The Parable of the Mandarin Duck and Kacalindikaka

“Also, next, oh good man! The Buddhist teaching is like the mandarin duck [and kacalindikaka] who always go together (although they are different birds). The mandarin duck and the kacalindikaka seek the highlands at the summer solstice, when the water level is high, and deposit their young there. This is to induce their growth. Later, they will act as they originally ought to. The same happens with the appearance of the Tathagata. He teaches innumerable beings and enables them to abide in the Wonderful Dharma. This is like the mandarin duck and the kacalindikaka seeking highlands and putting their young safely there. The same goes with the Tathagata. He enables beings to act as they ought to act and (later) enables them to enter Mahaparinirvana. Oh good man! This means that suffering is a teaching [dharma] and bliss is a different [dharma]. All created things are grief, Nirvana is Bliss. It is (Nirvana) the most wonderful and destroys created things [i.e., lifts us beyond the created sphere]."

Read More on the Nirvana Sutra, Chapter 14 - On the Parable of the Birds.

The Conscience of Owning the Buddha Nature

The Buddha said to Kasyapa: "It is so, it is so, oh good man! A person may be faithful and true with respect to what the sutras say, or may have practiced all the Samadhis, but until it has learned the Mahaparinirvana, it will say that everything is non-eternal. Once a person has learned this sutra, it may have illusions, but it will be, so to speak, without illusions. It benefits humans and heavenly. Why? Because one sees clearly that one’s own body has the Buddha-Nature within him.

Also, next, oh good man! It is like the case of the mango tree. When its flowers first appear, what there is [at that time] is the transformation phase. When it bears fruit and when it bestows much benefit, we speak of the eternal. Oh good man! Thus, a person may be true and faithful to all the sutras, or may have practiced Samadhis, but while it has not yet given ear to this Great Nirvana Sutra, everything is based on non-eternal. When a person gives ear to this sutra, although [still] having illusions, it is as though it had not illusion. This is why I say that it benefits both humans and heavenly. How? Because that person knows clearly that it has the Buddha-Nature within him. This is the Eternal.”

Read More on the Nirvana Sutra, Chapter 14 - On the Parable of the Birds.