Post by Neo on Nov 8, 2020 23:30:40 GMT -5
Then the Bodhisattva spied a young tigress in one of the mountain caverns below him. Having given birth earlier to a litter of cubs, she was thoroughly exhausted by her labors. Hungry for food to fill her in her emaciated belly, she began to regard her own offspring as food through sunken eyes. Thirsting for the milk of her udders, her offspring began to drawn near, fearless and full of trust for their mother. But the tigress responded to their approach by unleashing prolonged harsh roars as if the approaching cubs were strangers.
Upon seeing the starving tigress, the Bodhisattva, though composed in mind, was shaken with compassion by the suffering of this fellow creature. It was as if Meru, the Lord of the Mountains, had been shaken by an earthquake.
It is a wonder how the compassionate, their constancy ever so evident in the midst of the greatest of their own sufferings, can be touched by the grief, however small, of another!
"My dear, my dear," exclaimed the Bodhisattva to his pupil. "Behold the worthlessness of Samsara! This animal seeks to feed on her very own young ones. Hunger causes her to transgress love's law. Alas!
"Fie upon the ferocity of self-love, that makes a mother wish to make a meal of the bodies of her own offspring! Who would foster the foe whose name is self-love, by whom one may be compelled to an action like this? Go quickly and look about for some means of appeasing her hunger so that she may not injure her young ones and herself. I too shall endeavor to avert her from committing such a rash act." ~ Jataka tales
Source:
www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net/English-Texts/Garland-of-Birth-Stories/01-The-Story-of-the-Tigress.htm
Upon seeing the starving tigress, the Bodhisattva, though composed in mind, was shaken with compassion by the suffering of this fellow creature. It was as if Meru, the Lord of the Mountains, had been shaken by an earthquake.
It is a wonder how the compassionate, their constancy ever so evident in the midst of the greatest of their own sufferings, can be touched by the grief, however small, of another!
"My dear, my dear," exclaimed the Bodhisattva to his pupil. "Behold the worthlessness of Samsara! This animal seeks to feed on her very own young ones. Hunger causes her to transgress love's law. Alas!
"Fie upon the ferocity of self-love, that makes a mother wish to make a meal of the bodies of her own offspring! Who would foster the foe whose name is self-love, by whom one may be compelled to an action like this? Go quickly and look about for some means of appeasing her hunger so that she may not injure her young ones and herself. I too shall endeavor to avert her from committing such a rash act." ~ Jataka tales
Source:
www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net/English-Texts/Garland-of-Birth-Stories/01-The-Story-of-the-Tigress.htm