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Theravāda — Pali Canon · Khuddaka Nikāya — The Minor Collection
Cp 12The Conduct of Bhūridatta
Pāli / Sanskrit:Bhūridattacariya
📖235 words · ~1 min read
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Full translation (English)
– The Conduct Leading to Buddhahood
The Chapter on an Elephant The Perfection of Ethics (2nd)
The Dragon Bhūridatta’s Conduct
“Then again when I wasBhūridatta, a dragon of great psychic power,together with Virūpakkha the Great KingI went to a heavenly realm.There I saw godswholly given over to pleasure.For the sake of going to that heaven,I undertook the observance of ethics.After tending to me physical needs,and eating enough to get by,I resolved on the four factors,and lay down atop a termite mound, thinking:‘My outer skin and inner, flesh,sinews and bones:whoever has use for these,they are already given, please take them.’While lying there the ingrateĀlampāyana grabbed me.He threw me in a basketand made me perform in places all over.Though thrown in a basketand crushed by his hands,I did not get upset with Ālampāyana,for fear of breaking my ethics.To give up my own lifewas as light as a blade of grass.To transgress my ethical principleswas like overturning the earth.In a hundred successive livesI would give up my own life.I would not even violate my ethicsfor the sake of the four continents.For the sake of protecting ethics,and fulfilling my perfection of ethics,I did not let my mind change,even when thrown in a basket.”
Translation source: Bhikkhu Indacanda (SuttaCentral)License: VI © Bhikkhu Indacanda (qua SuttaCentral) · EN CC0-1.0 (Bhikkhu Sujato)
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