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Profit and Loss for the Bulbul and the Wren:
The bulbul gathered the small birds together and said,"When you peck away at produce in the vegetable fields or eat berries in the gardens,you raise your voices unnecessarily and make a big noise calling back
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and forth to your friends. Because of this, men know that you've come and gather there in a flock, so they spread their nets and put down birdlime. In the the winter, when there's no food in the mountains, I come down to men's houses and, though i eat
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the fruit of the nanten at the edge of the veranda, the master of the house knows nothing about it. This is so amusing that I give a loud call of thanks just as I fly away, and return home. If by some chance birdlime has been spread there, I make no noise
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at all and, drawing myself back, lean quietly backward and hang upside down. That way, the trap remains above, my body is the only thing that falls down, and I secretly fly away. But for you, when birdlime is spread, the bunch of you get all upset, raise
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a ruckus, and start flapping around. For this reason you get completely covered in birdlime, can't move at all, and get caught. What a blunder!" This he said, quite clearly full of wisdom.
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A jenny wren, a small bird sitting in the farthest seat, laughed and said, "Men are more clever than birds, and once somebody saw that kind of trick, he'd put a narrow trap below as well. Then if you hung upside down and fell to the ground as you said
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your back would get stuck to the bottom trap and you'd be in an unexpected fix. So even you, lord bulbul, would get upset, raise a ruckus, get covered with lime, and be caught the same as us. Men of shallow brains in the world are all like the bulbul.
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Once they achieve something using their own clever wit, they get proud and think they can continue on like that forever. How could anyone in the world be so stupid? A man will learn some skill, and after making doubly sure he's got it down, will use it
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over and over again in vain, never understanding that that skill has no become his enemy and that he is inviting disaster."
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"Long ago in China there was a king Wu who crossed the Yang tse river and climbed up Monkey Mountain. When the monkeys saw this, they scattered and ran away in all four directions. There was one monkey among them that did not flee,
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but jumped up on a tree limb just like you'd toss up a ball. Demonstrating such skill he made little of the men below him. King wu notched an arrow and let it fly, but the monkey grabbed it in flight just like you'd pick something off the ground.
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Then King Wu gave an order to his retainers, and they all released arrows at once from four directions. The monkey didn't have a thousand arms and couldnt catch them all. so in the end he was pierced through and killed.
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Those who are proud of their own clever wit and invite disaster are all like this"
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Excerpt from the Demons Sermon - Issai Chozashi