འཕགས་པ་ལྷག་པའ་བསམ་པ་བསྐལ་བ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 1.17
Inspiring Determination 1.17
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1.17
“Blessed One, to offer an analogy, it is as though a person goes out searching for water from a spring, a well, or a lake, and when he gets there, he defecates in it, after which he thinks to draw the water out.
“When the foul odor of the water reaches his nose, it doesn’t occur to him that the smell is his own fault, as he exclaims, ‘Oh my, this water stinks!’ Instead, he blames the water for being bad.
“Blessed One, in this analogy, where, through the power of the Buddha, there are Dharma-teaching monks who have confident command over the system of Dharma teachings, they are like the spring, the well, or the lake. Blessed One, those bodhisattvas who will come to the fore in the final half-millennium are just like people of childish nature who defecate into the springs, wells, or lakes, and then when they seek to draw water out, find fault with that water; similarly, having faulty discernment, they will discredit those who teach the Dharma and discredit even the Dharma itself. And although they are the ones who have discredited it, they will still believe that they are seeking the taste of the Dharma. And without comprehending their own error, with a faulty sense of hearing, they will criticize and show contempt for those Dharma-holding monks, saying, ‘Look at how these monks teaching the Dharma are betrayed by their many faults!’ They will revile the taste of the Dharma conveyed by those Dharma-teaching monks and look for its mistakes, dismiss it with distaste, and turn their backs on it.”
The Blessed One then commended the bodhisattva great being Maitreya, saying, “Splendid! Wonderful, Maitreya! This example you have explained expresses very well how not to search for mistakes, and how to be free of any faults.
“Maitreya, in addition, one should understand that any discourse that satisfies four conditions is what the Buddha spoke.²³
Linked texts (1)
- འཕགས་པ་ལྷག་པའི་བསམ་པ་བསྐུལ་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ — Classical Tibetan