The High Master Buddhayashas was a native of Kashmir. His family belonged to a secret non-Buddhist religion. One day, when a Shramana came to their door on his begging rounds, Buddhayashas" father said angrily, "Get out of here!" and sent his servant to beat him. As soon as the servant hit him, Buddhayashas' father felt pain in his arms and legs, and in a short time he was completely paralyzed. Realizing his mistake, he asked a shaman for advice. Shamans are individuals who possessed by efficacious ghosts, thus they have magical powers. the ghosts talk through the person, and the person thereby seems to know everything. People mistake this for a display of spiritual powers, and so many people believe in Shamanism. In some cases, all the shaman has to do is to give an auspicious prediction. For instance, if a couple have a newborn infant, he could say, "This child will quickly grow up to be strong and tall and will live a hundred years." which might be enough to influence the couple to believe in him. "You have offended a Sage," the shaman said, "and the ghosts and spirits have taken revenge. Seek forgiveness and you will get well."

Buddhayashas' father invited the Shramana into his house and bowed to him over and over saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," and he immediately got well. Impressed by the Shramana's virtue, Buddhayashas became his disciple and the two of them traveled from country to country.

Once, they met a tiger. The Shramana wanted to run, but Buddhayashas said, "He's eaten his fill. Don't worry, he won't harm us."

"How do you know?" said the Shramana. He didn't disbelieve Buddhayashas, but he didn't exactly believe him either. Just then the tiger trotted by without so much as a glance at the two of them. Up ahead, they came upon a corpse all blood and bones scattered on the road, and the Shramana thought, "Strange. I wonder how he knew that?" Buddhayashas was thirteen years old at the time, but there was nothing strange about it, because he was a young novice with great virtue. He had opened his Heavenly Eye and could see right into the tiger's stomach.

When he was fourteen, Buddhayashas studied and recited Sutras--a lot of Sutras, hundreds of thousands of volumes of Sutras--and his arrogance grew. "How many men in this world could possibly be my teacher?" he thought. "Few, few indeed!" Because of his arrogance, none of his colleagues would come near him, and when he was twenty, he couldn't receive the complete Bhikshu Precepts. No one would transmit them to such an arrogant child, so he studied the Indian classics with his non-Buddhist uncle. His teacher looked everywhere for High Masters to transmit the Precepts to him, but he had annoyed so many that he was twenty-seven years old before he finally received them.

Having mastered the Five Sciences: grammar and composition, arts and mathematics, medicine, logic, and philosophy, he continued to study, recite, and translate Buddhist Sutras and later traveled to Kashgar. The king of Kashgar, whose name translates as "No Thought," was a faithful and generous protector of the Triple Jewel. One day he invited over three thousand Bhikshus and Bhikshunis to the palace to have lunch and received offerings. When the king's son, Dharmaputra, saw Dharma Master Buddhayashas, he was deeply impressed by his handsome appearance and awesome comportment and asked, "Where are you from?" Dharma Master Buddhayashas' eloquent reply so delighted the Prince that he invited him to live in the palace and receive royal offerings of the finest food, clothing, and lodgings. When the king died, Dharmaputra succeeded him.

It was at this time that the young Kumarajiva and his mother arrived in Kashgar. Kumarajiva had been studying the Small Vehicle, but now he studied the Great Vehicle under Dharma Master Buddhayashas, and together they translated Sutras for a year or two, until Kumarajiva and his mother returned to Kucha. Meanwhile, in Chung Kuo, Fu Chien of the Fu Chin Dynasty, sent his great General Lu Kuang to Kucha to bring Kumarajiva back to Chung Kuo. The king of Kucha engaged Lu Kuang in battle. Deputizing his son, the crown prince, and Dharma Master Buddhayashas to administer the country's affairs. Dharmaputra leading his army, went to the aid of the king of Kucha. But before he even arrived, Kucha had been devastated, their army defeated, and Kumarajiva captured by Lu Kuang. (It took many hardships and a change of government before Kumarajiva finally arrived at Chang An, the capital of Chung Kuo, 401 A.D.).

Dharmaputra then took his army home and told Dharma Master Buddhayashas that Kumarajiva had been captured by the Chung Kuo General Lu Kuang. Dharma Master Buddhayashas sighed and said, "Ah! Kumarajiva and I were together for a long time, but I still have not fully explained all the principles that I cherish to him. I don't know when we will meet again."

Time passed and Dharma Master Buddhayashas went to Kucha to propagate the Dharma. Everyone came to believe in him. When Dharma Master Kumarajiva, in Chung Kuo, sent him a letter of invitation. Dharma Master Buddhayashas said to his disciples, "We will go immediately!" They prepared to leave, but the king and common people of Kucha would not let them go. Dharma Master Buddhayashas waited a year, then one night he gathered is disciples together. "Tonight we leave!" he said.

"But how?" said his disciples. "We can't get very far, and the king will surely find us and bring us back. How are we going to get out?"

"There's a method," said Dharma Master Buddhayashas, and he put some herbs in a large basin of water and began to recite mantras over them. Then, still reciting mantras, they all washed their feet, picked up their bedding, and ran. They ran about four hundred miles, and when it got light, he asked his disciples, "What do you think of that?"

"Oh!" they said, "all we heard was the wind in our ears. Our streaming eyes were blown shut by the wind."

Then he recited another mantra and they all washed their feet again. These mantras are not named in the text, but they probably were the "flying mantra" and the "non-flying mantra." The king of Kucha had sent people after them, but of course they never caught them. From this we can see that the virtuous Shramanas of antiquity were considered such national treasures that they were not even allowed out of the country.

They were welcomed at the border by Emperor Yao Hsing who respected Dharma Master Buddhayashas very highly. He built the Master a house where he could study. Dharma Master Buddhayashas lived there and helped Dharma Master Kumarajiva translate the Sutras, and spread the Dharma, but he accepted no further offerings. For many years however, the four kinds of offerings--food, drink, bedding, and medicine--were still offered; yet Dharma Master Buddhayashas ignored them. When three great roomfuls had accumulated, the Emperor sold them, and from the proceeds, built a temple for Dharma Master Buddhayashas. the Emperor's last offering to him of ten thousand rolls of cloth, was also refused. Dharma Master Buddhayashas' practice of not accepting offerings was his outstanding trait.