法苑珠林 55.29

55.29

又百喻經云。過去之世有一山羌。偷王庫物而遠逃走。爾時國王遣人四出。推尋捕得將至王邊。王即責其所得衣處。山羌答言。我衣乃是祖父之物。王遣著衣。實非山羌本所有故。不知著之。應在手之者著於脚上。應在腰者反著頭上。王見賊已。集諸臣等共詳此事。而語之言。若是汝之祖父已來所有衣者。應當解著云何顛倒。用上為下。以下為上。以不解故。定知汝衣必是偷得非汝舊物。借以為譬。王者如佛。寶藏如法。愚癡羌者猶如外道。竊偷佛語著己法中以為自有。然不解故布置佛法。迷亂上下不知法相。如彼山羌得王寶衣不識次第顛倒而著。亦復如是。

The Sūtra of One Hundred Parables also says: In a past age, there was a mountain Qiang who stole items from the royal treasury and fled far away. At that time, the king sent men out in all four directions to search for and capture him, and he was brought before the king. The king immediately interrogated him about where he had obtained the clothes. The mountain Qiang replied, 'These clothes belonged to my grandfather.' The king ordered him to put the clothes on. Since they were not truly the mountain Qiang's original possessions, he did not know how to wear them: what belonged on the hands he wore on his feet, and what belonged at the waist he put on his head. Seeing the thief, the king gathered his ministers to deliberate on this matter together, and said to him: 'If these were clothes possessed by your grandfather down to yourself, you should know how to wear them. Why are you topsy-turvy, using what is above for below, and what is below for above? Because you do not understand, I know for certain that your clothes were stolen and are not your old possessions.' This is borrowed as a parable: The king is like the Buddha; the treasure house is like the Dharma; the foolish Qiang is like the non-Buddhists who steal the Buddha's words and put them into their own teachings, taking them to be their own. Yet because they do not understand, they arrange the Buddha's teachings in a muddle, confusing top and bottom without knowing the characteristics of dharmas. It is just like that mountain Qiang who obtained the king's precious robes, did not know the proper order, and wore them topsy-turvy.