འཕགས་པ་བྱམས་པས་ཞས་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 17

17

‘You, sir, what are you suffering from?’

“The man said, ‘Your Highness, I have contracted an illness.’

“ ‘What will assuage your illness, my good man?’ asked the prince. ‘What shall I give you?’

“ ‘Your Highness,’ replied the man, ‘if I were to drink just enough of the blood from your body to satisfy me, my illness would be assuaged.’

“Then, Ānanda, Prince Giver of All Wealth took a sharp knife, cut himself, and gave the man the blood that drained from the wound to drink. Ānanda, as soon as the man drank it, his illness was cured. Ānanda, even though Prince Giver of All Wealth cut himself and all his blood drained out, he never had a moment’s regret. Ānanda, if you wonder whether Prince Giver of All Wealth was then, at that time, someone else, or you are of two minds about it, or doubtful, do not see him so. Why? Because I myself was then, at that time, Prince Giver of All Wealth. Ānanda, all the water of the four great oceans can be measured, but the blood that I have given to sentient beings as I sought supreme, completely perfect enlightenment cannot.

“Ānanda, formerly, in times gone by, there lived a prince named Puṣpa, good-looking, handsome, and beautiful to behold, endowed with a supremely good complexion, excellent figure, and with the great wealth and power of a king. He was going to the site of a pleasure grove when he saw between the villages a man who had contracted dropsy, afflicted with suffering and seriously ill.

“At this sight, he felt compassion and approached the man, and asked, ‘My good man, what will assuage this illness of yours? What shall I give you?’

“The man replied,