ཡིད་ཆེས། རབ་ཏུ་རྟོག་ཅིང་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་བྱམས་པས་ཡིད་ལ་བྱེད་པ་དང་། དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་ཉིད་ལ་དམིགས་ནས་ དེའི་ཕྱིར་ནམ་མཁའ་ལ་མེ་ཏོག་འཐོར་བ་དེ་དག་ཐམས་ཅད་དགེ་བའི་རྩ་བ་འདིའི་མཐའ་མ་ཐོབ་པར་སྡུག་བསྔལ་མཐར་འབྱིན་པར་འགྱུར་རོ། ། དེ་ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་ཞེ་ན། འདི་ལྟར། ཤཱ་རིའི་བུ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པས་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས་རབ་ཏུ་རྟོགས་ཏེ། དེ་རབ་ཏུ་རྟོགས་པས་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་རྣམས་ལས་སེམས་གཅིག་བསྐྱེད་པ་ཡང་ཆུད་མི་ཟའོ། ། དེ་ནས་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ལ་ཚེ་དང་ལྡན་པ་ཤཱ་རིའི་བུས་འདི་སྐད་ཅེས་གསོལ་ཏོ། །
“I will give you another example Śāriputra, as intelligent people understand what we say even when only a single example is given. Śāriputra, imagine someone with a hundred years to live who had a drop of water as small as the tip of a hair split into one hundred parts. He would come to the place where I was staying, and say, ‘Excuse me, Gautama. I would like to leave this drop of water with you, and then I would like you to give it back when I need it.’ The Tathāgata would take it and throw it into the river Ganges, where it would be carried away by the current and eventually reach the ocean. Now, that person who had a hundred years to live would eventually reach the age of one hundred and come back to see me. He would say, ‘Gautama, I need the drop of water now, please give it back to me.’ Now, Śāriputra, the Tathāgata’s tathāgata knowledge is such that the tathāgata, the arhat, the fully accomplished Buddha, possessing this knowledge, [MS.23.b] could retrieve the drop of water as small as the tip of a hair split into one hundred parts from the great ocean and give it back to that person, unmixed with any other liquid. Śāriputra, I give you this example in order that you may understand a particular point. The point, Śāriputra, is that that person’s drop of water would not be lost once it had been received by the Tathāgata, even after a long time.
Light, Reality, Assembly