过去之世有一山羗,偷王库物而远逃走。尔时国王遣人四出推寻捕得,将至王边。
In a period of the past, there was a Qiāng mountain person, who stole a King’s storehouse’s property and to far away escaped. At that time, the country’s King sent forth people to the four directions, to investigate and arrest him, to bring him before the King.
王即责其所得衣处,山羗答言:「我衣乃是祖父之物。」
When the King then interrogated him on that place that he got his clothes, the Qiāng mountain person replied, saying, ‘My clothes thus are the property of my paternal grandfather.’
王遣着衣,实非山羗本所有故,不知著之,应在手者着于脚上,应在腰者返着头上。
When the King sent him to put on the clothes, as they are truly not those that the Qiāng mountain person originally had thus, he did not know how to wear them, with that which should be at the hands put on at the legs, and that which should be at the waist instead put on at the head.
王见贼已,集诸臣等共详此事,而语之言:「若是汝之祖父已来所有衣者,应当解着,云何颠倒用上为下?以不解故,定知汝衣必是偷得,非汝旧物。」
The King, having seen the thief already, gathered all his ministers and others, together clarified on this matter, and spoke these words, ‘If those are your clothes since your paternal grandfather’s time, you should understand how to put them on. How are you invertedly using the above as the below? With not understanding thus, we definitely know your clothes must be stolen, and are not your old property.’
借以为譬,王者如佛,宝藏如法,愚痴羗者犹如外道,窃听佛法着已法中以为自有,然不解故,布置佛法迷乱上下,不知法相。如彼山羗得王宝衣,不识次第颠倒而著,亦复如是。
To borrow, with these as analogies, that King is like the Buddha, the gems’ treasury is like the Dharma, and that ignorant Qiāng mountain person is similar to those of external paths, eavesdropping on the Buddha’s Dharma teachings, having received them already, with the Dharma teachings within as their own existing ones, however not understanding thus, when arranging the Buddha’s Dharma teachings, confused and disordered about those above and below, not knowing the Dharma’s characteristics. Like that Qiāng mountain person who attained the King’s gemmed clothes, not understanding the sequence, invertedly then wearing them, they are likewise thus.
[Note: When selfishly advantageous, those of external paths might ‘steal’ and claim aspects of the Buddha’s teachings as their original ones, when they do not even have basic understanding about them, in terms of the sequence of their forms and functions, what more about how to practise them.]
全百喻
All Hundred Parables:
https://purelanders.com/baiyu