What is the Sūtra of a Hundred Parables?
«Bách» means a hundred and «dụ» a parable: the title means a hundred parables. The library's text numbers 98 stories without a gap, from 1 to 98. Each is short, usually opens with «Once there was a man…», tells of a thought or deed so mistaken that it is laughable, and closes with a passage beginning «This story is a parable for…» that says what it stands for. A few word that opening differently, such as «This story explains…», but no story lacks the explanation.
The lessons speak to practitioners: those who keep only an outward demeanour without truly keeping the precepts, training in concentration and learning wisdom; those who wait to be rich before giving; those who want the fruit of practice at once and skip the foundations; those who break one precept and then drop the whole discipline. According to standard Buddhist reference works, the collection comes from India and was translated into Chinese in the late fifth century.
The four scrolls in the library
Scroll 1 holds stories 1 to 21, scroll 2 stories 22 to 41, scroll 3 stories 42 to 65 and scroll 4 stories 66 to 98. The Vietnamese text goes straight into the first story, with no preface, and ends with the lesson of story 98, «The child who caught a turtle». Each scroll is one reading page of about 5,300 to 8,000 words; the whole collection runs to some 25,800 words, nearly two hours in one go, though most stories take only a minute or two.
Some well-known stories and their lessons
«The fool who ate salt» (story 1): eating at a friend's house, a man finds the soup bland; the host adds a little salt and it tastes good, so he decides that more salt must be better, asks for a whole bowl of it, swallows it and has to make himself throw it up. The lesson asks practitioners to eat in moderation and know when enough is enough, and rejects fasting for days on end, which some held to be a way to the goal.
«Saving the milk» (story 2): wanting plenty of milk for a feast next month, a man stops milking his cow each day, meaning to leave the milk in the udder and draw it all at once on the day; when the feast comes he cannot get a single drop. The lesson: do not wait until you are rich to help those in need — give while there is time. «The rich man's tower» (story 10): seeing another man's three-storey house, a rich man tells the builder to make him only the third storey, without the two below. The lesson likens him to someone who wants to become an arahant at once without laying the foundation of precepts, concentration and wisdom or honouring the Three Jewels.
«Marking the boat to find what fell into the sea» (story 19): having dropped a silver bowl at sea, a man makes a mark on the side of the boat; two months later, in a far-off land, he dives into a river to search by that mark. The lesson warns that practice by the wrong method only leads further astray, and that one must learn according to the true Dharma. «The snake's head and tail quarrel» (story 54): the tail insists on going first and wraps itself round a tree until the head gives way, then, having no eyes, leads the whole snake into a fire pit. The lesson teaches that teacher and disciple must respect each other; an inexperienced disciple who seizes the lead usually fails badly.
How to read it
The easiest way is one story a day: read the story, pause to ask where the person went wrong and whether you have ever done the same, and only then read the lesson. Many lessons mention «outsiders» or practitioners of that time; reading them as reminders for yourself is more useful than using them to judge others.
The library has no separate commentary on this sūtra; the lesson after each story is the explanation the text itself provides. The page gives the Chinese title 百喻經 but there is no Chinese text, Sino-Vietnamese transliteration, PDF or recording yet. To read aloud for the family, press «Chant» so the screen stays on and the text scrolls by itself. The Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish is also a story collection, but longer: many of its stories tell the past-life causes behind people who meet the Buddha.
