..續本文上一頁he replied. "I know what to do, my lord, I will save him." Then the king gave her away and she left the palace with the holy man.

　　After they passed through the main gate she said, "Because it”s filthy! Go back to the king and get a shovel and basket." He obeyed and when he returned she ordered him to do all the cleaning. He even had to plaster the walls and floor with fresh cow dung!

　　Then she commanded him to go to the palace and get her a bed. Then a chair. Then a lamp, bed linen, a cooking pot, a water pot. She ordered him to get all these things one at a time, and he obeyed dutifully. She sent him to get water for her bath and many other things. He set out the water for her bath and then made up the bed. Finally they sat down next to each other on the bed. Suddenly she grabbed him by the whiskers, shook him back and forth, pulled him towards her and said, "Don”t you remember that you are a holy man and a priest

　　"

　　Only then was he shocked out of his mad infatuation and made to realise who he was. Having regained his self-awareness, he thought, "Oh what a pitiful state I have fallen into. I have been blinded by my desire into becoming a slave. Beginning with only the sight of a woman, this mad craving could lead me into a hell world. My body was burning, as if I”d been shot in the heart with an arrow of desire. But there was no bleeding wound! Not seeing her body as it really was, my own foolishness caused all my suffering!"

　　Then he spoke out loudly, "On this very day I will return the wise Queen Tenderhearted to the noble King Brahmadatta. Then I will fly back to my forest home!"

　　After taking her back, he said to the king, "I don”t want your queen anymore. Before I had her, she was my one desire. After I got her, one desire led to another endlessly, leading only to hell."

　　The wise Queen Tenderhearted, by using her intelligence and knowledge of life, had given a great gift to the holy man. Rather than taking advantage of his weakness, she had restored his purity.

　　In perfect calm the Enlightenment Being rose into the air, preached to the king, and then magically flew to the Himalayan forests. He never again returned to the ordinary world. After meditating for years in peace and joy, he died and was reborn in a high heaven world.

　　The moral is: Desire enslaves, wisdom liberates.

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