Living Illustration

Of a famous Buddhist parable, which goes like this (in one of several versions):  On the surface of the World Ocean there floats a piece of driftwood with a hole in it that's just large enough for a turtle's head to poke through.  And at the bottom of the ocean there lives a turtle.  Once every thousand years the turtle surfaces to breathe -- so what is the likelihood of that turtle breaking surface once in a thousand years and just randomly happening upon that piece of wood and putting its head through that hole?  That's the kind of odds that you've had to overcome already, just to be born as a human being after millions of lifetimes as a lower being.  And that is why life as a human is such a precious opportunity, not to be frittered away -- and murder such a terrible sin.

This red-eared turtle seems to be embodying the lesson using a leaf.