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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

sombre. 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."



In those days there was a physician who 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.



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