I can recall a story which i heard somewhere before ,in which a parable is given:
a man is fallen/inside a pit,/ well, he is hanging by a branch/ root , there were two rats, poisonous viper/snake at the bottom of the well ,
Near him, there is a flower which drips nectar/ beehive with small amount of honey that dripping down, ,and he tasted it,
and this person is so obsessed with the taste of that nectar, that he neglects, ignore the impending, life-threatening dangers all around him.
Could someone tell me if this parable is taken from Sutta , Nikaya ?
please share the reference
Itâs not in the suttas, nor the nikayas, nor in the Samyutta Nikaya, nor the Sutta Nipata. I think itâs a Zen something or other. Not of Pali origin at all.
It is in the The Parable Sutra in Chinese , The Parable Sutra (T217.4.801). There are translations of this, one by our own Charles Patton. Google search will give you several translations. Here is C. D. Pattonâs:
âGoing back many, many ages ago, there was a person who went into the jungle. He was chased by an evil elephant. Full of fear, he ran, but he had nowhere to go for safety.
Then he saw a deep and empty well. Dangling into it was a tree root; so he quickly shinnied down it, and hid inside the well.
There were 2 rats, one dark and one light, that together kept gnawing on the root above the man.
And in the well, one at each of the directions, were 4 vipers trying to bite the man.
And below him, there was a great poisonous serpent.
So the man was terrified and also, worried about the tree rootâs breaking.
Now the tree had a beehive in it, and 5 drops of honey fell into his mouth.
But when the tree shook, the bees swarmed down to sting the person.
And [while the man was down there] brush fires came to burn the tree, over and over again.â âŚ
Sir, I never came across these terms, but a similar sutta "Vammikasutta SuttaCentral " talks somthing similar ⌠âSir, what is the termite mound? What is the fuming by night and flaming by day? Who is the brahmin, and who the clever one? What are the sword, the digging, the sticking point, the bullfrog, the forked path, the filter of ash, the tortoise, the butcherâs knife and chopping board, and the scrap of meat? And what is the cobra?â
âMendicant, âtermite moundâ is a term for this body made up of the four principal states, produced by mother and father, built up from rice and porridge, liable to impermanence, to wearing away and erosion, to breaking up and destruction. Just as a termite mound is created by activity driven by eating and excreting, so this body is created from within by food. Also, the body, like a termite mound, is home to countless small creatures.
Thanks regards
