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Buddha and the Pirate ? can anyone give me info?

saltspringreesesaltspringreese
edited March 2010 in Buddhism Basics
Hi,

I remember hearing a story about the Buddha slaying a pirate in a previous incarnation. Have been searching everywhere for it in order to study and quote it, but cannot find.

Can anyone elighten me?

:)

Comments

  • NamelessRiverNamelessRiver Veteran
    edited March 2010
    I have heard that one but I don't know if it was about the Buddha. Apparently the pirate was gonna kill a lot of people and the Bodhisattva saved them by killing the pirate, and so the pirate also didn't get the bad karma from all the killing. You would probably find this story in Mahayana teachings on generosity as a paramita, which includes protection from fear.
  • jinzangjinzang Veteran
    edited March 2010
    The story comes from a Mahayana sutra and is quoted in The Jewel Ornament of Liberation, which is a summary of Buddhism written by Gampopa, the founder of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism.

    In the story, there are fifty bodhisattvas on a ship--and a thief. The captain of the ship reads the mind of the thief and sees he's about to kill the fifty bodhisattvas so that he can take the ship. To prevent this, the captain kills the thief, as it's the only way to prevent this from happening--or so the story goes. According to the story, the motivation for the act was compassion, so that the thief would not suffer the bad karma of killing fifty bodhisattvas. And the act was meritorious.

    The story was told simply to make the point that acts normally considered morally wrong can be meritorious if they prevent a greater wrong and are done out of compassion.
  • jj5jj5 Medford Lakes, N.J. U.S.A. Veteran
    edited March 2010
    check this out.
    http://books.google.com/books?id=eWVgoVByVhcC&pg=PA119&lpg=PA119&dq=Buddha+killing+a+Pirate&source=bl&ots=g3VR5C6Xyw&sig=hC0wUjuyCJ4BOSq_9PoJuXjAuhs&hl=en&ei=A5SVS_XLH4L4MvfulPUN&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CBkQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=&f=false
  • FoibleFullFoibleFull Canada Veteran

    Yes, our local Lama/Geshe also told us the story. BUT the act of compassion by killing the thief WAS a killing, so along with good karma from the intention of compassion , there was also bad karma from killing. One lifetime in the "hell realm" for the killing. The TRUE compassion comes in through the fact that the captain was WILLING to suffer the bad karma for one lifetime in order to SPARE the THIEF from countless lifetimes in the "hell realm".
    And so a Buddhist thinks of others rather than themselves.

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