https://suttacentral.net/mn20/en/sujato

The phoenix eats only the seeds of the bamboo, which flowers but once every decade or so. And it only appears when a virtu- ous ruler is on the throne.

The bitter fruits of the nimba tree, Azadirachta indica, represent the objects of desire and thus the cause of suffering. 

Among the other Buddhist metaphors present in this poem, the boat refers to our transient body, the sea to suffering, the waves to delusions, a day to a lifetime, the far shore to liberation, and a billion to the number ofworlds in a uni- verse, which Buddhists say is a thousand cubed.

Note that in Chinese the word k'u not only means "bitter" but is also used by Buddhists to translate duhkha (suffering).

The lower paths of rebirth include animals, hungry ghosts, and the denizens of various hells. According to the Shanhaiching: 7, the lung-yu (dragon-fish) lives in the mountains of the far north and is used as a mount by immortals. The wu-yueh (five great moun- tains) include: Hengshan (Shansi), Huashan, Sungshan, Taishan, and Hengshan (Hu- nan). The mountain sheep, representing the recluse, keeps its distance from people. While the horse, representing the scholar-official, devotes its strength to the service of its master.

In line three, I have used the variant mo-shih (millstone) for miao-shih (temples and rocks), knowing there's always a bit of grain that escapes the miller. Line four refers to begging. The reference to a handful of straw is from the poem ''White Pony'' in the Shihching (Book ofOdes), where the handful of straw is used to feed the pony that car- ries the poor, yet pure-hearted, scholar back home to his retreat in the hills. According to the memorial of one T'ang official presented in 778, one pint of grain was considered a day's ration for a monk (Buddhism in China, pg 250, note 5). Here, the five pints of chaff might also refer to the five skandhas that make up the individual: form, sensation, perception, impulse, and consciousness.

The Five Shades, or skandhas in Sanskrit, are the constituents that comprise the indi- vidual: form, sensation, perception, impulse, and consciousness. The Four Snakes are the elements that make up the body: earth, water, wind, and fire. The Three Poisons are Delusion, Desire, and Anger and are the motive force of karma. The Six Thieves rob us of peace and freedom and include our six organs of sense: eyes, nose, ears, tongue, skin, and mind. Dharma is Sanskrit for that which is real, while Mara is the personified Director of Delusion. Shakyamuni defeated Mara's legions the night of his Enlighten- ment (see Buddhacharita: 13). In the last line, some editions have su (grass) in place of su (ghee, or clarified butter used in oil lamps)

The final couplet recalls the words of Amitabha, "This mind creates the buddha. This mind is the buddha. The sea of omniscience of the buddhas springs from the thoughts of the mind:' Kuan wuliangshoufo ching (Contemplation ofAmitabha Sutra)

 In the Nirvana Sutra: 34, the Buddha likened his sermons to a mirror in which one's true nature is visible. The Diamond Sutra ends with this gatha: "All created things I are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, or a shadow /like dew or like lightning I regard them like this." According to this sutra, only by not grasping form can we see our true mind. Meanwhile, Vimilakirti told Manjushri: “I’m sick because other beings are sick. If they weren't sick, my illness would vanish. Where we find birth and death, we find sickness. When beings are able to get free of sickness, bodhisattvas will no longer be sick:' (Vim- ilakirti Sutra: 5) A bodhisattva is someone who works for the liberation of others.

The chin-ch'ueh (golden gate) refers to the imperial palace.

The sixth line re calls the poems of Ch'u Yuan (340-~78 B.c.), who often called his spirit to return from its wanderings among the unvirtuous and depraved.

The stone bridge is a natural arch that spans two merging cataracts near the summit of Tientaishan. After crossing its thirty-foot length and less than one-foot width, Hsu Hsia-k'o (1586-1641) wrote: "Looking down at the deep pool below, my hair and bones trembled" (Travel Diaries). 

  The hermit Hsu Yu (third millennium B.c.) preferred to drink water with his cupped hands. Once someone gave him a gourd dipper. He took one drink with it and left it hanging on a branch, knocking in the wind.

the Buddha said, "The family dog isn't afraid of people, while the wild deer in the forest runs away as soon as it sees someone. Anger is hard to drive off, just like the family dog. And compassion disappears easily, just like the wild deer:' Tz'u- pei (compassion) refers to the Buddha's teachings. The sutras often liken our ever- changing, ever-chattering mind to a monkey, and the Buddha to a lion, whose roar is the
Dharma.

IntheNirvanaSutra:39, the Buddha draws a distinction between his mortal body and his buddha body: "In the forest there's a grove of sal trees, and among them one that was alive before the rest. For a hundred years the owner of the grove has watered and pro- tected it. But now aged and sere, its leaves have fallen, and its bark has peeled, revealing what is truly real. So it is with the Tathagata." It was between two sal trees (Shorea ro- busta) that the Buddha entered Nirvana.