大方便佛報恩經 2.19

2.19

"At that time, the wheel-turning sage king, preceded and followed by his retinue, inspected his realm. Seeing all sentient beings undergoing such anguish, he was filled with pity and sorrow, and spoke these words: 'As a king, I govern the realm and gather in all sentient beings. Although I have guided and transformed them through the ten virtues, resulting in their obtaining such sublime five desires, they still do not escape birth, old age, sickness, and death, impermanence and destruction. It should be known that although I have governed the country according to the saddharma, it has been of no benefit to living beings. If it is of no benefit to living beings, how can I be called a great wheel-turning king? How can I be called a great compassionate father? How can I be called a great king of physicians? How can I be called a great guide? A great guide leads by means of the correct path, reveals the road to nirvāṇa, enables them to attain the unconditioned, and allows them always to attain peace and happiness. We at present have names that do not match our deeds. For example, suppose a person dying of thirst runs east and west seeking cold water. Seeing an empty well from afar, their heart rejoices, and they think: "Now my body will be revived! Why? If I do not get water, death is not far off. Now that I see a good well, I can certainly hope to get pure, cold water to relieve my extreme thirst and save my precarious life." Having thought this, they run swiftly toward it. Arriving at the well, they take off the clothes they are wearing and set them aside. Entering the well to fetch water, they find no water at all, but see only poisonous snakes, geckos, vipers, scorpions, centipedes, and the like, as well as rubble, thorns, and assorted foul weeds. At that time, because the thirsty person has lost their original wish, having failed to get water while various poisons sting their body, they immediately wish to get out of the well. But the well is decayed, dilapidated and steep. The decayed well is an arrow-shot deep, and there are no ladders, ropes, or wooden staffs. Although they leap up to climb out, they have no strength to reach high; their vigor exhausted, they fall back down to the bottom of the well and are bitten and eaten by the poisonous snakes. Before their breath is cut off, they say: "If I had known beforehand that this well had no water, I would not have even looked at it, much less gone to draw from it. Today's bitter suffering is entirely due to being deceived by this well!"'