For me, one of the best parts of Master Hsuan Hua’s commentaries is the inclusion of basic stories of Buddhism. The story of The King of Kalinga appeared both in the Hsuan Hua’s commentary on the Vajra Sutra and his Lotus Sutra commentary. I published the Vajra Sutra version earlier because I felt it was more complete. Below is Hsuan Hua’s story of The Deer Park.

Once, there were two deer kings living in the park. One deer king was a former incarnation of Śākyamuni Buddha, many lifetimes and many eons ago. He was the compassionate deer king. The other deer king was a former incarnation of Devadatta. At that time there was a king who went to the Deer Park to hunt. On every expedition, he brought many people with him, and they killed many deer.

So many deer were killed that they were on the verge of becoming extinct. The two deer kings had a meeting and decided that the deer king who was to become Sakyamuni Buddha would go present a petition to the hunting king, begging him for mercy. “What kind of petition shall we present?” asked the other deer king.

The compassionate deer king, the former incarnation of Śākyamuni Buddha, replied, “We shall tell the king of the country that every day we will send him two deer for his food. Then our herds will not become extinct, and he will have fresh venison daily. I am sure the king will agree to this. If he does not, pretty soon we will all be dead, and he will not have any deer meat at all. Besides, he cannot possibly eat that much meat. I suspect he lets most of it rot.”

The deer king Devadatta said, “Okay, let’s go appeal to him!”

The two of them went to the palace to present their petition. When they arrived at the gate, they met the palace guard, who immediately drew his sword to kill them. “Don’t kill us!” the two deer cried. “We have come today for an audience with the king. We want to present him with a petition.”

The guard was quite taken aback. “Weird,” he said. “Talking deer!” and he ran to see the king. He said, “For heaven’s sake, two talking deer have come to see you.”

The king raised an eyebrow and looked at the guard, “Talking deer? Oh yes, well tell them to come in, and we will see what kind of strange creatures they are.”

The two deer came in and said to the king, “You’ve been hunting our herds, Your Majesty, and many of our deer have been killed. You cannot possibly eat that much meat every day, can you? If you keep it up, we will disappear altogether, and you will not have any meat to eat. So we have a petition to present to you. Every day we will send you two deer to eat. Then you will not have to go hunting, but you will have meat to eat every day. If you continue to kill us at the rate you have been, you will wipe us out.” Keep in mind, at that time there were no refrigerators.

The king was surprised to hear deer talking like people. Hearing their request, he found it reasonable and agreed. “Every day you can send us two deer,” he said. And that is just what they did. This way, the king was able to eat fresh, tasty venison every day.

One day the deer king who was to become Śākyamuni Buddha appeared at the palace gate to offer himself for the king to eat. The king recognized the deer and said, “You are the king of one of the herds. How can you offer yourself? Have all the other deer in your herd been eaten?”

Śākyamuni, the deer king, replied, “Not only are there still deer in our herds, but their numbers are increasing daily. We two deer kings each watch over five hundred deer. Of the five hundred, only one goes each day as an offering to Your Majesty. Many fawns are born every day. Now our herds have doubled and redoubled. But now, for a special reason, I myself have come as your daily offering.”

“What reason?” asked the king.

“Today’s deer from my herd came with no problems, but in Devadatta’s herd there was an issue. The deer selected to be offered is pregnant. Her baby is due in a day or two, and she begged Devadatta to let her trade places with someone else, saying that once her baby is born she will gladly go to the king for food. But Devadatta would not hear of it. She came to me and asked me if a deer in my herd would trade with her. None of my deer wanted to go, of course. Hence, I volunteered myself and here I am.”

When the king heard this he thought, “How strange! Deer are living creatures, just like people. Why should I eat deer meat every day? They have feelings just like people do.” Then he recited the following verse:

You are like a person with a deer head,
While I am a deer with a human head.
From this day forward only vegetables I’ll eat;
I’ll never, ever eat another living being’s meat.

“You have the head of a deer,” the king said, “but your heart is extremely kind and compassionate. Your heart is kinder than that of most human beings. I may have a person’s head, but my heart is not as good as yours. From this day forward, I will not eat meat.”

Because of this experience, the king was moved to become a vegetarian. This story explains why that park was named the Deer Park.