雜譬喻經 1.26

1.26

Formerly there were two brothers who left home to study the Way. The elder brother constantly engaged in dhyāna practice, cultivating the Way with single-minded devotion, and attained the fruit of arhatship, pure and penetrating in the six supernormal powers. The younger brother constantly thought of broad learning and extensive hearing, and was fond of selling his reputation to glorify himself. The elder brother repeatedly advised the younger, saying: "A human body is difficult to obtain, and a Buddha's era is difficult to encounter. Now that you have obtained a human body, you should act while you still have time." The younger brother said to the elder, "I must first study broadly, master the Three Baskets, and become capable of being a teacher to others; only then will I practice dhyāna." The elder brother again expounded the meaning of impermanence at length for him: "Once the outgoing breath does not return, one belongs to the next life." Yet the younger brother clung stubbornly to his original intention and refused to follow the teaching. Before long, the younger brother fell gravely ill. Several tens of fine physicians were unable to save him; knowing he would surely die, the physicians gradually departed. Terrified, the younger brother knew he was about to die, and said to his elder brother, "In the past, through foolish shortsightedness, I did not heed my brother's instruction. Now that my life is about to end, what destiny will I go to?" With tears streaming down, he repented to his elder brother. Before long the man died. The elder brother entered samādhi to observe where he had gone, and saw that he was in the womb of a śreṣṭhin's wife. That śreṣṭhin's home was close to the monastery, so the elder brother frequently visited the family to act as a spiritual friend, wishing to deliver his younger brother. When the śreṣṭhin's son was just three years old, [the family] gave him [to the monastery] as an offering to become a disciple. When he reached four years of age, his wet nurse carried him in her arms to the monastery where the teacher lived. The monastery was on a mountain, with a path made of stacked stones. The wet nurse did not hold the child firmly and dropped him from her arms; his head struck the side of a stone, his brains came out, and he died. As the child was dying, he gave rise to an evil thought, resenting that she had not held him firmly and thus brought about this calamity; because he gave rise to anger, at the end of his life he fell straight into a great hell. The elder brother again entered samādhi to observe him, and saw that he had been born in hell. He sighed with sorrow: "This is certainly the end! The torments of hell are harsh and difficult to deliver someone from. Even the Buddhas can do nothing; how much less can I?" This parable illustrates that when people pursue reputation and cannot cultivate dhyāna, they later fall into evil destinies, and even the closeness of a father or brother cannot save them.