Questions of King Milinda Part 02

SR No.: 007682
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T W Rhys Davids
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1894
Total Pages: 2240
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 38 MB

Page 1931

40
THE TEXTS OF TÂOISM.
BK. xx.
its eyes were large, an inch in circuit. It touched the forehead of Kâu as it passed him, and lighted in a grove of chestnut trees. “What bird is this ?' said he, 'with such great wings not to go on! and with such large eyes not to see me!' He lifted up his skirts, and hurried with his cross-bow, waiting for (an opportunity to shoot) it. (Meanwhile) he saw a cicada, which had just alighted in a beautiful shady spot, and forgot its (care for its) body. (Just then), a preying mantis raised its feelers, and pounced on the cicada, in its eagerness for its prey, (also) forgetting (its care for) its body; while the strange bird took advantage of its opportunity to secure them both, in view of that gain forgetting its true (instinct of preservation)'. Kwang Kâu with an emotion of pity, said, ' Ah! so it is that things bring evil on one another, each of these creatures invited its own calamity.' (With this) he put away his cross-bow, and was hurrying away back, when the forester pursued him with terms of reproach.
When he returned and went into his house, he did not appear in his courtyard 2 for three months ?. (When he came out), Lan Zü 3 (his disciple) asked him, saying, 'Master, why have you for this some time avoided the courtyard so much ?' Kwang-gze replied, I was guarding my person, and forgot myself; I was looking at turbid water, till I
1 Kwang-aze might now have shot the bird, but we like him the better for letting it alone.
? So then, masters of schools, like Kwang-gze, received and taught their disciples in the courtyard of their house ;-in China as elsewhere. For three months,' it is conjectured, we should read three days.'
The disciple Lan 3ü appears here, but not, so far as I know, elsewhere.
Digitized by Google