Basic Teachings of the Buddha
Sutta 1
The Hawk
Saku.nagghi Sutta; Sa.myuttanik¯aya 5.47.6
ji
The Buddha related this story to a group of his followers.
Once, in the distant past, a hawk suddenly swooped down and seized a quail. As the quail was being carried away by the hawk, it lamented, “How unfortunate I am, what little merit I possess to have wandered out of my natural habitat into a foreign domain. If I had wandered within my native domain today, within my own ancestral, natural habitat, this hawk would certainly not have been a match for me in battle.”
“What is your native domain, quail? What is your own ancestral, natural habitat?” asked the hawk.
The quail answered, “That clod of earth freshly tilled with a plow.”
Then the hawk, not boasting about its own strength, not mentioning its own strength, released the quail, saying, “Go, quail; but having gone there, you cannot escape me.”
Then the quail, having gone to the clod of earth freshly tilled with a plow, climbed onto the large clod of earth and, standing there, said to the hawk, “Come get me now, hawk, come get me now!& ...
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