[无量香光 · 显密文库 · 手机站]
fowap.goodweb.net.cn
{返回首页}


The Talkative Tortoise
 
{返回 The Jataka Tales 文集}
{返回网页版}
点击:1873

The Talkative Tortoise

The Jataka Tales

Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the future Buddha was born in a minister's family; and when he grew up, he became the king's adviser in things temporal and spiritual.

Now this king was very talkative; while he was speaking, others had no opportunity for a word. And the future Buddha, wanting to cure this talkativeness of his, was constantly seeking for some means of doing so.

At that time there was living, in a pond in the Himalayan Mountains, a tortoise. Two young wild ducks who came to feed there made friends with him. And one day, when they had become very intimate with him, they said to the tortoise, "Friend tortoise, the place where we live, at the Golden Cave on Mount Beautiful in the Himalayan country, is a delightful spot. Will you come there with us?"

"But how can I get there?"

"We can take you, if you can only hold your tongue, and will say nothing to anybody."

"Oh, that I can do. Take me with you."

"That's right," said they. And making the tortoise bite hold of a stick, they themselves took the two ends in their teeth, and flew up into the air.

Seeing him thus carried by the ducks, some villagers called out, "Two wild ducks are carrying a tortoise along on a stick!"

Whereupon the tortoise wanted to say, "If my friends choose to carry me, what is that to you, you wretched slaves?" So just as the swift flight of the wild ducks had brought him over the king's palace in the city of Benares, he let go of the stick he was biting, and falling in the open courtyard, split in two!

And there arose a universal cry, "A tortoise has fallen in the open courtyard, and has split in two!"

The king, taking the future Buddha, went to the place, surrounded by his courtiers, and looking at the tortoise, he asked the Bodisat, "Teacher, how has it possible that he has fallen here?"

The future Buddha thought to himself, "Long expecting, wishing to admonish the king, I have sought for some means of doing so. This tortoise must have made friends with the wild ducks; and they must have made him bite hold of the stick, and have flown up into the air to take him to the hills. But he, being unable to hold his tongue when he hears anyone else talk, must have wanted to say something, and let go of the stick; and so must have fallen down from the sky, and thus lost his life." And saying, "Truly, oh king, those who are called chatterboxes -- people whose words have no end -- come to grief like this," he uttered these verses:

Verily, the tortoise killed himself
While uttering his voice;
Though he was holding tight to stick,
By a word he slew himself.
Behold him then, oh excellent by strength!
And speak wise words, not out of season.
You see how, by his talking overmuch,
The tortoise fell into this wretched plight!
The king saw that he was himself referred to, and said, "Oh teacher, are you speaking of us?"

And the Bodisat spoke openly, and said, "Oh great king, be it you, or be it any other, whoever talks beyond measure meets with some mishap like this."

And the king henceforth refrained himself, and became a man of few words.


{返回 The Jataka Tales 文集}
{返回网页版}
{返回首页}

上一篇:The People Who Saw the Judas Tree
下一篇:The Monkeys Heart
 Sulasa and Sattuka
 How a Parrot Told Tales of His Mist..
 The Future Buddha as a Wise Judge..
 The Talkative Tortoise
 The Golden Mallard
 The Language of Animals
 How an Ungrateful Son Planned to Mu..
 The Mosquito and the Carpenter
 The Timid Hare and the Flight of th..
 The Tortoise That Refused to Leave ..
全文 标题
 
【佛教文章随机阅读】
 文殊赞[栏目:见悲青增格西]
 《挽回劫运护国救民正本清源论》讲记摘录[栏目:大安法师]
 无尽的悲心——《佛说阿弥陀经》学记(来定法师)[栏目:净土宗文集]
 六字洪名的功德[栏目:仁焕法师]
 抑郁症之愈[栏目:菩提洲·佛子心语]
 在服务社会中增强神圣性与社会性(王亚荣)[栏目:中国佛教公众形象专题]
 理解和尊重才是真正的爱[栏目:好婚姻·靠修行]
 万里灵泉寺八十三年度暑期教授精进禅七 83.7.20─83.7.27[栏目:惟觉法语]
 法句经要义 第三品 心品 质多哈达尊者 心不坚定智慧不增长[栏目:法句经要义]
 念诵体会[栏目:多宝讲寺学僧文稿]


{返回首页}

△TOP

- 手机版 -
[无量香光·显密文库·佛教文集]
教育、非赢利、公益性的佛教文化传播
白玛若拙佛教文化传播工作室制作
www.goodweb.net.cn Copyrights reserved
(2003-2015)
站长信箱:yjp990@163.com