經律異相 41.23

41.23

In the past there was a brāhmaṇa who took no delight in worldly affairs. He secluded himself in the mountains, single-mindedly contemplating the Path. He entered meditative absorption for over three hundred years; dust and earth covered his body, and grass and trees grew upon his form. At the foot of the mountain were several hundred brāhmaṇa households who raised wives and children. The young and the old went together to gather firewood and climbed trees. While snapping off dry branches and tree roots, which were connected to the brāhmaṇa's forehead, the tree was shaken, which awakened the brāhmaṇa from his dhyāna, and he emerged from the earth. Seeing the firewood gatherers, he asked them, "Who are you?" They replied, "We are brāhmaṇas." "Who are the others?" They replied, "Our wives and children." The brāhmaṇa laughed and said, "I have been in dhyāna for over three hundred years, and still do not dare call myself a brāhmaṇa. How can you bring yourselves to call yourselves brāhmaṇas?" (From the fifth fascicle of the Ten-Fascicle Parable Sūtra.)