An important Brahmin approached the Buddha with a question about what characteristics the supreme sacrifice should have. And Buddha told the story of a powerful and happy king of bygone times, who, after great victories and subjugation of half the world, set out to make a major sacrifice to the gods.
He called upon a saint famous in those days and asked him for advice on how best to fulfill his plans.
In response, the saint tells the king that peace, prosperity and security should first be restored in the state, and only then the sacrifice should begin. In this case, not a single living creature should suffer: neither bulls nor sheep should be given to slaughter. The king's servants must perform their duties not under coercion, not under fear, but voluntarily, out of personal motivation. Let them then pour out a libation of milk, butter and honey, and thus the royal sacrifice will achieve its purpose.
“But there is another kind of sacrifice,” continued the Buddha. - It is easily feasible and, at the same time, the highest, beneficial: when they distribute alms to pious monks, when they build a dwelling for the Buddha and his disciples. And there is also the highest sacrifice: when with full conviction they resort to the Buddha, to his teaching, to his community, when they do not take the life of a single living being and avoid lies and deception. And there is also the highest sacrifice: when, having accepted monastic initiation, they renounce all joys, all suffering, and plunge into sacred peace. But the highest sacrifice that a man can make, the highest grace of which he can become a participant, is available to him when he finds redemption and the complete assurance that he will never again return to the affections of this world.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru