to suffer in the next five hundred reincarnations for his abusive tongue.

Once, there were five hundred merchants who gathered together to go to a distant place. One of them brought a dog with him for night watching. On their way, the dog stole a piece of meat when the dog owner was asleep. When the merchant woke up and saw what had happened, he was very angry and beat the dog severely. He abandoned the dog after breaking its leg.

Seeing that with his celestial eyes at this time, Buddha Myna came and gave food and water to the dog and also imparted the Buddha Law to the dog. Upon hearing the Law, the dog immediately died and was reincarnated to a Brahman family in City of Shewei.

One day when Buddha Myna was begging for food by himself, a Brahman saw him and asked: "Honourable monk, are you here by yourself without a young monk with you?"

Buddha Myna said: "You have a young boy. Could you give him to me to be my young monk?"

The Brahman answered: "The boy is only seven years old. Isn't he a little too young?"

Buddha Myra answered: "He is just the right age."

Because of the Buddha Myna's favour of giving food and imparting the Buddha Law, the dog reincarnated as a young monk to serve Buddha Myna to repay him for saving his life.

The young monk was able to comprehend the Buddha Law imparted to him by Buddha Myna and thus obtained Attainment Status quickly. As he freed himself, he realised the suffering of five hundred re-incarnations was all because of his vicious slandering of the elder monk.

This story tells us: Even among fellow disciples, one cannot use one's strength to compare oneself to others' shortcomings. That is because you will never be able to measure other cultivator's levels and their understanding of the Buddha Law by how many ordinary people' skills they have.