The Light of Asia Part 10

If making none to lack, he throughly purge The lie and l.u.s.t of self forth from his blood; Suffering all meekly, rendering for offence Nothing but grace and good;

If he shall day by day dwell merciful, Holy and just and kind and true; and rend Desire from where it clings with bleeding roots, Till love of life have end:

He--dying--leaveth as the sum of him A life-count closed, whose ills are dead and quit, Whose good is quick and mighty, far and near, So that fruits follow it.

No need hath such to live as ye name life; That which began in him when he began Is finished: he hath wrought the purpose through Of what did make him Man.

Never shall yearnings torture him, nor sins Stain him, nor ache of earthly joys and woes Invade his safe eternal peace; nor deaths And lives recur. He goes

Unto NIRVANA! He is one with life Yet lives not. He is blest, ceasing to be.

OM, MANI PADME, OM! the Dewdrop slips Into the s.h.i.+ning sea!

This is the doctrine of the KARMA. Learn!

Only when all the dross of sin is quit, Only when life dies like a white flame spent Death dies along with it.

Say not "I am," "I was," or "I shall be,"

Think not ye pa.s.s from house to house of flesh Like travelers who remember and forget, Ill-lodged or well-lodged. Fresh

Issues upon the Universe that sum Which is the lattermost of lives.

It makes Its habitation as the worm spins silk And dwells therein. It takes

Function and substance as the snake's egg hatched Takes scale and fang; as feathered reedseeds fly O'er rock and loam and sand, until they find Their marsh and multiply.

Also it issues forth to help or hurt.

When Death the bitter murderer doth smite, Red roams the unpurged fragment of him, driven On wings of plague and blight.

But when the mild and just die, sweet airs breathe; The world grows richer, as if desert-stream Should sink away to sparkle up again Purer, with broader gleam.

So merit won winneth the happier age Which by demerit halteth short of end; Yet must this Law of Love reign King of all Before the Kalpas end.

What lets?--Brothers? the Darkness lets! which breeds Ignorance, mazed whereby ye take these shows For true, and thirst to have, and, having, cling To l.u.s.ts which work you woes.

Ye that will tread the Middle Road, whose course Bright Reason traces and soft Quiet smoothes; Ye who will take the high Nirvana-way, List the Four n.o.ble Truths.

The First Truth is of Sorrow. Be not mocked!

Life which ye prize is long-drawn agony: Only its pains abide; its pleasures are As birds which light and fly,

Ache of the birth, ache of the helpless days, Ache of hot youth and ache of manhood's prime; Ache of the chill grey years and choking death, These fill your piteous time.

Sweet is fond Love, but funeral-flames must kiss The b.r.e.a.s.t.s which pillow and the lips which cling; Gallant is warlike Might, but vultures pick The joints of chief and King.

Beauteous is Earth, but all its forest-broods Plot mutual slaughter, hungering to live; Of sapphire are the skies, but when men cry Famished, no drops they give.

Ask of the sick, the mourners, ask of him Who tottereth on his staff, lone and forlorn, "Liketh thee life?"--these say the babe is wise That weepeth, being born.

The Second Truth is Sorrow's Cause. What grief Springs of itself and springs not of Desire?

Senses and things perceived mingle and light Pa.s.sion's quick spark of fire:

So flameth Trishna, l.u.s.t and thirst of things.

Eager ye cleave to shadows, dote on dreams.

A false Self in the midst ye plant, and make A world around which seems;

Blind to the height beyond, deaf to the sound Of sweet airs breathed from far past Indra's sky; Dumb to the summons of the true life kept For him who false puts by.

So grow the strifes and l.u.s.ts which make earth's war, So grieve poor cheated hearts and flow salt tears; So wag the pa.s.sions, envies, angers, hates; So years chase blood-stained years

With wild red feet. So, where the grain should grow, Spreads the biran-weed with its evil root And poisonous blossoms; hardly good seeds find Soil where to fall and shoot;

And drugged with poisonous drink the soul departs, And fierce with thirst to drink Karma returns; Sense-struck again the sodden self begins, And new deceits it earns

The Third is Sorrow's Ceasing. This is peace-- To conquer love of self and l.u.s.t of life, To tear deep-rooted pa.s.sion from the breast, To still the inward strife;

For love, to clasp Eternal Beauty close; For glory, to be lord of self; for pleasure, To live beyond the G.o.ds; for countless wealth, To lay up lasting treasure

Of perfect service rendered, duties done In charity, soft speech, and stainless days These riches shall not fade away in life, Nor any death dispraise.

Then Sorrow ends, for Life and Death have ceased; How should lamps flicker when their oil is spent?

The old sad count is clear, the new is clean; Thus hath a man content.

The Fourth Truth is The Way. It openeth wide, Plain for all feet to tread, easy and near, The n.o.ble Eightfold Path; it goeth straight To peace and refuge. Hear!

Manifold tracks lead to yon sister-peaks Around whose snows the gilded clouds are curled By steep or gentle slopes the climber comes Where breaks that other world.

Strong limbs may dare the rugged road which storms, Soaring and perilous, the mountain's breast; The weak must wind from slower ledge to ledge With many a place of rest.

So is the Eightfold Path which brings to peace; By lower or by upper heights it goes.

The firm soul hastes, the feeble tarries. All Will reach the sunlit snows.

The First good Level is Right Doctrine.

Walk In fear of Dharma, shunning all offence; In heed of Karma, which doth make man's fate; In lords.h.i.+p over sense.

The Second is Right Purpose. Have good-will To all that lives, letting unkindness die And greed and wrath; so that your lives be made Like soft airs pa.s.sing by.

The Third is Right Discourse. Govern the lips As they were palace-doors, the King within; Tranquil and fair and courteous be all words Which from that presence win.

The Fourth is Right Behavior. Let each act a.s.soil a fault or help a merit grow; Like threads of silver seen through crystal beads Let love through good deeds show.

Four higher roadways be. Only those feet May tread them which have done with earthly things-- Right Purity, Right Thought, Right Loneliness, Right Rapture. Spread no wings

For sunward flight, thou soul with unplumed vans Sweet is the lower air and safe, and known The homely levels: only strong ones leave The nest each makes his own.

Dear is the love, I know, of Wife and Child; Pleasant the friends and pastimes of your years; Fruitful of good Life's gentle charities; False, though firm-set, its fears.

Live--ye who must--such lives as live on these; Make golden stair-ways of your weakness; rise By daily sojourn with those phantasies To lovelier verities.

So shall ye pa.s.s to clearer heights and find Easier ascents and lighter loads of sins, And larger will to burst the bonds of sense, Entering the Path. Who wins