1. Do not be possessed by craving nor by lust.
2. This is the Buddhist way of life.
3. Not in a rain of riches is satisfaction of desire to be found. “Unsatisfying, grievous are desires”, so the wise man well knows.
4. Even in the pleasures of the heaven-worlds he takes no delight; his delight is in the ending of craving; he is the disciple of the supremely Awakened One, the Buddha.
5. From craving is born sorrow, from craving is born fear. To him who is wholly free from craving, there is neither sorrow nor fear.
6. He who gives himself to vanity, forgetting (the real aim of life) and grasping at pleasure, will in time envy him who has exerted himself in meditation.
7. Let no man have attachment to anything; loss of it gives pain. Those who love nothing and hate nothing have no fetters. 8. From pleasure comes grief, from pleasure comes fear; he who is free from pleasure knows neither grief nor fear. 9. From attachment comes grief, from attachment comes fear; he who is free from attachment knows neither grief nor fear. 10. From lust comes grief, from lust comes fear, he who is free from lust knows neither grief nor fear. 11. From greed comes grief, from greed comes fear; he who is free from greed knows neither grief nor fear. 12. He who possesses virtue and intelligence, who is just, speaks the truth, and does what is his own business, him the world will hold dear. 13. Kinsmen, friends and lovers salute a man who has been long away, and returns safe from afar. 14. In like manner his good works receive him who has done good, and has gone from this world as kinsmen receive a friend on his return. — The Buddha and his Dhamma by Dr. B.R.Ambedka |