Quotations: Shantideva, Bodhicharyavatara, This is why Lord Buddha has declared...: Difference between revisions
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That like a turtle that perchance can place<br/> | That like a turtle that perchance can place<br/> | ||
Its head within a yoke adrift upon the mighty sea<br/> | Its head within a yoke adrift upon the mighty sea<br/> | ||
This human birth is difficult to find!<ref>This originally | This human birth is difficult to find!<ref>This originally appeared in Verse 24 of the Bālapaṇḍita Sutta in the Majjhima Nikāya of the [[Buddhist Canon|Pali Canon]]. It's translated by Bhikku Bodhi in ''The Middle Length Discourses'', page 1393:- | ||
“Suppose a man threw into the sea a yoke with one hole in it, and the east wind carried it to the west, and the west wind carried it to the east, and the north wind carried it to the south, and the south wind carried it to the north. Suppose there were a blind turtle that came up once at the end of each century. What do you think, bhikkhus? Would that blind turtle put his neck into that yoke with one hole in it?” | “Suppose a man threw into the sea a yoke with one hole in it, and the east wind carried it to the west, and the west wind carried it to the east, and the north wind carried it to the south, and the south wind carried it to the north. Suppose there were a blind turtle that came up once at the end of each century. What do you think, bhikkhus? Would that blind turtle put his neck into that yoke with one hole in it?” | ||
Revision as of 18:24, 17 December 2015
དེ་ཉིད་ཕྱིར་ན་བཅོམ་ལྡན་གྱིས། །
རྒྱ་མཚོ་ཆེར་གཡེངས་གཉའ་ཤིང་གི །
བུ་གར་རུས་སྦལ་མགྲིན་ཆུད་ལྟར། །
This is why Lord Buddha has declared
That like a turtle that perchance can place
Its head within a yoke adrift upon the mighty sea
This human birth is difficult to find![1]
- Śāntideva, Bodhicaryāvatāra, Ch.4 v.20
Notes
- ↑ This originally appeared in Verse 24 of the Bālapaṇḍita Sutta in the Majjhima Nikāya of the Pali Canon. It's translated by Bhikku Bodhi in The Middle Length Discourses, page 1393:- “Suppose a man threw into the sea a yoke with one hole in it, and the east wind carried it to the west, and the west wind carried it to the east, and the north wind carried it to the south, and the south wind carried it to the north. Suppose there were a blind turtle that came up once at the end of each century. What do you think, bhikkhus? Would that blind turtle put his neck into that yoke with one hole in it?” “He might, venerable sir, sometime or other at the end of a long period.” “Bhikkhus, the blind turtle would sooner put his neck into that yoke with a single hole in it than a fool, once gone to perdition, would take to regain the human state, I say.”