..续本文上一页nt, he turned off the path and headed for the bush where he had hidden his crossbow and arrows. But before he got there, one of the forest devas decided to test his loyalty to the old monk. So the deva metamorphosed himself into a large golden swan and pretended to have a broken wing, flying an erratic course under the trees near the path the servant was following.
The servant heard the sound of a bird flapping its wings — flip-flap, flip-flap — and, looking up, saw an enormous golden swan zig-zagging back and forth, looking like it couldn”t get away. Seeing this, he got really excited, thinking that he”d have to shoot this bird for food for sure. In his excitement he forgot that he was carrying the monk”s bowl and shoulder bag, and thought instead that he had a quiver strapped to his back and a crossbow on his shoulder. So he reached into the shoulder bag and pulled out the old monk”s betel nut crusher, about two feet long, and took aim with it as if it were a crossbow or a rifle. Then he took his stance and pulled back on the crusher, at the same time making the sound of a gun firing, byng, byng, byng. But of course he never hit the bird at all.
As for the old monk, after walking on a ways he began to forget the servant”s directions, so he turned left and right, right and wrong, and couldn”t find his way out of the forest. He looked back over his shoulder to see if the servant was catching up with him, but the servant never came. All he could hear was the sound — byng, byng, byng — echoing through the forest, but no matter how much he called out, there was never any answer. The later it got, the hotter the sun, and the more tired and hungry he got — for after all, he was very old — so he made up his mind to turn around and retrace his steps, staggering back to his hut.
Meanwhile, the servant — exhausted from trying to shoot the golden swan without success — was ready to give up. So the deva, seeing that he had had enough fun with the servant, pretended to be shot and fell down panting heavily on the path a little ways ahead. Thrilled, the servant came running up to pick up the bird, but just as he bent over to grasp hold of it, it disappeared in a flash. This startled the servant, and suddenly it dawned on him that some forest spirit had been deceiving him. That”s when he remembered the old monk. So in his panic he dropped the bowl and shoulder bag and ran away with his arms flailing, all the while calling out to the monk, "Help me! Help me!" But the monk was nowhere to be found. So the servant hurried straight home and told his master everything that had happened. The moneylender was so furious that he punished the servant by making him sleep outside the walls of the house compound and go without food for three days. On top of that, he cut back his daily wage.
This story shows the hardships that come when a person isn”t loyal to his monk, when he runs away from his responsibilities and abandons his monk. He causes all sorts of problems for himself and for others as well. The old monk had to go without food for a day. Having lost his bowl, shoulder bag, and betel nut crusher, he was forced to search for new requisites. As for the moneylender and his wife, they didn”t get the things they had hoped for.
When you apply this story to the Dhamma, it becomes a lesson worth remembering. If you”re not loyal to your meditation object or to yourself, if you forget the breath you”re meditating on with buddho, buddho, and let your mind go wandering off in thoughts and concepts, it”s as if you”ve abandoned the monk you”re supposed to look after. You don”t follow him; you don”t act the role of his student as you had intended to. The results that you had hoped for will thus get ruined. In other words, your mind won”t get established in co…
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