百喻經 心要連讀Sūtra of One Hundred Parables · Continuous Heart-Essence
卷第一Fascicle 1
全文五層 →Full five layers →五百梵志問到最後一問：你還沒入泥洹，怎麼知道泥洹常樂？佛反問：眾生苦不苦？梵志說，我見人死時苦痛，所以知道死是苦。佛說：「汝今不死亦知死苦，我見十方諸佛不生不死故知泥洹常樂。」〔T04 0546b07〕知道一件事，不必先成為那件事。這是卷末的話，也是整卷二十一喻的鑰匙。
一、鹽少有尚爾
愚人嘗到鹽的好處，推想「少有尚爾況復多也」〔T04 0543a19〕，於是空口吃鹽，「食已口爽返為其患」〔T04 0543a20〕。鹽是對的，量錯了。節飲食是對的，斷食錯了。鹽喻、水喻、蜜漿喻都是一樣：聽到的法沒錯，拿的法子錯。婦詐稱死一喻不同，那是信了邪說、不信正教，連聽到的也錯了。渴的人到了河邊不喝，因為喝不完。持戒的人不持，因為持不全。把全當成開始的條件，就不會開始。
二、彼此都失
集牛乳等會期一次擠，牛乳乾了。壓甘蔗汁灌甘蔗，種子敗了。為半錢債花四錢渡河。這幾喻的愚人不是不懂算，是把本錢算成利息。「如壓甘蔗彼此都失」〔T04 0545b16〕。再推一步就是殺商主、剝賢臣、殺現子：把導師、把人、把自己這個身當本錢花掉，去換本錢才能生出的福。千兩肉補不回百兩，「雖十倍得肉，不免苦痛」〔T04 0545c29〕。
三、不造下屋
要三重樓，不要下兩層。「不造第二云何得造第三重屋？」〔T04 0544b23〕山羗偷得王衣，「應在手者著於脚上」〔T04 0544a21〕，一穿就穿出不是他的。法有次第，次第是穿法。不會穿的，是沒從次第裡來的。要樓頂不要下屋的，是連穿都不肯。
四、火在下面
煮蜜漿的人在上面扇，火在下面燒。「下不止火，扇之不已云何得冷？」〔T04 0544c21〕苦行是扇，煩惱是火。王女長大，王以為是藥力，不知是十二年。功夫不在上面扇，也不在一服藥。這卷的愚人都在上面動手。眾人笑他，因為眾人看見了下面。讀喻的人要做的，是看見自己的下面。
The five hundred brāhmaṇa students come to their last question: you have not yet entered nirvāṇa, so how do you know that nirvāṇa is everlasting bliss? The Buddha asks them in return: do living beings suffer? The students say: we see that people suffer pain at the time of death, and so we know that death is suffering. The Buddha says: “You are not yet dead, and yet you know that death is suffering; I have seen the buddhas of the ten directions, who are neither born nor die, and so I know that nirvāṇa is everlasting bliss.” To know a thing, one need not first become that thing. These are the words at the end of the fascicle, and they are the key to all twenty-one parables.
If a Little Does So Much
The fool tastes the good of salt and reasons, “if a little does so much, how much more a lot,” and so eats salt by itself, and “having eaten it his palate was spoiled, and it became his affliction.” The salt was right; the amount was wrong. Moderating food is right; fasting is wrong. The parables of the salt, the water, and the syrup are all the same: the Dharma they heard was not wrong, the method they took was. The parable of the wife who feigned death is different: there a wrong teaching was believed and the right teaching refused, so that even what was heard was wrong. The thirsty man reaches the river and does not drink, because he cannot drink it all. The one who should keep the precepts does not keep them, because he cannot keep them all. Make the whole the condition for beginning, and there is no beginning.
Both Are Lost
Storing up milk to milk it all at once on the day of the feast: the milk dries up. Pressing sugarcane for juice to water the sugarcane: the seed is ruined. Spending four coins to cross the river for a debt of half a coin. The fools in these parables are not unable to count; they count the capital as interest. “Like pressing the sugarcane: both are lost.” One step further and it is killing the caravan leader, flaying the loyal minister, killing the son one has: spending the guide, spending people, spending this very body as capital, to buy the merit that only capital could have produced. A thousand taels of flesh do not make good a hundred; “though he obtained ten times the flesh, he did not escape the pain.”
Not Building the Lower Floors
He wants a three-storied tower and does not want the two lower floors. “Without building the second, how could the third be built?” The hill tribesman steals the king’s garments and “what belonged on the hands he put on his feet,” and the moment he puts them on it is plain they are not his. The Dharma has an order, and the order is the way of wearing it. One who cannot wear it has not come up through the order. One who wants the top floor without the lower floors will not even put it on.
The Fire Is Underneath
The man boiling the syrup fans from above while the fire burns underneath. “If you do not put out the fire below, how will fanning without end ever make it cool?” Austerity is the fan; the afflictions are the fire. The princess grows up, and the king thinks it is the power of the medicine, not knowing it was twelve years. The work is neither in fanning on top nor in a single dose. The fools of this fascicle all set their hands to work on top. The people laugh at them because the people see what is underneath. What the reader of parables has to do is see what is underneath in himself.
卷第二Fascicle 2
全文五層 →Full five layers →飲木筩水的人飲足了，對水說「我已飲竟，水莫復來」〔T04 0548c15〕，水照流，他生氣。智人說：「汝欲得離者，當攝汝六情閉其心意，妄想不生便得解脫。何必不見、欲使不生？」〔T04 0548c24〕這是這一卷二十喻裡把修法說得最具體的一句，也是整卷的鑰匙。愚人要的是外面的東西不來，法說的是自己走開。
一、半車炭
沈水一車，賣不掉，燒成炭，「不得半車炭之價直」〔T04 0546c02〕。胡麻熬熟了好吃，便熬熟了種，「永無生理」〔T04 0546c15〕。兩喻合段都說「速斷生死」：嫌佛果難，退求聲聞；嫌苦行不樂，說作阿羅漢「其功甚易」〔T04 0546c17〕。退一步以為得的是小的，實際得的是壞的。沈水燒了不是炭，是不到半車炭的價；胡麻熬了不是熟胡麻，是死種。送美水喻的村人反過來：路沒有短，王說短了，他們信王，不捨。從大退到小的，兩頭失；從小的名字走大的路的，照走。
二、適可能破
弟子買驢，因為驢須臾能破瓦師積年之器。師說：「此驢今者適可能破，假使百年不能成一。」〔T04 0547c24〕這一卷的愚人多站在弟子那邊。斫樹取果，樹倒了「復欲還活都不可得」〔T04 0548a16〕。失一牛殺群牛，「一切都破無一在者」〔T04 0548c09〕。錦繡裹氀褐，火上放冷水。破是快的，成是慢的；快的那邊看起來像能耐。合段把戒叫樹、叫水、叫錦繡、叫二百五十牛，都是久時所作。破一戒有懺悔，牛殺了沒有；愚人把回得去的事當成回不去的事，於是真的回不去了。
三、鏡中有人
貧人開篋見鏡，叉手說「不知有君在此篋中，莫見瞋也」〔T04 0548b09〕，走了。鏡中沒有人，是他自己。合段叫它「身見鏡」〔T04 0548b13〕：「妄見有我，即便封著，謂是真實」〔T04 0548b14〕。這一卷認錯的喻都在這面鏡子裡。効王眼瞤，認病為王；馬屎塗背，認藥為病因；截他鼻著婦面，認人德為己德；挑仙人眼，認人為眼。都是把看見的影當成篋裡原有的主。寶就在鏡下面，他離寶最近的時候，正是他走開的時候。
四、水莫復來
對水發令的人、燒衣的人、殺身的人、求長生不死的人，要的都是一件事：外面的東西不要來。水莫來，身莫有，死莫至。智人說「何必不見、欲使不生」〔T04 0548c25〕：法不在那一邊。禿人求醫，醫也禿；求沙門婆羅門除無常，沙門婆羅門「亦患此無常生老病死」〔T04 0549a23〕。無常人人有，誰也給不了不死之處。這一卷最後一喻，兩鬼爭篋杖屐，一人問清三物何用，拿起來飛走了。「布施如篋」〔T04 0549b10〕「禪定如杖」〔T04 0549b11〕「持戒如屐」〔T04 0549b12〕——不叫水莫來，不求死莫至，拿起施戒定就走。全卷二十喻，只有這一個人飛起來。
The man who drank from the wooden pipe drank his fill, said to the water, “I have finished drinking; water, come no more,” and when the water flowed on he was angry. The wise man said: “If you wish to be free of them, you should gather in your six senses and shut your mind; when false thinking does not arise you will attain liberation. Why must you not see them, why must you make them not arise?” Of the twenty parables of this fascicle this is the sentence that says most concretely how to practise, and it is the key to the whole fascicle. What the fool wants is for the things outside not to come; what the Dharma says is to walk away oneself.
Half a Cartload of Charcoal
A cartload of aloeswood would not sell, so he burnt it to charcoal and “did not get even the price of half a cartload of charcoal.” Roasted sesame tastes good, so he roasted it and sowed it, and it “never could grow.” The applications of both parables say “cut off birth and death quickly”: finding the fruit of buddhahood hard, he steps back to the fruit of the hearers; finding austerity joyless, he says that to become an arhat “the effort is very easy.” He steps back thinking he gets something smaller; what he gets is something spoiled. Aloeswood burnt is not charcoal but less than half a cartload of charcoal’s price; sesame roasted is not cooked sesame but dead seed. The villagers in the parable of delivering fine water are the reverse: the road did not grow shorter, the king said it had, they trusted the king, and they did not give up. The one who retreats from the great to the small loses both; the one who walks the great road under the small road’s name keeps walking.
It Can Only Break Things Now
The disciple bought the donkey because the donkey could break in a moment the pots the potter had made over years. The teacher said: “This donkey can only break things now; give it a hundred years and it could not make one.” Most of the fools in this fascicle stand on the disciple’s side. The tree is felled for its fruit, and “when he wishes to bring it back to life, it cannot be done.” One cow is lost and the whole herd is killed, “leaving not one.” Brocade is used to wrap coarse wool rags; cold water is set over the fire. Breaking is fast and making is slow, and the fast side looks like skill. The application calls the precepts a tree, water, brocade, two hundred and fifty cattle, all things made over a long time. For a broken precept there is repentance; for killed cattle there is none. The fool takes a thing that can be undone for a thing that cannot, and so it really cannot be undone.
There Is Someone in the Mirror
The poor man opened the chest, saw the mirror, joined his hands and said, “I did not know you were in the chest, sir; do not be angry with me,” and left. There was no one in the mirror; it was himself. The application calls it “the mirror of the view of the body”: “falsely see a self, and at once seal themselves to it and take it for real.” Every parable of mistaking in this fascicle is inside this mirror. Imitating the king’s twitch takes the ailment for the king; horse dung on the back takes the medicine for the cause of the disease; another woman’s nose on his wife’s face takes another’s virtue for his own; putting out the sage’s eyes takes the man for the eyes. Each takes the reflection it sees for the owner who was in the chest. The treasure was right under the mirror; the moment he was nearest the treasure was the moment he walked away.
Water, Come No More
The man who gives orders to the water, the man who burns his robe, the man who kills his body, the man who seeks long life without death, all want one thing: that what is outside should not come. Let the water not come, let the body not be, let death not arrive. The wise man says, “why must you not see them, why must you make them not arise?”: the Dharma is not on that side. The bald man seeks a physician, and the physician is bald; he asks the ascetics and brāhmaṇas to remove impermanence, and they “too suffer from this impermanence, birth, old age, sickness, and death.” Everyone has impermanence, and no one can give a place without death. In the last parable of the fascicle two demons quarrel over a chest, a staff, and a pair of sandals, and a man asks what the three things are for, picks them up, and flies away. “Giving is like the chest,” “meditation is like the staff,” “keeping the precepts is like the sandals.” He does not tell the water not to come, he does not ask that death not arrive; he picks up giving, precepts, and meditation and goes. Of the twenty parables in the fascicle, he is the only one who gets off the ground.
卷第三Fascicle 3
全文五層 →Full five layers →兩個人幫人推車到平地，問要東西，車主說「無物」。一人就索「與我無物，必應有無物」〔T04 0551b07〕。另一人笑著說：「無物者，二字共合是為假名。」〔T04 0551b07〕合段說，凡夫把無物當一樣東西，生到無所有處；第二個人說的無物，「即是無相無願無作」〔T04 0551b09〕。這一卷二十四喻，愚人要的東西多半是這樣的名：樂、我、造物主、一識、鬼；名的下面沒有那樣東西。這一句是整卷的鑰匙。
一、半餅
吃六枚半飽了，他說飽是半餅給的，前六枚白丟了。合段：世人「從本以來常無有樂，然其癡倒橫生樂想」〔T04 0550a01〕，富貴求時苦、守時苦、失時苦，「於三時中都無有樂」〔T04 0550a05〕；衣食遮住了寒飢，「猶如衣食遮故名樂」〔T04 0550a05〕。伎兒作樂，王說「汝向作樂空樂我耳，我與汝錢亦樂汝耳」〔T04 0550c26〕，人天的樂也是過了耳就沒。五人買一婢各打十下，五陰「恒以生老病死無量苦惱搒笞眾生」〔T04 0550c22〕。樂是一個名，名的下面是苦暫時被遮。半餅不是飽，是前六枚的末尾。
二、門驢及索
主人叫奴守門看驢索，奴用索把門繫在驢上，連門帶驢去聽樂，財物被偷盡。「留爾守門正為財物，財物既失用於門為？」〔T04 0550a15〕合段把門叫根門，驢叫無明，索叫愛，財物叫「正念覺意道品」〔T04 0550a21〕。奴沒有丟門，丟的是門所守的。估客二弟子沒有丟㲲，拿㲲去蓋駝皮，兩樣都爛了，「捨根取末不求其本」〔T04 0549c15〕。這一卷的愚人多是這樣：守著門而把門帶走，用貴的蓋賤的，為修福作非法壓出雙目，為名聞磨大石成小牛。手裡抓的那樣東西都在，所為的那樣東西沒了。
三、天明方知
伎兒穿了戲裡的羅剎服向火坐，同伴醒來一看就跑，一夥人越山投壑，「乃至天明方知非鬼」〔T04 0552b23〕。兩人在故屋裡推門鬪了一夜，「既相覩已，方知非鬼」〔T04 0552c08〕。癡人入水撓泥求金，父說金在樹上，「所以知之，影現水底」〔T04 0552a07〕。合段三處說的是一件事：「於無我陰中，橫生有我想」〔T04 0552a10〕，「因緣暫會無有宰主，一一推析誰是我者？」〔T04 0552c09〕。羅剎是自己人穿的衣服，鬼是對面的人，金影是樹上金的影。看一眼就知道，沒有人看。「竟不諦觀捨之而走」〔T04 0552b19〕——我見就是這一眼沒看。
四、不淨之施
婦造毒丸要害夫，夫忘在樹下，五百賊吃了全死，他得了王的厚賞；王叫他殺師子，他怕得上樹，刀掉下去正入師子口。合段：「其婦人歡喜丸者喻不淨施，王遣使者喻善知識」〔T04 0553a22〕，「每常怖怯者喻能以弱而制於彊」〔T04 0553b01〕。「不淨之施猶尚如此，況復善心歡喜布施？」〔T04 0553b03〕這一卷前面的愚人多半失了手裡的東西，最後一喻的人什麼都沒做成，施出去的毒丸成了歡喜丸。鴛鴦鳴的人「爾先不作，今作何益」〔T04 0550b15〕，蹋口的人「時未及到」〔T04 0551b21〕，觀瓶的人看過了時；這一個人心不淨，施卻到了時。無物是兩個字，不淨施卻是一件事：心不到，施到了，遇見善知識，就「便獲勝報」〔T04 0553b03〕。這一卷說到最後，給的是這一條路。
Two men help push a cart up to level ground and ask for something, and the owner says, “nothing.” One of them demands it: “give me nothing; there must be a nothing.” The other says with a smile: “‘Nothing’ is two words joined together; it is a provisional name.” The application says that the ordinary person who takes nothing for a thing is born in the Station of Nothingness, while the nothing of which the second man spoke “is signlessness, wishlessness and non-action.” In the twenty-four parables of this fascicle, what the fools want is mostly a name of this kind: pleasure, self, a creator, the one consciousness, a demon; under the name there is no such thing. This sentence is the key to the whole fascicle.
Half a Cake
Full after six and a half cakes, he says the fullness came from the half cake and the six before it were wasted. The application: the people of the world “from the very beginning have never had any pleasure, yet in their deluded inversion they falsely conceive the notion of pleasure”; wealth and rank are suffering to seek, suffering to guard, suffering to lose, and “in all three times there is no pleasure at all”; food and clothing shelter us from cold and hunger, and “because they shelter us, they are called pleasure.” The musician plays, and the king says, “just now your music was only pleasing my ears for nothing; my promise to give you money also only gave pleasure to your ears”: the pleasures of humans and heavens too are gone once past the ear. Five men buy one slave girl and each beats her ten times; the five aggregates “constantly flog beings with birth, old age, sickness, death and countless sufferings.” Pleasure is a name, and under the name is suffering sheltered for a while. Half a cake is not fullness; it is the tail end of the six before it.
The Door, the Donkey and the Rope
The master tells the servant to guard the door and watch the donkey and the rope; the servant ties the door to the donkey with the rope, takes door and donkey off together to hear the music, and the goods are stolen clean. “I left you to guard the door precisely for the sake of the goods; now the goods are lost, what use is the door?” The application calls the door the doors of the senses, the donkey ignorance, the rope craving, and the goods “right mindfulness, the factors of awakening and the factors of the path.” The servant did not lose the door; he lost what the door guarded. The merchant’s two disciples did not lose the cotton; they used it to cover the camel hide, and both rotted, “discarding the root and taking the branch, not seeking the source.” Most of the fools of this fascicle are like this: guarding the door and taking it away, covering the cheap with the dear, pressing out both eyes for the sake of merit, grinding a great stone into a toy ox for the sake of a name. The thing in their hands is still there; the thing it was for is gone.
At Daybreak They Knew
A player put on the rākṣasa costume from the play and sat by the fire; a companion woke, took one look and ran, and the whole troupe plunged over mountains and into ravines, “until at daybreak they knew at last that it was no demon.” Two men pushed at a door in an old house and fought all night, and “when they saw each other they knew at last that it was no demon.” A fool churned the mud for gold in the water, and his father said the gold was in the tree and he “knew it because its reflection appeared in the water.” The three applications say one thing: “within the aggregates where there is no self they falsely conceive the notion of a self”; “causes and conditions come together for a moment and there is no master; analysed one by one, which of them is the self?” The rākṣasa is a costume one of their own put on; the demon is the man opposite; the gold’s reflection is the reflection of gold in the tree. One look would have shown it, and no one looked. “Without looking closely he abandoned everything and ran”: the view of self is that one look not taken.
Impure Giving
A wife makes poisoned pills to kill her husband; he forgets them under a tree; five hundred bandits eat them and all die, and he gets a rich reward from the king; the king sends him to kill a lion, and he is so frightened he climbs a tree, and the knife falls straight into the lion’s mouth. The application: “the wife’s joy pills stand for impure giving; the king who sent him as an envoy stands for the good friend”; “his constant fearfulness stands for the weak overcoming the strong.” “If impure giving is like this, how much more giving with a wholesome and joyful mind?” The fools earlier in this fascicle mostly lost what was in their hands; the man of the last parable brought nothing about himself, and the poisoned pills he gave away became joy pills. The man who cried like a duck was told, “you did not do it before; what good is doing it now”; the man who kicked the elder acted when “the time had not yet come”; the man who watched the pots let the time go by. This man’s mind was not pure, yet his giving arrived in time. “Nothing” is two words; impure giving is one deed: the mind did not arrive, the gift did, it met a good friend, and so he “gained an excellent reward.” At the very end, this is the road the fascicle leaves open.
卷第四Fascicle 4
全文五層 →Full five layers →長者子會背入海捉船的法，水漩洄流的地方「當如是捉、如是正、如是住」〔T04 0553b29〕。船師死了他代了船師，到了駛流裡唱的還是這幾個字，「船盤迴旋轉不能前進至於寶所，舉船商人沒水而死」〔T04 0553c04〕。合段：「雖誦其文不解其義」〔T04 0553c07〕。這是這一卷頭一喻；末一喻小兒問人怎麼殺龜，人說丟進水裡，龜游走了，合段說凡夫「不解方便」〔T04 0557c07〕。頭一喻拿對了法而不會用，末一喻要的對而問錯了人；兩喻的人都想做對的事。這一句是整卷的鑰匙。
一、尾何以白
騎黑馬入陣的人裝死，馬被奪了，回家時截一條白馬尾，說馬死了。傍人問：「汝馬本黑，尾何以白？」〔T04 0554c02〕合段：「自言善好修行慈心不食酒肉，然殺害眾生加諸楚毒」〔T04 0554c04〕。夫婦為一枚餅約定不語，賊搬光了財物、欺到婦身上，丈夫還是不語，合段叫它「詐現靜默」〔T04 0553c21〕。婆羅門捉著空澡灌說洗過了，合段：「如捉空瓶但有外相。」〔T04 0554c15〕裝的樣子都是法裡本來有的好樣子：靜默、慈心、持戒，所以裝得出來。裝得像不像，一句話就試得出：尾何以白。
二、嘗一果
果主說「汝嘗一果足以知之」〔T04 0554a24〕，買果的人一個一個嘗遍，長者「惡而不食，便一切都棄」〔T04 0554a27〕。合段：「不知推一以求因果，方懷不信，須己自經」〔T04 0554b02〕要自己經過一回才信的人，嘗過的果都不能吃了。女人怕眼將來痛想先挑眼，傍人說「眼若在者或痛不痛，眼若無者終身長痛」〔T04 0556a11〕，合段對的是怕富貴之患而不施。賊分到一件不好的欽婆羅，賣了反得大價，合段：「而行少施得生天上，受無量樂方更悔恨，悔不廣施。」〔T04 0556b07〕一果可以知一樹，一點施可以知大報；不肯推一的人，每一樣都要自己嘗。
三、一豆
獼猴一把豆掉了一粒，「便捨手中豆欲覓其一，未得一豆先所捨者雞鴨食盡」〔T04 0556b13〕。合段：「初毀一戒而不能悔，以不悔故放逸滋蔓一切都捨」〔T04 0556b14〕駱駝頭卡在甕裡，老人教他斬頭，「既復殺駝而復破甕」〔T04 0554c22〕，合段：「乘及淨戒二俱捐捨」〔T04 0554c26〕臣羞於捉一張机，王給他背三十六張；合段的人一髮不肯拾，「三十六物一時都捉不生慚愧」〔T04 0555b16〕。雄鴿啄死了雌鴿，雨後果又滿了，合段：「犯於重禁悔之於後竟何所及？」〔T04 0557b06〕一粒豆、一張机、一戒，都是小的；小的那一處該悔而不悔，手就鬆了，一切都出去了。這一卷說悔的四處，只有獼猴那一處是該悔的時候；其餘三處都在事後。
四、葉裹
與他婦通的人聽婦說「唯有摩尼可以得出」〔T04 0557a14〕，摩尼在這裡是水竇，他聽成了珠，在屋裡找珠，被殺。合段：「凡夫錯解，便求世界有邊無邊及以眾生有我無我，竟不能觀中道之理」〔T04 0557a20〕錯解不是沒聽，是聽了一半。三十三喻之後撰者自己作偈：「如阿伽陀藥，樹葉而裹之，取藥塗毒竟，樹葉還棄之。」〔T04 0557c20〕「戲笑如葉裹，實義在其中，智者取正義，戲笑便應棄。」〔T04 0557c22〕四卷九十八個癡人的事是葉，九十八段「亦復如是」是藥。聽成珠的人是只拿了葉；拿到藥還捏著葉不放的，是又一個癡人。撰者給這部書的名字是「癡花鬘」〔T04 0557c24〕，一串癡人穿起來給人戴；戴的人自己是哪一朵，取了正義就知道，知道了，葉就可以棄了。
The elder’s son could recite the art of entering the sea and handling a boat: where the water eddies and swirls, “hold it so, steer it so, keep it so.” The helmsman died and he took his place, and in the rushing current what he cried out was still those same words, and “the boat went round and round and could not go forward to the place of the treasure, and all the merchants on board sank in the water and died.” The application: “though he recites the text he does not understand its meaning.” That is the first parable of the fascicle. In the last, a child asks how to kill a tortoise, is told to throw it in the water, and the tortoise swims away; the application says the ordinary person “does not understand the means.” In the first parable the man holds the Dharma rightly and cannot use it; in the last he wants the right thing and asks the wrong person. Both mean to do right. This sentence is the key to the whole fascicle.
Why Is the Tail White
The man who rode a black horse into battle played dead, and his horse was taken; on the way home he cut off a white horse’s tail and said his horse had died. A bystander asked: “Your horse was black. Why is the tail white?” The application: “they claim that they are good and cultivate a mind of kindness and eat no meat and drink no wine, yet they kill living beings and inflict every cruelty.” A husband and wife agreed not to speak for the sake of one cake; a thief carried off everything and laid hands on the wife, and the husband still said nothing, and the application calls it “feigning silence.” A brāhmaṇa held an empty washing jug and said he had washed; the application: “like one who holds an empty jar that has nothing but its outside.” Every look that is feigned is a good look the Dharma really has, silence, a mind of kindness, keeping the precepts, and that is why it can be feigned. Whether the feigning passes, one question tests: why is the tail white?
Taste One Fruit
The owner said, “taste one and you will know,” and the buyer tasted every fruit, and the elder “was disgusted and would not eat, and threw them all away.” The application: “they do not know how to infer from one to seek the cause and effect, but harbour disbelief and must pass through it themselves.” Whoever must pass through a thing himself before believing has left every fruit he tasted unfit to eat. A woman wanted to gouge out her eyes for fear they would ache one day, and a bystander said, “if the eyes are there, they may ache or they may not; if the eyes are gone, there is lifelong pain”; the application matches this to the one who fears the misfortune of wealth and will not give. A robber got the worst share, a kambala of poor colour, sold it and was paid a great price; the application: “they give a little, and are born in heaven and receive measureless happiness, and only then regret it, regretting that they did not give widely.” One fruit tells of the whole tree; a little giving tells of a great reward. The one who will not infer from one must taste every one himself.
One Bean
The monkey dropped one bean from its fistful, and “let go of the beans in its hand to look for the one, and before it had found that one bean, the chickens and ducks had eaten all it had let go.” The application: “he first breaks one precept and cannot repent, and because he does not repent, heedlessness spreads and he gives up everything.” The camel’s head stuck in the jar, an old man told him to cut it off, and he “killed the camel and then broke the jar as well”; the application: “the vehicle and the pure precepts are both thrown away.” A minister was ashamed to carry one stool in his hand, and the king loaded thirty-six on his back; the man of the application will not pick up a single hair, and “takes hold of all thirty-six things at once without shame.” The cock pigeon pecked the hen to death, and after the rain the fruit filled the nest again; the application: “he breaks the grave prohibitions, and what use is it to repent afterwards?” One bean, one stool, one precept, each is small; at that small place, where he should repent and does not, the hand opens and everything goes out. Four places in this fascicle speak of regret, and only the monkey’s is the time when repentance is due; the other three all come after the deed.
Wrapped in a Leaf
The man who lay with another’s wife heard her say “only by the maṇi can you get out.” Maṇi here means the water drain; he heard it as the pearl, searched the room for a pearl, and was killed. The application: “the ordinary person misunderstands, and seeks whether the world has a limit or has none, and whether beings have a self or have none, and in the end cannot contemplate the principle of the middle way.” Misunderstanding is not failing to hear; it is hearing half. After the thirty-three parables the author speaks in verse himself: “Like the agada medicine, wrapped in a leaf: once the medicine has been taken and put on the poison, the leaf is thrown away.” “Jests are like the leaf that wraps; the real meaning lies within it. The wise take the right meaning, and the jests should then be discarded.” The doings of ninety-eight fools in four fascicles are the leaf; ninety-eight applications, “it is just the same,” are the medicine. The one who heard the pearl took only the leaf; the one who has the medicine and still clutches the leaf is one more fool. The name the author gives this book is “the Garland of Fools,” a string of fools to be set on someone’s shoulders. Which flower the wearer is, he knows once he has taken the right meaning; and once he knows, the leaf can be thrown away.