“All beings tremble before violence. All fear death. All love life.” It is the natural state of living things to crave to continuance to life. It is natural to fear the death — the ultimate unknown, and the ultimate opposite of the survival drives we all experience. The last extinguisher of those drives. Violence is […]
“Be quick to do good.If you are slow,The mind, delighting in mischief,Will catch you.” Perhaps here “quick” is less the word we’re looking for. “Diligent” seems a better option — one must be diligent and consistent in that diligence to develop new habits. Doing good is something we can develop the habit of doing — […]
“Better than a thousand hollow words Is one word that brings peace. Better than a hundred hollow lines Is one verse that brings peace. Better than a thousand hollow verses Is one line of the law, bringing peace.” The Noble Eightfold Path includes the value of “Right Speech” : “And what is right speech? Abstaining […]
“At the end of the way The master finds freedom From desire and sorrow — Freedom without bounds.” The philosophy here is that suffering is caused by attachment and desire. To desire is to suffer; to be attached is to suffer. To understand the fleeting nature of all things and to release attachment to those […]
“The wise man tells you Where you have fallen And where you may fall– Invaluable secrets! Follow him, follow the way.” The wise person is able to see the pit falls that lay in your path — perhaps they have been on such a path themselves and thus recognize the dangers, or perhaps they have […]
“How long the night to the watchman How long the road to the weary traveler How long the wandering of many lives To the fool who misses the way.” In essence — these things which are dreary, dull, and stretch out inevitably before us give us a frame through which to view the idea of […]
“How long the night to the watchman How long the road to the weary traveler How long the wandering of many lives To the fool who misses the way.” In essence — these things which are dreary, dull, and stretch out inevitably before us give us a frame through which to view the idea of […]
“Who shall conquer the world And the world of death with all its gods? Who shall discover The shining way of the law? You shall, even as the man Who seeks flowers Finds the most beautiful The rarest.” This feels like one of the more optimistic passages I’ve read so far — as though the […]
“As the fletcher whittlesAnd makes straight his arrowsSo the master directsHis straying thoughts.” The ideal here is the ability to exercise absolute control over your own mind and thoughts. In a way, might this be a form of exercising absolute autonomy? The ability to exercise control over how your thoughts are directed…though would this not […]
Working from Thomas Byrom translation. “Wakefulness is the way to life. The fool sleeps As if he were already dead, But the master is awake And he lives forever. He watches. He is clear. How happy he is! For he sees that wakefulness is life. How happy he is, Following the path of the awakened.” […]
Tahni J. Nikitins 