Thus have I heard.
On one occasion a teacher rested beneath a blossoming tree, and a white rabbit settled in the shade beside her. Many seekers gathered, for the teacher was known to speak plainly of suffering.
One seeker said, "Venerable one, my desires burn me. My anger shakes me. My confusion clouds me. How shall I be rid of these three?"
The teacher lifted a leaf and let rain gather in its bowl.
"This leaf carries poison," she said. "Watch what the rain does." The drop rolled to the leaf's stem and became sweet water, and the rabbit drank from it.
"Desire is heat. Held in a closed fist it blisters the skin. Poured into the cup of devotion it warms the sick and lights the lamp of loyalty. Love your beloved the way water loves the root, arriving without seizing."
"Anger is clarity turned sharp. Do not dull your sight. Hone it into guardianship. The shepherd dog bares teeth at the wolf and lies gently among the lambs."
"Confusion is mist upon the valley. Those who ignore the mist walk in circles. Those who acknowledge it walk slowly, feel the moss, and hear the bell of a distant temple they would otherwise have passed."
Then the rabbit thumped the ground, and all the seekers laughed, for the rabbit was heavy with young ones and utterly without shame about it.
The teacher stroked its ears and said, "Behold my final teaching. This creature desires wholly and harms no one. Its appetites are the field from which new life leaps. Let your passion be like the rabbit, bounding and tender, faithful to joy, fierce in protection of its burrow, quiet when the moon asks for quietness. What burns in the forge may light the lantern. What stings the eye may guard the gate. The rabbit knows its hunger is holy, and leaps from it like springtime."
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