Parable: Blinding the Immortal Who Had Gained the Five Penetrations
Hundred Parables Sutra
Parable: Blinding the Immortal Who Had Gained the Five Penetrations
Once a man went to the mountains to study the Way and became an immortal replete with the five spiritual penetrations. With his heavenly eye, he could clearly discern all the treasures hidden in the earth. When the king heard about him, he was elated. He said to his ministers, “In what way can we make this person remain in our country forever and not move to another place? Then our treasury will always be filled with rare jewels.”
A certain foolish minister went on his own to the immortal, plucked out his eyes, and presented them to the king, saying, “I have plucked out the immortal’s eyes so that he won’t be able to leave but will always remain in our country.” The king told the minister, “The reason I wanted the immortal to stay here was so that he could see all the treasures hidden in the earth. But now that you have plucked out his eyes, what use could they be?”
Worldly people behave in the same way. They see someone practicing dhutanga (bitter) practices in the mountain groves, the wilderness, the graveyards, or underneath trees, cultivating the four ceasings of the mind and the contemplation of impurity These people then force the cultivator to go to their homes where they ply him with many kinds of offerings. Thus they ruin his wholesome dharmas, so that he is no longer able to achieve the fruition of the Way. By plucking out the cultivator’s eyes of the Way, all benefits are lost, and they end up with absolutely nothing. They are just like that foolish minister who for no reason destroyed the immortal’s eyes.
