Hello, I am looking for a sutta where a monkey imitates the behavior of pratyekabuddhas and then leads ascetics to liberation.
In Abhidharmakosha-bhashyam vol II p. 483 Vasubandhu tells this story:
According to another opinion, there are also Prthagjanas who have realized, in the vehicle of the Sravakas, the nirvedhabhagtyas (vi.20); in the course of a subsequent existence, by themselves, they will realize the Way. The masters who follow this opinion find an argument in the Purvakatha where they read, âFive hundred ascetics cultivated painful austerities on a mountain. A monkey who had lived in the company of Pratyekabuddhas imitated the attitudes of the Pratyekabuddhas in front of them. These ascetics then imitated the monkey and, they say, obtained the Bodhi of the Pratyekabuddhas.â It is dear, say these masters, that
these ascetics were not Aryans, Sravakas; for, if they had previously obtained the result of the Sravakas, namely liberation from rules and rituals (filavratapardmarsa, v. French trans, p. 18), they would not have given themselves up later to painful austerities.
Purvakatha, a conjectural translation of snon gyi gtam; Hsiian-tsang has pen-shih, Paramartha, pen-hsing ching p. 222a (purvacarydsutra). Saeki refers to the Vibhasa, TD 27, p. 241b2, to Balapandita (âWeisse und Thorâ), Chap, xiii, and to Ashokarajasutra. This story is recounted in fact in Divya, 349, an excerpt from the Sutra of Ashoka as we have seen in Przyluski, Legende dâAshoka, 310 (JAs. 1914,2, 520)
I tried searching the web for these texts, but unfortunately, I havenât been able to find any suitable links to the specified texts so far. Can somebody help?
Wow, thank you very much for the quick search and finding this. I also found this story very interesting, which is why I wanted to look for more information and a possible source in the suttas or sutras. I became aware of this story in another Buddhist forum, and apparently, there is also an oral tradition of it in the Tibetan tradition, that the pratyekabuddhas did not only practice simple seated meditation, but also some kind of yoga asanas, pranayama, mudras etc. and that through this imitation, the monkey then passed these techniques on to the other ascetics. I also have the suspicion that it was not an ordinary monkey, but perhaps some kind of deva god or another mystical being who then taught the dharma to the ascetics.
I donât know, but my impression is that this is something like the Jataka tales, kind of folk tales that impart different kinds of lessons but not to be taken literally.
Thank you for your comment. Yes, the story sounds somewhat unbelievable when thinking rationally, but this is also the concept of different realms of existence, the visits of Buddha and other arhats to the deva realms and communication with devas, the immaculate conception of Siddharthaâs mother Mahadevi, or other relevant content and teachings of Buddhism. But if these other things really exist, then the existence of monkeys who teach ascetics in meditation and other matters and lead them to liberation should also be possible. The arhat Upagupta also does not seem to appear in the TheravÄda canon and tradition. it is generally assumed that Upagupta belonged to the SarvÄstivÄdin school and Upagupta is considered the fifth patriarch after MahÄkÄĹyapa, Änanda, MadhyÄntika, and ĹÄášakavÄsin. In Chan/Zen Buddhism, he is regarded as the fourth patriarch. His teacher was ĹÄášavÄsa, a direct disciple of Änanda, who was the Buddhaâs personal attendant. Despite this, his legacy has extended across diverse traditions, and in Southeast Asia, particularly in Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and Bangladesh, he is an important cult figure.
Thank you very much for the addition. This story is also very interesting, and here the monkey is not depicted as a previous birth of Upagupta but as one of the ascetics. Could you perhaps also provide a link to the source of the story?
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