Like a fish in a puddle, what joy is there
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Absolutely. Sn 4.15 Attadanda Sutta:
"When embraced, the rod of violence breeds danger & fear:
Look at people quarreling. I will tell of how I experienced dismay.
Seeing people floundering like fish in small puddles,
competing with one another β as I saw this, fear came into me.
The world was entirely without substance.
All the directions were knocked out of line.
Wanting a haven for myself, I saw nothing that wasn't laid claim to. Seeing nothing in the end but competition, I felt discontent.
And then I saw an arrow here, so very hard to see, embedded in the heart.
Overcome by this arrow you run in all directions.
But simply on pulling it out you don't run, you don't sink.
In Pali this reads like a poem, 8 syllables per line. Sometimes the authorship is attributed to the Buddha himself. Apparently at one time the poem was a standard part of the ritual for new person joining the early Sangha.
The line you're interested in says something like "I saw people crowding like the fish in shallow puddle, getting in each other's way, this really had scared me."
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