To give up my own life was as light as a blade of grass. To transgress my ethical principles was like overturning the earth.

In a hundred successive lives I would give up my own life. I would not even violate my ethics for the sake of the four continents.

For the sake of protecting ethics, and fulfilling my perfection of ethics, I did not let my mind change, even when thrown in a basket.”

The Conduct Leading to Buddhahood The Chapter on an Elephant The Perfection of Ethics (3rd) The Dragon Campeyyaka’s Conduct

“Then again when I was Campeyyaka, a dragon of great psychic power, I was just, furnished with precepts and vows.

Then the snake-charmer who caught me lived righteously, observing the Sabbath, and he made me perform at the royal gate.

Whatever color he thought of—blue, yellow, or red—I conformed to his wish, taking the appearance of his thought.

I could turn dry land to water, and water to dry land. If I were upset with him I could reduce him to ash in an instant.

If I was under the sway of my thoughts, I would have fallen from my ethics. But one who has fallen from their ethics does not succeed at the highest goal.