The Great Secret of Mind

to kill him, but the monk, surprised by the priest’s intention, asked him why he
wanted to kill him. The priest then told him the story of the temple. After hearing
this, the monk begged the priest for a week’s reprieve while he stayed at the
temple, and after a week, he could kill him or not, as he wished. So the priest let
him go free for a week.
The monk was about to attain arhatship, and for a week, constantly absorbed in
single-pointed samadhi, he did not sleep. On the morning of the last day of that
week, he attained arhatship, with foreknowledge and the power of creating
miracles, and he awaited the priest, who indeed came to fetch him to take him to
the sacrifice. The monk submitted, offering his breast to the sword, and the priest
tried hard to kill him, but the sword would not penetrate the monk’s body. The
sword having failed, the priest tried fire and boiling oil, but to no avail. By the end,
the monk had become even more imposing than before, and the priest went off to
report to the king.
King Ashoka with his many ministers came to see the monk, and the arhat
showed great miracles, awakening deep devotion in all toward him. That is how
king Ashoka came to embrace buddha-dharma. The arhat gave the king deep
teaching, and told him particularly of the immorality of human sacrifice. The king
felt remorse and asked how he should confess his misdeeds. The arhat told him
that he could not tell him how to atone for his sins, but that he should visit his own
teacher, the arhat Kriti, who surely knew the method.
The king went to see the arhat Kriti and told him the whole story about the
temple, and, feeling deep remorse for his misdeeds, he told Kriti he wanted to
make confession. Arhat Kriti told him to dig up two kilos of buddha relics from
Rajgriha, build a stupa, and fill it with them.
Ashoka did as the arhat Kriti suggested. When he dug out the relics, he found a
copper plate with an inscription prophesying that a poor person would be the one
to dig them up and, having dug them up, would dig further. The king thought that
since he was wealthy it was not his place to dig up more relics, and he went to
confer with the arhat Kriti. Arhat Kriti told him that it was indeed Ashoka himself
who was indicated in the inscription. To deflate the pride of such a king, a copper
plate had been engraved with the mention of a poor king on it. The arhat taught
him, saying, “O king! Even a huge mountain can be washed into the sea, what
then of your little kingdom? So he went again to that spot and dug up more relics
until he possessed a treasure trove of forty kilos, which included innumerable
precious stones. Seeing those enormous riches, the king’s pride diminished, and
he took the relics and ordered many stupas to be constructed around his kingdom.
Some historians say he built ten million stupas, but generally it is believed that he
built eighty-four thousand. He also served millions of Buddhist monks, and
because of his great service to buddha-dharma, it prevailed for three more
centuries in India. Later, with the Hindu resurgence and the Muslim conquest of
India, buddha-dharma gradually declined.
Supreme virtue is that untouched by any reference to act, agent, or object. Take
the example of generosity: the act of giving can lead to nirvana and buddha only if
performed without attachment to the action of giving, without attachment to the