________________
141
PARABLES. to break the egg-shell with the points of their claws, or with their beaks, and to come forth into the light in safety. Just even so, a brother thus endowed with fifteenfold determination is sure to come forth into the light, sure to reach up to the higher wisdom, sure to attain to the supreme security.” The lesson is, that the result is quite certain, however much doubt the hen or the believer may have about it. (S.E. xi.)
In one place Buddha says: “I shall show you a parable; by a parable many a wise man perceives the meaning of what is being said." His own preaching is compared to the physician's work, drawing poisoned arrows from wounds, and overcoming the venom by remedies. Like the lotus flower, raising its head in the lake, unaffected by the water, so the Buddhas are unaffected by the world's impurity. One of the most elaborate parables is the following, part of which we quote. “As when, O disciples, in the forest, on a mountain slope, there lies a great tract of lowland and water, where a great herd of deer lives, and there comes a man who desires hurt, distress, and danger for the deer; who covers over and shuts up the path which is safe, good, and pleasant to take, and opens up a fresh path, a swampy path, a marshy track: thenceforward the great herd of deer incurs hurt and danger, and diminishes. But now, O disciples, if a man comes, who desires prosperity, welfare, and safety for this great herd of deer: who clears and opens up the path which is safe, good, and pleasant to take, and does away with the false path, and abolishes the swampy path, the marshy track, thenceforth will the great herd of deer thrive, grow, and increase. I have spoken to you, O disciples, in a parable, to make known my meaning. But the meaning is this. The great lowland and the water, O disciples, are pleasures. The great herds of deer are living men. The man who devises hurt, distress, and ruin, is Mara, the evil one. The false path is the eightfold false path, false faith, false resolve, false speech, false action, false living, false effort, false thought, false selfconcentration. The swampy way is pleasure and desire. The swampy track is ignorance. The man who devises
