諸經要集 16.60

16.60

Furthermore, the Sūtra of One Hundred Parables says: In the past, on a festival day in a foreign land, all the women held utpala flowers to use as garland ornaments. There was a poor man whose wife said to him: 'If you can obtain an utpala flower and give it to me, I will be your wife; if you cannot obtain one, I shall abandon you and leave.' Her husband had always been skilled at imitating the cry of a mandarin duck. He promptly entered the king's pond, making the cry of a mandarin duck, and stole an utpala flower. At that time, the pond keeper asked: 'Who is in the pond?' But this poor man slipped up and answered: 'I am a mandarin duck.' The keeper captured him and took him to the king. On the way, he once again harmonized his voice and made the cry of a mandarin duck. The pond keeper said: 'You did not make it before; what is the use of making it now?' Foolish people of the world are also like this. Throughout their lives they cause harm and commit numerous evil deeds, failing to train their minds and deeds so as to make them disciplined and wholesome. Only when their life is about to end do they say: 'Now I wish to cultivate the wholesome.' When the wardens of hell take them away to present them to King Yama, although they wish to cultivate the wholesome, it is of no avail—just like that foolish man, who wished to make the cry of a mandarin duck only when he was about to arrive before the king.