THE MAN BORN BLIND

  THERE was a man born blind, and he said: "I do not believe in the

world of light and appearance. There are no colors, bright or

somber. There is no sun, no moon, no stars. No one has witnessed these

things." His friends remonstrated with him, but he clung to his

opinion: "What you say that you see," he objected, "are illusions.

If colors existed I should be able to touch them. They have no

substance and are not real. Everything real has weight, but I feel

no weight where you see colors."

  A physician was called to see the blind man. He mixed four

simples, and when he applied them to the cataract of the blind man the

gray film melted, and his eyes acquired the faculty of sight. The

Tathagata is the physician, the cataract is the illusion of the

thought "I am," and the four simples are the four noble truths.