The Buddha Śākyamuni flies with his five hundred disciples to Lake Anavatapta and there asks each of them to explain their own karmic histories. Mahākāśyapa then tells how in a past life he gave a handful of millet to a pratyekabuddha and expressed a wish to be associated with such beings in the future. As a result, he was born in the paradisical land of the Kurus a thousand times, and then another thousand times among the thirty-three gods. Finally, he was reborn as a wealthy brahman but rejected the world and met Śākyamuni. Śākyamuni accepted him as a disciple and instructed him for only seven days, after which he attained enlightenment. (Extract from Salomon 2008: 355.)
