KETOKHILA-SUTTA –
BARRENNESS AND BONDAGE
27. ‘The brother, O Bhikkhus, thus endowed with fifteenfold determination becomes destined to come forth into the light, capable of the higher wisdom, sure of attaining to the supreme security.
28. ‘Just, O Bhikkhus, as when a hen has eight or ten or twelve eggs, and the hen has properly brooded over them, properly sat upon them, properly sat herself round them, however much such a wish may arise on her heart as this, “O would that my little chickens should break open the eggshell with the points of their claws, or with their beaks, and come forth into the light in safety!” yet all the while those little chickens are sure to break the egg-shell with the points of their claws, or with their beaks, and to come forth into the light in safety.
29. ‘Just even so, a brother thus endowed with fifteenfold determination is sure to come forth into the light, sure to reach up to the higher wisdom, sure to attain to the supreme security[4]!’
30. Thus spake the Blessed One. And those Brethren, delighted in heart, exalted the word of the Blessed One.
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[4. The tertium quid of the parable is the absolute certainty of the event which will follow on the hen having duly and diligently followed the law of her instinct, even though she, meanwhile, in her ignorance, be full of doubt and desire. ]
Ketokhila-Sutta: Barreness And Bondage
Translated from Pâli by T. W. Rhys Davids [1881]