Udanavarga 1.123

1.123

昔佛在世，時有一道人，在河邊樹下學道，十二年中貪想不除，走心散意但念六欲，目色耳聲鼻香口味身更心法，身靜意遊曾無寧息，十二年中不能得道。佛知可度，化作沙門往至其所，樹下共宿。須臾月明，有龜從河中出來至樹下，復有一水狗飢行求食，與龜相逢便欲噉龜，龜縮其頭尾及其四脚藏於甲中，不能得噉。水狗小遠，復出頭足行步如故，不能奈何遂便得脫。於是道人問化沙門：「此龜有護命之鎧，水狗不能得其便。」化沙門答曰：「吾念世人不如此龜，不知無常放恣六情，外魔得便形壞神去，生死無端輪轉五道，苦惱百千皆意所造，宜自勉勵求滅度安。」於是化沙門即說偈言：

In times of old, when Buddha dwelt in the world, there was a certain religious person who had taken his abode under a tree beside the bank of a river. After practising himself in religious exercises for twelve years, he was still unable to get rid of worldly thoughts, or to banish recollections of worldly pleasures—to wit, those resulting from sight, or hearing, or smelling, or tasting, or handling, or thoughts about the properties of things around him (dharma)—and thus after these twelve years he was still unconverted. Buddha, perceiving his capability of conversion, transformed himself into a Shaman, and came to the tree where he sat, and occupied a place near the other. After a while, in an interval of moonshining, lo! they saw a tortoise come up out of the river, and come towards the tree; at the same time a hungry river-dog coming along endeavoured to lay hold of the tortoise to eat him. But no sooner did he make the attempt than the tortoise, gathering up his head and tail and legs into his shell, was in perfect safety, and the dog could do him no harm. But no sooner had the dog gone on than the tortoise, emerging from his concealment, walked on again as before. On this the ascetic observed to the Shaman—"This tortoise, because it possesses such a safe protection (lit. 'a casque of salvation'), the dog was disappointed of his meal.” To which the Shaman replied—"I remember a man who was very different from this. This man, forgetting the impermanency of all earthly things, and indulging in the six pleasures of sense, fell an easy victim to Māra; his body dissolved, his spirit gone, he was whirled again through the endless forms of repeated births, a victim of the sorrows and the misery formed by his ill-regulated thoughts; and then he repeated these gāthās: