Killing His sons to balance the Pole
- There was a fool who had seven sons. One of them died suddenly.
- Hmmm... Since I want to keep my son’s corpse at home, I better move out.
- A neighbour saw him moving out and advised him.
The living and the dead go different ways. You should bury your dead son as soon as possible.
- Really!
- Why do you choose to keep his body at home and you should be burying him outside and continue to stay in this house.
- Well, if I have to bury him, I have to kill another son, the pole can only balance with two corpses at each end.
- Then he killed another son so that he could carry two corpses to the jungle to be buried.
- Upon seeing his strange behaviour, the neighbour was surprised at his foolishness.
Explanation:
This is comparable to a Bhikkhu who has secretly broken one of the disciplinary rules and, not wasting to make a confession of it, kept silent about his fault, and claiming that he is pure in conduct. A wise man might say to him, “A monk should observe the disciplinary rules as carefully as safe-keeping a string of pearls: not a single one should be lost. Now why don’t you make a confession of your violation of the disciplinary rules?”
The monk would say in reply, “If it is necessary for me to make a confession, then I’ll break some more rules and confess them altogether.” Thus he acts against the monastic rules and commits more evil deeds before finally making a confession.
Such a Bhikkhu is just like the fool who killed his second son after the first one died. |
