Nevertheless, for the sake of guarding my ethics, and fulfilling my perfection of ethics, I did not let my mind change, even as they caged me.
And even were they to beat me with hatchets and lances, I would never become upset, for fear of violating my ethics.”
The Conduct Leading to Buddhahood The Chapter on an Elephant The Perfection of Ethics (2nd) The Dragon Bhūridatta’s Conduct
“Then again when I was Bhūridatta, a dragon of great psychic power, together with Virūpakkha the Great King I went to a heavenly realm.
There I saw gods wholly given over to pleasure. For the sake of going to that heaven, I undertook the observance of ethics.
After tending to my physical needs, and eating enough to get by, I resolved on the four factors, and lay down atop a termite mound, thinking:
‘My outer skin and inner, flesh, sinews and bones: whoever has use for these, they are already given, please take them.’
While lying there the ingrate Ālampāyana grabbed me. He threw me in a basket and made me perform in places all over.
Though thrown in a basket and crushed by his hands, I did not get upset with Ālampāyana, for fear of breaking my ethics.