Powerful Are the Inborn Tendencies

Let me tell you how powerful inborn tendencies are. A prince had, in a previous birth, been the son of a washer-man. While playing with his chums in his incarnation as the prince, he said to them: “Stop those games, I shall show you a new one. I shall lie on my belly, and you will beat the clothes on my back as the washer-man does, making swishing sound.” (55)