The Buddha's Path of Virtue Part 7

144.

By faith and virtue, energy, and mind In perfect balance, searching of the Norm, Perfect in knowledge and good practices, Perfect in concentration of your thoughts, Ye shall strike off this mult.i.tude of woes.

145.

As cultivators guide the water-course, As fletchers straighten out the arrow-shaft, As carpenters warp timber to their needs, So righteous men subdue and train themselves.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

OLD AGE.

146.

Laugh ye, rejoice ye, when this world is burning?

O wrapped in darkness, will ye not seek light?

147.

Behold this body decked, a ma.s.s of sores, Sickly and swayed by mult.i.tudinous thoughts.

Impermanent, unstable, uncomposed!

148.

Poor worn-out carcase, home of sicknesses, Fragile, corrupting ma.s.s, mere life in death!

149.

What joy to look upon these bleached bones, Like useless gourds in autumn thrown aside!--

150.

A towns.h.i.+p built of bones and plastered o'er With flesh and blood, the home and dwelling-place Of age and death, pride and hypocrisy!

151.

Just as a royal chariot gaily decked Falls to decay, so grows this body old; But Truth and Norm old age cannot a.s.sail, The holy ones indeed know no decay.

152.

Just like an ox, the witless man grows old; His flesh grows, but his wits do not increase.

153-4.

Thro' many a round of birth and death I ran, Nor found the builder that I sought. Life's stream Is birth and death and birth, with sorrow filled.

Now, housebuilder, thou'rt seen! No more shalt build!

Broken are all thy rafters, split thy beam!

All that made up this mortal self is gone; Mind hath slain craving; I have crossed the stream![1]

155.

They who in youth have never trod the way Of righteousness, nor garnered wisdom's store.

Like herons in a fishless pool decay.

156.

They who in youth have never trod the way Of righteousness, nor garnered wisdom's store.

Like broken bows, lie weeping their lost day.

[1] The triumphant words of the Buddha, when at last He attained enlightenment, Nibbana, beneath the Bo-tree.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

The Self.

157.

Hast thou regard for self? Then keep thyself well guarded.

Be wise and keep good watch for one of the three watches.[1]

158.

First ground thyself in fitness; next, another teach.

Thus shalt thou wisdom gain and suffer no reproach.

159.

First carry out thyself whate'er thou teachest others.

Self-tamed, thou'lt tame another; but self is hard to tame.

160.

Self is the lord of self; who else could be the lord?

By taming self one gains a lord most hard to gain.

161.

The evil done by self, self-born and self-begotten, Crushes the senseless fool, as a bolt the jar of stone.[2]

162.

He who is choked by sins, as a creeper chokes a tree, Doth to himself what e'en his foes would have him do.

163.

Easy is ill to do and harmful to oneself; But what is good and wholesome, that is hard to do.

164.

Whose rejects the words of n.o.ble righteous saints On his own head brings ruin by his perversity, As bamboo trees put forth their fruit and die away.

165.

By self is evil done; by self is one defiled; Ill deeds not done by self to self bring purity; Each for himself is pure; each for himself impure; Thou can'st not cleanse another man's impurity.

166.

Mind thy affairs, not others', however great they be;[3]

Right knowledge of one's own brings more prosperity.

[1] The night is divided into three watches of three hours each. Some regard this pa.s.sage as referring to childhood, youth and age.