Gospel of Buddha (1917)/The Hungry Dog
LXXVIII.
THE HUNGRY DOG.
There was a great king who oppressed his people and was hated by his subjects 5 yet when the Tathāgata came into his kingdom, the king desired much to see him. So he went to the place where the Blessed One stayed and asked: "O Sakyamuni, canst thou teach a lesson to the king that will divert his mind and benefit him at the same time?"1
And the Blessed One said: *I shall tell thee the parable of the hungry dog:2
"There was a wicked tyrant; and the god Indra, assuming the shape of a hunter, came down upon earth with the demon Mātali, the latter appearing as a dog of enormous size. Hunter and dog entered the palace, and the dog howled so wofully that the royal buildings shook by the sound to their very foundations. The tyrant had the awe-inspiring hunter brought before his throne and inquired after the cause of the terrible bark. The hunter said, "The dog is hungry," whereupon the frightened king ordered food for him. All the food prepared at the royal banquet disappeared rapidly in the dog's jaws, and still he howled with portentous significance. More food was sent for, and all the royal store-houses were emptied, but in vain. Then the tyrant grew desperate and asked: 'Will nothing satisfy the cravings of that woful beast?' 'Nothing,' replied the hunter, 'nothing except perhaps the flesh of all his enemies.' And who are his enemies?' anxiously asked the tyrant. The hunter replied: 'The dog will howl as long as there are people hungry in the kingdom, and his enemies are those who practise injustice and oppress the poor.' The oppressor of the people, remembering his evil deeds, was seized with remorse, and for the first time in his life he began to listen to the teachings of righteousness."3
Having ended his story, the Blessed One addressed the king, who had turned pale, and said to him:4
"The Tathāgata can quicken the spiritual ears of the powerful, and when thou, great king, nearest the dog bark, think of the teachings of the Buddha, and thou mayst still learn to pacify the monster."5