Following on yesterday’s post, here’s another example Master Hsuan Hua’s explanation of the basic stories of Buddhism.

See also Using Śāriputra’s Failure to Explain the Meaning of Bodhisattva Mahāsattva

Why was Śāriputra unable to practice the Bodhisattva Path?

Śāriputra was a Śrāvaka, and he once resolved to cultivate the Bodhisattva Dharma and practice the Bodhisattva Path of the Great Vehicle. Before you have genuinely brought forth the resolve for bodhi, nobody will test you. However, as soon as you have truly and sincerely brought forth the bodhi resolve, the gods, dragons, and other spiritual beings of the eightfold division, or the Bodhisattvas, will come to test you. It is sort of like university entrance exams. If you pass, you get in; otherwise, you have to start over again. Śāriputra resolved to practice the Bodhisattva Path, and Bodhisattvas must practice giving. If people want something that you have, you must give it to them. If you cannot fulfill their wishes, then you cannot be called a Bodhisattva.

When Śāriputra was practicing the Bodhisattva Path, he ran into a man who was crying in grief as he walked. The sad scene moved Śāriputra to compassion. As Bodhisattvas must sympathize and be compassionate with all living beings as well as alleviate their suffering and agony, Śāriputra asked the man, “Why are you crying?”

“My mother is sick,” said the man, “and she needs an eye from a living person to treat this illness. But where can I find such an eye? She will not recover without an eye from a living person. I went to all the medicine shops, but none of them carry eyes from living donors. How could I not cry?”

When Śāriputra heard this, he thought, “Ah, his mother is sick. He needs a live eye to cure her. He is very filial, but obviously there’s no medicine shop in this world where one can buy the eye of a living person. Since I have two eyes, I’ll give him one of mine.” Moved by compassion, he gouged out one of his eyes with his hand and said, “I’m here to help. Take this eye and go cure your mother’s ailment. Don’t cry now.”

The man took the eye, looked at it, and suddenly smashed it on the ground. The eye burst like a firecracker going off, and was no more.

“Why did you throw my eye to the ground?” asked Śāriputra.

The man said, “Your old eye is stinky and smelly and just plain useless, you know? What I need is a right eye! You gave me a left eye! Those are two different things. You didn’t even ask whether I needed a left or a right eye before you gouged your left one out. It’s useless, utterly useless. If you really want to help me, then please give me your right eye!”

Śāriputra was already suffering unbearable pain from gouging out his left eye. If he gouged out his right eye as well, he’d be totally blind. “No way! I can’t do any more giving! I can’t give you my right eye. Go look somewhere else.”

“Ah hah!” said the man. “So your Bodhisattva resolve was only half a resolve, eh? It wasn’t total. You could only give one eye. You couldn’t give the other one. Okay. So much for that. We’ll just have to wait awhile, won’t we?”

After saying that, the man flew up into space. He was actually a god who had come to test Śāriputra. He then said, “This time you didn’t pass the test. You can wait another few years.” This is like someone who wants to go to college but fails the exams and has to wait some time before he can try again.