Parable: Killing a Herd of Cattle
Hundred Parables Sutra
Parable: Killing a Herd of Cattle
Once there was a man who owned two hundred and fifty head of cattle. He often took them out to the pasture to graze. One day a tiger ate one of the cows. The cattle owner said to himself, “Now that I’ve lost one cow, the herd is no longer complete. What’s the point of keeping it at all?” Thereupon he drove the cattle up to a high cliff and killed them all by pushing them down into the deep gorge below.
Foolish people in the world are like this too. Having taken the Thus Come One’s complete precepts, they may happen to violate one precept. Not only do they not give rise to shame and remorse and try to repent and reform in a pure way, instead they say to themselves, “Since I have broken one of the precepts, they are no longer complete. What’s the use of holding any of the others? Then they go on to violate all of the precepts with none remaining. They are like the foolish man who killed all of his cattle so that not a single one remained.
