注維摩詰經 2.170

2.170

[Kumāra]jīva says: A 'mound well' means an abandoned mound with a dry well. Long ago, a man committed an offense against a king; terrified of punishment, he fled, and the king ordered a mad elephant to pursue him. In frantic terror, the man threw himself into a dry well. Halfway down the well, he caught hold of a rotting vine and gripped it with his hands. Below was an evil dragon spewing venom toward him; beside him were five venomous snakes also wishing to harm him; two mice were gnawing the vine, which was about to snap; and a great elephant stood above, wishing to seize him. The man was in dire distress and extreme terror. Above there was a tree, from which drops of honey occasionally fell into his mouth; through attachment to the taste, he forgot his fear. The mound well is saṃsāra. The mad elephant is impermanence. The venomous dragon is the evil destinies. The five venomous snakes are the five aggregates. The rotting vine is the faculty of life. The black and white mice are the waxing and waning halves of the month. The drops of honey are the pleasures of the five desires. His forgetting fear upon tasting the honey drops illustrates sentient beings tasting the honey drops of the five desires and not fearing suffering.