Mirror in a Treasure Box

寶箱中的鏡子

Once upon a time, there was a very poor man who owed lot of debts to others.  One day, he fled to a deserted field and found a box there. Upon opening the box, he was so excited to discover that it was filled with gold and silver jewels along with a mirror inside.  When he started to fetch those jewels, he was shocked and scared to see the portrait of a person in the mirror, witnessing him stealing these treasures.  He said to the person in the mirror: "I thought this was an empty box and didn't expect you to be here, so please don't be offended."  Then he ran away quickly without taking any of the jewels.

從前有一個人，很是貧窮，且欠了人家很多的債，沒有辦法償還，只得逃到別處去躲避。有一天，他逃到了荒涼的田野裏，看見放著一個箱子，他打開箱子一看，裏面都是金銀珠寶，還有一面鏡子覆蓋著。當時這個人高興極了，就動手去取那些珠寶。但當他看到鏡中照出的人像時，以為有人看到他偷東西，嚇得他連忙停止，心裏感到很不安，就對鏡中人說：『我以為是一個空箱子，裏面是沒有東西的，想不到有你在這裏，請你不要見怪吧！』接著就急急地溜走了。

Laymen who encounter Dharma in their lives are like the poor who find the treasure box. While reaching out to learn from the treasure of Dharma, one’s ego often arises and distract the practitioner from focusing on the goal of liberation from rebirth. Due to inverted thoughts, sentient beings failed to let go of the notion of self-attachment.  This will deviate the practitioner from all good deeds, merit, and retribution, just like the parable of the poor man abandoning the treasure box, while frightened by his own image in the mirror.  We should learn to be humble and not to focus on our own interests. This way we could let go of our attachments and live a happy life and be at ease.

凡夫在人生中得遇佛法，正如窮人得到寶篋，見著佛法的寶藏，正正伸手去拿的時候，出現「我執」，就不顧任何佛法的寶藏，不要解脫生死，摒棄所有佛法的寶藏。眾生因為邪見，不懂運用佛法，放不下「我相」的執著，則所修的一切善法、功德、果報都不能成就。正如窮人因為自己的影子，捨寶而逃一樣。我們應該學習不要將眼光放在自己的利益上，應該學謙卑，令自己釋懷和放下，活得更安樂自在。