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THE FRUIT OF RENUNCIATION It was early morning as a Mahainuni wended his way through the still, deserted lanes of the town, meditating on such abstract matters as acquisition and renunciation. The savage barking of dogs disturbed him in his thoughts. Looking up, he saw a dog with a bone in his mouth pursued by nearly a dozen dogs. Soon they caught up with him and mauled him cruelly. Bleeding from the wounds, the dog dropped the bone and the onslaught ceased immediately. .
. But now a second race was on; the dog who had succeeded in picking up the abandoned bone was the new quarry, till he, too, bleeding from the wounds, dropped the bone of contention and was left alone. . .
This went on for some time; one dog after another pouncing on the bone, abandoning it only when he could not hold on to it out of sheer agony, and being left in peace the moment he had given it up.
Contemplating on this ugly incident, the Mahamuni realised in a flash that his reflections on the abstract subject of acquisition and renunciation were concretely demonstrated before his very eyes. So long as the dog clung to the bone, he had to bleed for it; the moment he gave it up, he was left in peace.
If for a dry bone there was so much to lose, how
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