法苑珠林 53.69

53.69

百喻經云。往昔愚人癡無所知。到餘富家見三重樓高廣嚴麗。即作是念。我有錢財不減於彼。云何不造。即喚木匠而問言曰。解作彼舍不。木匠答言。是我所作。即便語言。今為我造。木匠即便經地壘塹作樓。愚人見壘語木匠言。我不欲下二重。先為作最上屋。木匠答言。無有是事。何有不作最下造彼第二。不造第二云何得造第三屋。愚人固言。我不用下二必為我作上。時人聞已便生怪笑。譬如世尊四輩弟子不勤修敬三寶。懶惰懈怠欲求道果。不欲下三果唯欲得第四阿羅漢果亦為時人之所嗤笑。如彼愚者等無有異（不依三乘次第先學大乘亦復如是故佛藏經云不先學小乘後學大乘者非佛弟子）。

The Sūtra of One Hundred Parables says: In the past, a foolish man who was ignorant and knew nothing went to another rich man's house and saw a three-storey tower, tall, broad, ornate, and beautiful. He then had this thought: 'My wealth is no less than his; why should I not build one?' He immediately called a carpenter and asked, saying: 'Do you know how to build that house?' The carpenter replied, 'I made it.' He then said to him, 'Now build one for me.' The carpenter then measured the ground, laid foundations, dug trenches, and began building the tower. Seeing him laying the foundations, the fool said to the carpenter: 'I do not want the lower two storeys; make the uppermost room for me first.' The carpenter replied, 'There is no such thing! How could one, without making the lowest, build the second? Without building the second, how could one build the third room?' The fool insisted, 'I have no use for the lower two; you must make the upper one for me!' When people of the time heard this, they laughed at it as strange. This is like the four classes of disciples of the World-Honoured One who do not diligently cultivate reverence for the Three Jewels, but are lazy and indolent, yet seek the fruits of the path; not wanting the lower three fruits, they only desire to attain the fourth fruit of an arhat, and thus are also mocked and laughed at by the people of the time, no different from that fool. (Not relying on the sequence of the three vehicles and first studying the Mahāyāna is also like this; hence the Buddhapiṭaka-sūtra says that one who does not first study the Hīnayāna and later study the Mahāyāna is not a disciple of the Buddha.)