Stealing the King’s Garment
- A mountain tribesman stole some garments from the palace.
- Later he fled to a remote place.
- The king sent his men to search for him in all directions.
Guard! Search for the thief and arrest him!
- He was arrested and taken to the kind.
Where did you steal those garments?
- These garments were left behind by my grandfather.
- Then try to wear it!
- As the garment were not his own, he did not know how to wear them.
- If the clothes belonged to your grandfather, you should know how to wear them. How can you wear them in all the wrong ways? It’s certain that they are not your own clothes. You have stolen them.
- Finally the tribeman was sent to jail.
Explanation:
Figuratively speaking, the kind is like the Buddha; his valuable garments, the Buddhist teachings; and the ignorant mountain tribeman, the heretic, who, having heard some of the Buddha’s words by eavesdropping, put them into his own doctrine and then declare that those are his own words. But as he does not understand the Buddha’s teaching, he misinterprets it, without knowing the right meaning of the teachings. Just like the mountain tribeman, who stole the kind’s garments and wore them in a topsy-turvy manner. |
