162. The Bodhisatta And The Drunken Horses
Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, the Bodhisatta was born as the son of one of his courtiers, and became the king’s adviser in all things both temporal and spiritual. Word came to the king of a revolt on the frontier. He went there with his army, stopped the revolt, and after which he returned to Benares.
When he came home, he gave order, “As the horses are tired, let them have some juicy food, some grape juice to drink.” The horses took this drink, then retired to their stables and stood quietly each in his stall.
161. The Bodhisatta And The Dog
Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, the Bodhisatta was born in a rich family of the kingdom of Kasi; and when he grew up, he set up a house of his own. There was a man in Benares who had a dog which had been fed on rice till it grew fat. And a villager who had come to Benares saw the dog; and purchased the dog for a fine garment and a piece of money and dragged the dog by a strap to his hut and tied up the dog, and went to sleep. At that moment the Bodhisatta came that way saw this. He asked the dog, “Foolish Dog! Why don’t you bite; cut the strap by biting it, you can be free.”
160. The Bodhisatta And The Dew
Once upon a time a king named Sabbadatta reigned in the city of Ramma. The king Sabbadatta had a thousand sons; and to his eldest son Yuvanjana he gave the viceroyalty.
One day early in the morning he mounted his splendid chariot went to disport him in the park. On the tree-tops, on the grass-tips, at the ends of the branches, on all the spiders’ webs and threads, on the points of the rushes, he saw the dew-drops hanging like so many strings of pearls. He asked, “Friend charioteer! what is this?” He replied, “This is what falls in the cold weather, and they call it dew.” The prince took his pleasure in the park for a portion of the day. In the evening, as he was returning home, he could see none of it. He asked, “Friend charioteer!where are the dew-drops? I do not see them now.” The charioteer replied, “My lord! As the sun rises higher, they all melt and sink into the ground.” On hearing this, the prince was distressed, and said, “The life of human beings is like dew-drops on the grass. I must be rid of the oppression of disease, old age, and death; I must take leave of my parents, and renounce the word.” So because of the dew-drops, he perceived the Three modes of Existence as it were in a blazing fire. When he came home, he went to the Hall of Judgement, and asked the king’s permission to leave and to renounce the world.
159. The Bodhisatta And The Deer Hunter
Once upon a time when Brahmadatta reigned in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born as the son of a wealthy merchant.
One day, a hunter killed a deer and filled his cart with the meat, returned to the city with the intention of selling it. At this time four sons of rich merchants who were living in Benares came out of the city, and meting at a cross road they sat down and conversed with one another about whatever they had seen or heard. One of these youths on seeing the cart full of meat proposed to go and get a piece of venison from the hunter. The others asked him to go and try. So he went up to the hunter, and said, “Hi, Sirrah! give me a piece of meat.”
