諸經要集 8.18

8.18

Furthermore, the Que wang jing (Sūtra of the Sparrow King) says: In the past, the Bodhisattva was born as a sparrow king. With a compassionate heart he aided the multitude, just as one guards a sore on one's body. A tiger had eaten an animal, and a bone became stuck in its teeth so that it was distressed by hunger and on the verge of death. The sparrow king entered its mouth and pecked at the bone, day after day like this. Sores broke out in the sparrow's mouth and its body became emaciated and scarred. The bone came out and the tiger lived. The sparrow flew up into a tree and expounded the Buddha's sūtra, saying, "Killing is brutal and cruel; no evil is greater than it." When the tiger heard the sparrow's admonishing voice, it flared up in anger and said, "You have only just left my mouth, and yet you dare to say so much!" Seeing that it could not be transformed, the sparrow quickly flew away. The Buddha said, "The sparrow king was myself, and the tiger was Devadatta."