Date: 12/13/2025 12/14/2025
Location: Star River Meditation Center
Teacher: Yunquan Huang
Dharma Talk
The Bodhisattva Flame-Radiance Who Broke the Precepts for the Sake of Saving Others
Thus have I heard:
In ages long past, there was one who aspired with single mind to the Bodhisattva Path. His name was Flame-Radiance (Yen-guang). Pure in heart and free from desire, he had abandoned all worldly fame and gain, dwelling alone in the deep mountains for more than four million two hundred thousand years. Having completed his practice, he came forth peacefully from the forest and entered the world of men.
As he journeyed, he came to the land of Śākya. There, in the city streets, he beheld multitudes of people, yet not a single monastery was to be seen.
Passing by a shop of earthen wares, he paused to look upon the pots and vessels, fair and finely made.
A woman’s voice sounded at his side:
“Honored sir, will you buy a vessel?”
Looking up, he beheld a woman of striking beauty. He answered:
“I thank you, but I only look. These vessels are fine indeed.”
The woman smiled:
“Then take one for your use. It will serve you well.”
The Bodhisattva said:
“How may I take such a thing without offering payment?”
But the woman pressed a costly jar into his hands, saying:
“Do not trouble. I ask no money. If you like it, I gladly give it.”
So speaking, she closed the door of the shop, her smile growing ever more alluring.
The Bodhisattva, seeing the day draw to dusk, grew anxious and said:
“Good woman, I must be on my way. Do not detain me, for I am one who keeps the holy precepts.”
But she laughed and said:
“What care I for precepts? You are but a handsome man.”
So saying, she seized his robe, seeking to draw him into the inner chamber.
The Bodhisattva clung firmly to a pillar, declaring:
“I have upheld the precepts for over four million years. How can I break them now? I seek the Way of the Buddha—how can I commit such a deed?”
The woman, enraged at his refusal, cast off her garments and threw herself upon the ground, crying aloud:
“You claim to be a holy man, yet you let me die before your eyes! Behold, I shall destroy myself, and you shall be guilty of my death.”
Seizing shards of pottery, she cut her flesh and bled, wailing:
“Cruel man! You rejoice in my suffering!”
The Bodhisattva, pressed to the utmost, was moved with great compassion. He released the pillar, sighed deeply, and said:
“Cease your torment! I consent.”
The woman at once cast aside the shards, her tears turning to laughter, and embraced him.
The Bodhisattva said:
“Wait. Let me first make a vow before the Buddha.”
Then stepping aside seven paces, he raised his hands to the sky and vowed:
“O Blessed Buddha! Today, unable to endure seeing one perish before me, I break the precepts to save her. In my next life, may I fall into hell as the fruit of this act. May the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas look upon me with pity.”
Having spoken, he returned, and the woman drew him within.
For three months she pressed upon him, until at last her mind was satisfied and she ceased to threaten her own life.
Because he had broken the precepts, Flame-Radiance Bodhisattva endured twelve further years of bitter austerity. Yet through that hardship he was delivered from a great calamity, and his vow remained firm.
At the end of his life, he ascended to the Brahmā Heaven. And that woman too, because she had been the cause of his passing beyond disaster, was reborn in the Brahmā Heaven.
The Blessed One said:“Know you this? That Bodhisattva Flame-Radiance, who broke the precepts in compassion to save a life—that was I in a former birth. And that woman was the former life of the Buddha Kauṇḍinya.”
