The wise man with those that followed him, built a ship, and put all the fittings aboard, and he and the whole company stood in the ship. Then on the day of the full moon, at the time of moon-rising, up front the ocean a wave arose, and knee-deep it swept over the whole island. The wise man, when he observed the rising of the wave, cast loose the ship. Those of the foolish carpenter's party, five hundred families they were, sat still, saying to one another, "A wave has arisen, to sweep over the island, but it will be no deeper." Then the ocean-wave rose waist-deep, man-deep, deep as a palm-tree, as seven palm-trees, and over the whole island it rolled. The wise man, fertile in resource, not snared by greed of good things, departed in safety; but the foolish carpenter, greedy of good things, not regarding the fear of the future, with five hundred families was destroyed.

The other three stanzas, full of instruction, illustrating this matter, are stanzas of the Perfect Wisdom:

As through mid-ocean, by the deeds they did,
The traders scaped away in happiness:
So wise men, comprehending what lies hid
Within the future, will no jot transgress.

"Fools in their folly, eaten up with greed
Who future dangers do not comprehend,
Sink overwhelmed, in face of present need,
As these in middest-ocean found their end.

[166] "Accomplish then the deed before the need,
Let not lack hurt me of the needful thing.
Who timely do the necessary deed
Come time, come never into suffering."

When the Master had ended this discourse, he said: "Not now for the first time, Brethren, but formerly also, has Devadatta been ensnared by pleasures of the present, and without a look to the future, has come to destruction with all his companions." So saying, he identified the Birth: "At that time, Devadatta was the foolish carpenter, Kokalika was the unrighteous deity that stood in the southern region, Sariputta was the deity who stood in the northern part, and I was myself the wise carpenter."

Footnotes

^98:1 The introductory story is given in Dhammapada, p. 147 ff.

^99:1 Sariputta and Moggallana.

^99:2 Cf. Hardy, Buddhism, p. 328.

^99:3 Devadatta was brother-in-law of the Buddha.

^99:4 Dhammapada, p. 148.

^100:1 See vol. ii. p. 147, note.

^100:2 Sword, spear, bow, shield, axe.

^101:1 There seems to be something wrong with the text: as it stands, the meaning is: "For a long time these have not been heroes." But the word suro is used idiomatically, suro hutva "as bold as brass," i. 262. 30, ii. 119. 22. It might well be used of "Dutch courage."--Or perhaps sura (brandy) in some form may lurk here.

^103:1 This metaphor is not in the Pali.