Hi, I am trying to find the source material of a parable from a sutta or possibly a commentary. In it, a man is kidnapped, blindfolded, and abandoned, then rescued by a kind man. When I googled it, I got a reference & link to Bhante Sujato’s translation of MN 107 and the truncated description “1–2 illustrates the role of a teacher with the story of a man kidnapped, blindfolded, and abandoned in a wilderness. A kind person looses his bandage and shows…”
However, MN 107 has nothing about such a story, and other efforts to find the story come up dry.
Bhante’s comment does actually give you the source of the story:
Chāndogya Upaniṣad 6.14.1–2 illustrates the role of a teacher with the story of a man kidnapped, blindfolded, and abandoned in a wilderness. A kind person looses his bandage and shows him the way to Gandhāra. See too Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa 13.2.3–2, where the horse knows the way to heaven that humans do not, like one who knows the country.
The passage in the sutta is about showing the way.
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Thank you very much, Sabbamitta. I hadn’t realized they would be in the comments (which I had turned off).
Reading the verses from the Chandogya Upanisad, I realized I was looking for another story entirely.
In it, the rescuer of some other poor desititute man, maybe crossing a desert and dying of thirst, takes him or guides him to safety, I believe in a cave. The rescuer is symbolically the Buddha.
I will keep looking, but if such a story comes to mind, please let me know.
How should you get rid of resentment for an individual whose behavior by way of body and speech is impure, and who doesn’t get an openness and clarity of heart from time to time?
Suppose a person was traveling along a road, and they were sick, suffering, gravely ill.
And it was a long way to a village, whether ahead or behind.
And they didn’t have any suitable food or medicine, or a competent carer, or someone to bring them within a village.
Another person traveling along the road might see them,
and think of them with nothing but sympathy, kindness, and sympathy:
‘Oh, may this person get suitable food or medicine, or a competent carer, or someone to bring them within a village.
Why is that?
So that they don’t come to ruin right here.’
In the same way, at that time you should ignore that individual’s impure behavior by way of speech and body, and the fact that they don’t get an openness and clarity of heart from time to time, and think of them with nothing but compassion, kindness, and sympathy:
‘Oh, may this person give up bad conduct by way of body, speech, and mind, and develop good conduct by way of body, speech, and mind.
Why is that?
So that, when their body breaks up, after death, they’re not reborn in a place of loss, a bad place, the underworld, hell.’
That’s how to get rid of resentment for that individual.
Thank you very much, Sabbamitta.
Reading the verses from the Chandogya Upanisad, I realized I was looking for another story entirely.
In it the rescuer of some other poor desititute man, takes him or guides him to safety, I believe in a cave. The rescuer is the Buddha. It seems to be tied to some versions of the man in the well with the rats vipers and honey (referenced elsewhere in the SC discussions.
