世界上的一切事物都好像镜子中的影像和水里的月影,可见不可取。
在伽尸国波罗奈城,有数只猕猴在林中嬉戏。猴王见井中有一轮月亮,说:"月今日死,落在井中,唯有捞出,以免世间长夜暗冥。"众猴首尾相连,攀于树枝上向下捞月。然树枝断裂,群猴落入水中,霎时间进入了光怪陆离的梦中世界……
All things in the world resemble reflections in a mirror and moons beneath the water: visible, yet beyond grasp.
In Benares, in the ancient kingdom of Kashi, a group of macaques played in the forest. Their king saw a moon at the bottom of a well and cried, "The moon has fallen and died. We must lift it out, or the world will be left in endless darkness." The monkeys linked themselves head to tail and lowered one another from a branch to retrieve it. Then the branch snapped, and they fell into the water—entering, in an instant, a bewildering world of dreams.