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This is another story about the Buddha, past life of the Buddha. One time the Buddha was in the Katylavei ... Kapilavastu country, in the ashram called Nigrodha, (in) Aulacese (Vietnamese). At that time, all his clan members, the Shakya members, and all the city’s people, all the citizens in that city, saw that the Buddha had a lot of like magical power. Not meaning that he was showing off, it’s just that people sick, became healed. Some people, blind, regained their eye sight again. And many people attained Arhat, and all kinds of spiritual levels. All the Shakya family members and clan members and relatives, and friends and all the citizens saw that the Buddha had attained a lot of power, invisible power, and saved many lives, and enlightened numerous people. They were also very, very happy. And they were also envious of the five persons Kaundinya, the five persons, the first five that the Buddha preached to and became his disciples. So, they were thinking what kind of luck did they have that they became Buddha’s first, foremost five disciples. So the Buddha said, “All of you should know. Long, long, long time ago.” Cannot imagine, cannot count how long. “I had to use my body,” meaning the Buddha. “I had to use my body to save them, to save their lives. Because of this good affinity, so today I save them first.” There were only five people, who stayed in the ship, and saying to the guide, these guys said, “Because of you, we follow you here. We trusted you, so we came here. Now it looks like we are going to die here. Please help, please save us. You are our guide, please save us. We trusted in you and we still trust you, please save us.” So the guide, this man whom everybody trusted, he said, “I heard that the ocean never wants to keep dead bodies.” Therefore, every dead body will always be floated back onto the land. “Therefore I’m going to kill myself now, so that I will die. And then you will hold on to my body because the sea will float my body onto the shore, and then because of that, you will be saved, your life will be saved. And I use this merit to offer towards Buddhahood, so that one day, I will become Buddha. And then at that time, I will use the Dharma boat to ferry you across to liberation, to Nirvana, to Buddha’s Land. You will be the first ones I will save.” Then he used a knife to cut his throat, and he died. And the big ocean doesn’t keep dead bodies, just like he said. And then the god of the sea used his strength, power, to blow like a wind, to blow this dead body onto the shore. And then of course, these five persons, who were holding on to this dead body, were saved and lived. And they, of course, went back to their families. At that time, the Buddha said again, reminded everybody, “Bhiksus, all of you should know, the Lakngaisaiya at that time was my incarnation, one of my former incarnations. And the five persons who held onto my dead body to survive, these are the five persons from Kaundinya, the group. I saved their lives at that time, so now I became the Buddha, I also saved them first, as promised.” Everyone heard that, this story, and they all praised the Buddha’s immense compassion and love. And everybody vowed to become more diligent in their practice to repay his kindness, to repay the Buddha’s kindness, and to save others, as much as their capacity allowed.
