(44) EATING HALF A PANCAKE

Once there was a man who felt hungry and longed to eat seven pancakes. He was already full when he had eaten six pancakes and a half. He was so sorry for having ordered seven of them that he slapped his own face and said, "Half a pancake has filled me up. The other six are wasted. If only I had known that, I should have ordered only half a cake."
So are the people at large.
There is actually no pleasure in life. There are only illusions, just like the stupid man getting full illusion with half a cake.
Being ignorant, people view wealth and honour as pleasure. It is sometimes a painful process to get them. It is also sometimes hard to keep them. It is all the more painful when they have lost them. Therefore, they give no pleasure to people at all times.
It is just like people taken in by clothes and food as pleasure. They also bear illusions of the word "pleasure" when they are toiling and moiling. All Buddhas have it that the Three Worlds has no peace but great suffering. Ignorant man with wrong views still clings desperately to illusions.

44欲食半餅喻
譬如有人，因其飢故食七枚煎餅，食六枚半已便得飽滿，其人恚悔，以手自打而作是言：「我今飽足由此半餅，然前六餅唐自捐棄，設知半餅能充足者，應先食之。」
世間之人亦復如是，從本以來常無有樂，然其癡倒橫生樂想。如彼癡人於半番餅生於飽想，世人無知以富貴為樂。夫富貴者，求時甚苦，既獲得已守護亦苦，後還失之憂念復苦，於三時中都無有樂。猶如衣食遮故名樂，於辛苦中橫生樂想，諸佛說言：「三界無安，皆是大苦，凡夫倒惑，橫生樂想。」

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