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The parable presented here tells of a king's test to determine spiritual superiority between Buddhist monks and non-Buddhist ascetics. While the ascetics respond with extremes of praise and criticism to different meals, the Buddhist monks maintain perfect equanimity. When questioned about their apparent indifference to entertainment, the monks propose a demonstration—a subject carrying a brimming oil jar under threat of death for spilling a single drop, surrounded by distractions. Like this focused oil-bearer who notices nothing beyond his precarious task, the monks illustrate how genuine spiritual practitioners maintain unwavering mindfulness of their ethical precepts, treating them with the same vigilance as one would protect their very life.
The stories presented here were translated by Gregory Forgues and Khenpo Könchok Tamphel.
The Importance of Upholding Precepts
I will be like a frightened man, a brimming oil-jar in his hand, And menaced by a swordsman saying, "Spill one drop and you shall die!” This is how practitioners should hold themselves.
Page(s) 107
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
ཡུངས་མར་བཀང་བའི་སྣོད་བསྐུར་ལ། །
རལ་གྲི་ཐོགས་པས་དྲུང་བསྡད་དེ། ། བོ་ན་གསོད་བསྡིགས་འཇིགས་པ་ལྟར། །
བརྟུལ་ཞུགས་ཅན་གྱིས་དེ་བཞིན་སྒྲིམ། །yungs mar bkang ba'i snod bskur la/_/
ral gri thogs pas drung bsdad de/_/ bo na gsod bsdigs 'jigs pa ltar/_/
brtul zhugs can gyis de bzhin sgrim/_/The statement "a brimming oil-jar in his hand . . ." means that one should uphold precepts by maintaining constant mindfulness of their antidotes.
In the land of Rising Victory, in the royal city of Noble Victory, there lived a king named Extremely Fierce Grantor. Wishing to determine whether Buddhists or non-Buddhists were superior as objects of veneration, he devised a test. First, he invited the noble Buddhist elder Kātyāyana and his disciples, offering them an afternoon meal followed by floral offerings.
As they were leaving, the king arranged for people along the road to ask whether the feast had been good or bad, hoping to provoke criticism. The Buddhist monks simply responded, "The giver gave. The receiver received. The task of a single day and night is complete." They offered neither praise nor criticism.
The next day, the king honored non-Buddhist ascetics in the same manner and had them asked the same question. They responded with effusive praise, declaring, "It was extremely good!"
Then, the king offered a slightly inferior feast to both groups together and again had them questioned afterward. The Buddhists responded as before, maintaining their equanimity and refraining from criticism. The non-Buddhists, however, harshly criticized the meal, saying, "It was extremely bad!"
When this was reported to the king, he recognized the superiority of the Buddhists' equanimity and chose them as his objects of veneration.
Later, wishing to please his new spiritual teachers, the king had various musicians perform before them and asked, "Noble ones, are you pleased by this entertainment?" They responded, "We did not see anything."
Thinking they were lying, the king grew somewhat displeased. The monks explained, "We are vigilant against the suffering of samsara and guard our precepts without distraction, so we truly did not notice such things. To test whether this is true or false, have one of your subjects carry a vessel filled to the brim with sesame oil. Have him walk carefully while an executioner with a drawn sword threatens to kill him if he spills a single drop. Then, have your musicians perform around him. If he notices the performance, then you are right about us. If he does not, then our explanation is correct."
The king had this test performed exactly as described. When asked afterward if he had seen the music and dancers, the subject replied that he had noticed nothing at all, so focused was he on the oil and the threat to his life. Thus, the monks demonstrated the importance of maintaining unwavering attention to one's precepts.
