Awareness
Awareness is the path of immortality;
thoughtlessness is the path of death.
Those who are aware do not die.
The thoughtless are as if dead already.
The wise having clearly understood this,
delight in awareness
and find joy in the knowledge of the noble ones.
These wise ones, meditative, persevering,
always using strong effort,
attain nirvana, the supreme peace and happiness.
If a person is awake, aware, mindful, pure, considerate,
self-restrained, and lives according to duty,
that person's glory will increase.
By awakening, by awareness, by restraint and control,
the wise may make for oneself
an island which no flood can overwhelm.
Fools follow after vanity, are ignorant and careless.
The wise keep awareness as their best treasure.
Do not follow after vanity
nor after sensual pleasure nor lust.
Whoever meditates with awareness obtains great joy.
When the wise conquer thoughtlessness by awareness,
climbing the terraced heights of wisdom,
free from sadness viewing the sad crowd below,
they gaze upon the fools, like one on the mountain peak
gazes upon those standing on the plain.
Aware among the thoughtless, awake among the sleepy,
the wise advances, like a racehorse leaves behind the slow.
By awareness Indra rose to become chief of the gods.
People praise awareness; thoughtlessness is always blamed.
A mendicant who finds joy in awareness,
who looks with fear on thoughtlessness,
moves about like fire,
burning all restrictions, small or large.
A mendicant who finds joy in awareness,
who looks with fear on thoughtlessness,
cannot fall away, but is close to nirvana.
Thought
As fletchers make their arrows straight,
the wise make straight their wavering and unsteady thought,
which is difficult to guard and difficult to restrain.
Like a fish taken from its watery home
and thrown on the dry ground,
our thought quivers all over
in order to escape the dominion of Mara.
It is good to control the mind,
which is difficult to restrain, fickle, and wandering.
A tamed mind brings happiness.
Let the wise guard their thoughts,
which are difficult to perceive, tricky, and wandering.
Thoughts well guarded bring happiness.
Those who restrain their mind,
which travels far alone without a body, hiding in a cave,
will be free from the restrictions of death.
If a person's mind is unsteady,
if it does not know the true path,
if one's peace of mind is troubled,
wisdom is not perfected.
There is no fear for the one whose thought is untroubled,
whose mind is not confused,
who has ceased to think of good and bad,
who is aware.
Knowing that this body is like a jar,
and making one's thought strong as a fortress,
attack Mara with the weapon of wisdom,
protect what is conquered and stay always aware.
Before long, unfortunately, this body will lie on the earth,
rejected, without consciousness, like a useless log.
Whatever an enemy may do to an enemy,
or a hater to a hater,
a wrongly directed mind will do greater harm.
Neither a mother nor a father
nor any other relative will do so much;
a well-directed mind will do us greater service.
The Wise
If you see a wise person who shows you your faults,
who shows what is to be avoided,
follow that wise person
as you would one who reveals hidden treasures;
you will be better not worse for following that one.
Let one admonish; let one teach; let one forbid the wrong;
and one will be loved by the good and hated by the bad.
Do not have wrong-doers for friends;
do not have despicable people for friends;
have virtuous people for friends;
have for friends the best people.
Whoever drinks in the truth
lives happily with a serene mind.
The wise are joyful in the truth
revealed by the noble ones.
Engineers of canals guide the water;
fletchers make the arrow straight;
carpenters shape the wood;
the wise mold themselves.
As a solid rock is not shaken by the wind,
so the wise are not shaken by blame and praise.
As a deep lake is clear and calm,
so the wise become tranquil after they listened to the truth.
Good people walk on regardless of what happens to them.
Good people do not babble on about their desires.
Whether touched by happiness or by sorrow,
the wise never appear elated or depressed.
Whoever for one's sake or for another's,
does not wish for a son or wealth or power,
and if one does not wish for success by unfair means,
that one certainly is virtuous, wise, and holy.
Few are those people who reach the farther shore;
the other people here run along this shore.
But those who, when the truth has been taught to them,
follow the truth, will pass over the dominion of death,
however difficult to cross.
Leaving behind the path of darkness
and following the path of light,
let the wise person go from home to a homeless state,
in retirement looking for enjoyment
where enjoyment seemed difficult.
Letting go of all pleasures, calling nothing one's own,
let the wise cleanse oneself
from all the troubles of the mind.
Those whose minds are well grounded
in the elements of enlightenment,
who without clinging to anything
find joy in freedom from attachment,
whose appetites have been conquered,
and who are full of light,
they are free in this world.
Good and Bad
A person should hurry toward the good
and restrain one's thoughts from the bad.
If a person is slow in doing good,
one's mind will find pleasure in wrong.
If a person does what is wrong, let one not do it again.
Let one not find pleasure in wrong.
Painful is the accumulation of bad conduct.
If a person does what is good, let one do it again.
Let one find joy in it.
Happiness is the result of good conduct.
Even a wrong-doer sees happiness
as long as one's wrong action does not ripen;
but when the wrong action has ripened,
then does the wrong-doer see bad.
Even a good person sees bad
as long as one's good action does not ripen;
but when one's good action has ripened,
then the good person sees the good.
Let no one underestimate evil,
thinking, "It will not come near me."
Even a water-pot is filled by the falling of drops of water.
A fool becomes full of evil
even if one gathers it little by little.
Let no one underestimate good,
thinking, "It will not come near me."
Even a water-pot is filled by the falling of drops of water.
A wise person becomes full of goodness
even if one gathers it little by little.
Let a person avoid wrong actions, as a merchant,
who has few companions and carries much wealth,
avoids a dangerous road;
as a person who loves life avoids poison.
Whoever has no wound on one's hand
may touch poison with that hand;
poison does not affect one who has no wound;
nor does evil one who does no wrong.
Whoever does wrong to an innocent person
or to one who is pure and harmless,
the wrong returns to that fool
just like fine dust thrown against the wind.
Some people are born again in the womb;
wrong-doers go to hell;
the good go to heaven;
those free from worldly desires attain nirvana.
Neither in the sky nor in the middle of the ocean
nor by entering the caves of mountains
is there known a place on earth
where a person can escape from a wrong action.
Neither in the sky nor in the middle of the ocean
nor by entering the caves of mountains
is there known a place on earth
where a person can escape from death.
Old Age
Why is there laughter, why is there joy
while this world is always burning?
Why do you not seek a light,
you who are shrouded in darkness?
Consider this dressed-up lump covered with wounds,
joined with limbs, diseased, and full of many schemes
which are neither permanent nor stable.
This body is wearing out, a nest of diseases and frail;
this heap of corruption falls apart; life ends in death.
What pleasure is there
for one who sees these white bones
like gourds thrown away in the autumn?
A fortress is made out of the bones,
plastered over with flesh and blood,
and in it lives old age and death, pride and deceit.
The glorious chariots of the kings wear out;
the body also comes to old age;
but the virtue of good people never ages;
thus the good teach each other.
People who have learned little grow old like an ox;
their flesh grows, but their knowledge does not grow.
I have run through a course of many births
looking for the maker of this dwelling and did not find it;
painful is birth again and again.
Now you are seen, the builder of the house;
you will not build the house again.
All your rafters are broken; your ridgepole is destroyed;
your mind, set on the attainment of nirvana,
has attained the extinction of desires.
People who have not practiced proper discipline
who have not acquired wealth in their youth,
pine away like old cranes in a lake without fish.
People who have not practiced proper discipline,
who have not acquired wealth in their youth,
lie like broken bows, sighing after the past.
Joy
Let us live in joy, not hating those who hate us.
Among those who hate us, we live free of hate.
Let us live in joy,
free from disease among those who are diseased.
Among those who are diseased, let us live free of disease.
Let us live in joy, free from greed among the greedy.
Among those who are greedy, we live free of greed.
Let us live in joy, though we possess nothing.
Let us live feeding on joy, like the bright gods.
Victory breeds hate, for the conquered is unhappy.
Whoever has given up victory and defeat
is content and lives joyfully.
There is no fire like lust, no misfortune like hate;
there is no pain like this body;
there is no joy higher than peace.
Craving is the worst disease;
disharmony is the greatest sorrow.
The one who knows this truly
knows that nirvana is the highest bliss.
Health is the greatest gift;
contentment is the greatest wealth;
trusting is the best relationship;
nirvana is the highest joy.
Whoever has tasted the sweetness
of solitude and tranquillity
becomes free from fear and sin
while drinking the sweetness of the truth.
The sight of the noble is good;
to live with them is always joyful.
Whoever does not see fools will always be happy.
Whoever associates with fools suffers a long time.
Being with fools, as with an enemy, is always painful.
Being with the wise, like meeting with family, is joyful.
Therefore, one should follow the wise, the intelligent,
the learned, the patient, the dutiful, the noble;
one should follow the good and wise,
as the moon follows the path of the stars.
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