Friday, January 31, 2014

A Parable


A Parable

The Buddha told a parable in a Sutra:

A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger.

He fled, the tiger chased after him.

Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge.

The tiger sniffed at him menacingly from above.

Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him.

Only the slender root of the vine supported him.

Two mice, one white and one black, started to, little by little, gnaw away the vine root.

The man saw a luscious strawberry growing near to him from the side of the precipice.

Grasping the vine’s root with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other, and ate it.

How sweet it tasted!

No comments: