Parable: Sharpening the Knife Upstairs
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Hundred Parables Sutra
Parable: Sharpening the Knife Upstairs
Once there was a poor man who worked for the king. After months had passed, his body became thin and emaciated. Out of pity for him, the king gave him a dead camel. The poor man immediately started to flay the camel. Finding his knife too blunt, he went about looking for a whetsone to grind it. He found one upstairs. After he had sharpened his knife, he came downstairs to skin the camel. This he did repeatedly, running up and down the stairs, to sharpen his knife. The process became so toilsome that he couldn’t manage to go up and down the stairs any more. He ended up dragging the entire carcass of the camel up the stairs, so he could sharpen his knife next to it. Everybody laughed at him.
This person’s behavior is like that of deluded people who break the precepts, and who expend plenty of money to cultivate blessings in hope of being reborn in the heaven. These people are like the man, who, because he liked to sharpen his knife, dragged the entire camel upstairs. The effort was tedious; but the results were minimal.