Dhammapada verse #135
如牧人以杖，驅牛至牧場，如是老與死．驅逐眾生命。
As with force the cowherds drive
their cattle out to graze,
like this decay and death drive out
the life from all beings.
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【第135偈的故事】
有一次，一群舍衛城的女士到東園鹿子母講堂參加齋戒。該精舍的捐獻者是著名的毘舍佉，她詢問她們為什麼要來齋戒，年長的婦女說希望獲得生天的福報，中年婦女則回答說，希望獲得家庭的幸福，新婚少婦則祈求第一胎能生兒子，年輕小姐則希望找到如意郎君。
毘舍佉獲得她們的答案後，就引領她們至世尊處所，並報告她們的所求。
世尊說：「毘舍佉！五蘊不停的生、老、死、變化。人一旦出生，就會老，最後死亡。但人們卻不想從輪迴中解脫，仍然留戀輪迴。眾生很難理解，唯有克服世間的欲望才能得到真正的幸福。」
While residing at the Pubbàràma Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse, with reference to five hundred ladies.
Once, five hundred ladies from Sàvatthi came to the Pubbàràma Monastery to keep the Eight Precepts. The donor of the monastery, the well-renowned Visàkhà, asked different age groups of ladies why they had come to keep the fast-day. She got different answers from different age groups for they had come to the monastery for different reasons. The old ladies came to the monastery to keep the fast-day because they hoped to gain the riches and glories of celestial beings in their next existence; the middle-aged ladies had come to the monastery because they did not want to stay under the same roof with the mistresses of their respective husbands. The young married ladies had come because they wanted their first born to be a son, and the young unmarried ladies had come because they wanted to get married to good husbands.
Having had these answers, Visàkhà took all the ladies to the Buddha. When she told the Buddha about the various answers of the different age groups of ladies, the Buddha said, “Visàkhà! Birth, ageing and death are always actively working in beings; because one is born, one is subject to ageing and decay, and finally to death. Yet, they do not wish to strive for liberation from the round of existences (saüsàra); they still wish to linger in saüsàra.”
毘舍佉獲得她們的答案後，就引領她們至世尊處所，並報告她們的所求。
世尊說：「毘舍佉！五蘊不停的生、老、死、變化。人一旦出生，就會老，最後死亡。但人們卻不想從輪迴中解脫，仍然留戀輪迴。眾生很難理解，唯有克服世間的欲望才能得到真正的幸福。」
While residing at the Pubbàràma Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse, with reference to five hundred ladies.
Once, five hundred ladies from Sàvatthi came to the Pubbàràma Monastery to keep the Eight Precepts. The donor of the monastery, the well-renowned Visàkhà, asked different age groups of ladies why they had come to keep the fast-day. She got different answers from different age groups for they had come to the monastery for different reasons. The old ladies came to the monastery to keep the fast-day because they hoped to gain the riches and glories of celestial beings in their next existence; the middle-aged ladies had come to the monastery because they did not want to stay under the same roof with the mistresses of their respective husbands. The young married ladies had come because they wanted their first born to be a son, and the young unmarried ladies had come because they wanted to get married to good husbands.
Having had these answers, Visàkhà took all the ladies to the Buddha. When she told the Buddha about the various answers of the different age groups of ladies, the Buddha said, “Visàkhà! Birth, ageing and death are always actively working in beings; because one is born, one is subject to ageing and decay, and finally to death. Yet, they do not wish to strive for liberation from the round of existences (saüsàra); they still wish to linger in saüsàra.”
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中文法句出處：《南傳法句經》 了參法師譯
中文故事出處：《法句經故事集》 達摩難陀長老著 周金言譯
