The Buddha's Path of Virtue Part 14

298.

They who, watchful night and day, On the Sangha meditate, Are followers of Gotama.

299.

They who, watchful night and day, On the body meditate, Are followers of Gotama.

300.

They who, watchful night and day, Take delight in harmlessness, Are followers of Gotama.

301.

They who, watchful night and day, Take delight in ecstasy, Are followers of Gotama.

302.

O 'tis hard to give the world up, Yet the lonely life is hard; Painful 'tis to dwell in houses With the uncongenial; Painful travelling to and fro; Cease to be a traveller.[4]

Cease to be beset with pain!

303.

Faithful and of good repute, Full of honour and renown, He is reverenced and honoured, Whereso'er he choose to dwell.

304.

Holy saints are far-resplendent Like the peaks Himalayan; Like the shaft that flies in darkness, Wicked men are never seen.

305.

Lonely sitting, lying lonely, Act alone and strenuous; Taming self alone, rejoice thee In the ending of desire.

[1] _Kiccam_ "minding one's own business."

[2] The Brahmins used to claim that a "twice-born" saint was blameless, whatever his bodiless actions might be. The Buddha here speaks mystically. _Father_ is ignorance, _Mother_ is craving; the _two kings_ are the great heresies of non-causation and nihilism. _The Kingdom and its subjects_ are the six organs of sense (mind being the sixth); and the six objects of sense (form, sound, sight, smell, taste, thoughts), conquest of all these brings liberation from embodied existence.

[3] _veyyaggha-pancama?_, lit. 'a tiger-like man, as a fifth'. The Commentator explains this to mean the fifth of the Five Hindrances (l.u.s.t, malice, sloth, pride, doubt) which beset the Path.

[4] _A traveller_ is one who runs up and down the paths of rebirth.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

THE EVIL WAY.[1]

306.

The liar reaches h.e.l.l, and he who says He did not what he did; Both are the same hereafter, men of crooked ways.

307.

And many a one the yellow gown who wears, Wicked and uncontrolled, By reason of his evil deeds in h.e.l.l appears.

308.

Better for him who lives unworthily A red-hot ball to swallow, Than eat the food the country gives in charity.

309.

Four states of ill to reckless men I tell Who seek the wives of others-- Ill-luck, a restless bed, an evil name and h.e.l.l.

310.

Ill-luck, the Evil Way, short-lived delight Of fearful man with timid woman spent, And from the king a grievous punishment-- Let these four evils all adulterers affright.

311.

Just as a blade of gra.s.s not handled well Will cut the hand that grasps, So doth the ascetic's life ill-handled lead to h.e.l.l.

312.

Deeds done with sluggishness, the broken vow, The saintly life befouled-- Such evil deeds as these small recompense bestow.

313.

Act thou with energy, if act thou must: The careless mendicant Doth but stir up a denser cloud of pa.s.sion's dust.

314.

Leave evil deeds which afterwards bring pain; Better to do the good; For when 'tis done that deed no sorrow brings again.

315.

Just as a frontier town that's guarded well, Which ramparts well defend on every side, So guard thyself, let not a moment slide; Time-wasters suffer sorrow when consigned to h.e.l.l.

316.

They who feel shame, where shame there should be none, Shameless, where shame should be, Embracing doctrines false, down the Ill Path have gone.

317.

They who feel fear, where fear there should be none, Fearless, when they should fear, Embracing doctrines false, down the Ill Path have gone.

318.

They who see sin, where sin there can be none, Who see no harm in sin, Embracing doctrines false, down the Ill Path have gone.

319. They who know sin as sin, and right as right, Embracing doctrines true, Those beings enter on the Path of True Delight.

[1] _Niraya_, the Evil Path, the downward course to destruction, _duggati_, as opposed to _su-gati_ the happy way or state of heaven.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

THE ELEPHANT.

320.

As an elephant in battle bears the arrows at him hurled, I must bear men's bitter tongues, for very evil is the world.