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6 People forget that their lives will end soon. For those who remember, quarrels come to an end.
15 Those who are selfish suffer here and hereafter; they suffer in both worlds from the results of their own actions. 16 But those who are selfless rejoice here and rejoice hereafter. They rejoice in both worlds from the results of their own actions.
21 Be vigilant and go beyond death. If you lack vigilance, you cannot escape death. Those who strive earnestly will go beyond death; those who do not can never come to life.
24 If you meditate earnestly, pure in mind and kind in deeds, leading a disciplined life in harmony with the dharma, you will grow in glory. 25 If you meditate earnestly, through spiritual disciplines you can make an island for yourself that no flood can overwhelm.
Control of the mind, the theme of chapter 3, is the most challenging and the most rewarding of human tasks, and the Buddha does not underestimate its difficulties. The mind, he suggests, has a depth far greater than the deepest sea, and all the way down it churns with emotional tempests of which we are barely conscious, but which virtually dictate thought and behavior.
One who has truly learned to meditate, the Buddha says, can aim thoughts with the accuracy and power of a skilled archer (33); instead of thoughts going in all directions, each one finds its mark.
33 As an archer aims an arrow, the wise aim their restless thoughts, hard to aim, hard to restrain. 34 As a fish hooked and left on the sand thrashes about in agony, the mind being trained in meditation trembles all over, desperate to escape the hand of Mara. 35 Hard it is to train the mind, which goes where it likes and does what it wants. But a trained mind brings health and happiness. 36 The wise can direct their thoughts, subtle and elusive, wherever they choose: a trained mind brings health and happiness.
51 Like a lovely flower, full of color but lacking in fragrance, are the words of those who do not practice what they preach. 52 Like a lovely flower full of color and fragrance are the words of those who practice what they preach.
53 Many garlands can be made from a heap of flowers. Many good deeds can be done in this life.
58–59 A true follower of the Buddha shines among blind mortals as the fragrant lotus, growing in the garbage by the roadside, brings joy to all who pass by.
The word samsara in verse 60, which refers to the cycle of birth and death, means literally “that which is moving intensely,” that is, the everyday world of incessant change. Immature people, living unreflectively from moment to moment, drown in the instability of samsara, which drags on as endlessly as night for the insomniac. That is because this kind of immaturity is not that of a child, but of the adult who is not sensitive to that moment of discrimination when one choice will lead toward wisdom and the other to bitter pain (66).
63 The immature who know they are immature have a little wisdom. But the immature who look on themselves as wise are utterly foolish.
78 Make friends with those who are good and true, not with those who are bad and false.
79 To follow the dharma revealed by the noble ones is to live in joy with a serene mind.
80 As irrigators lead water where they want, as archers make their arrows straight, as carpenters carve wood, the wise shape their minds.
85 Few are those who reach the other shore; most people keep running up and down this shore.
Mahayana Buddhists went so far as to call the arhant a “private Buddha” (pratyeka-buddha), implying that such people do not share the fruits of their attainment, deserting a suffering humanity to bask in nirvana. The Mahayana ideal was called bodhisattva, literally “one whose nature is enlightenment.” In early Buddhism, as in the present-day Theravada tradition, the word bodhisattva referred solely to that being who, before becoming the Buddha, had vowed to become a Buddha over many lives in the distant past, and who finally attained nirvana in his life as Prince Siddhartha. To the later
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90 They have completed their voyage; they have gone beyond sorrow. The fetters of life have fallen from them, and they live in full freedom.
93 Like the flight of birds in the sky, their path is hard to follow. With their senses under control, temperate in eating, they know the meaning of freedom.
96 Wisdom has stilled their minds, and their thoughts, words, and deeds are filled with peace.
99 With their senses at peace and minds full of joy, they make the forests holy.
103 One who conquers himself is greater than another who conquers a thousand times a thousand men on the battlefield. 104–105 Be victorious over yourself
Like any physical law, the law of karma operates everywhere and at every moment. It is totally impersonal, requiring no agency other than ourselves. The Buddha taught that for an action to produce karma, it has to be accompanied by a conscious will, which presupposes the capacity of free choice. If a small child hits another child, there is probably no karmic residue, because he is still innocent and does not fully acquiesce in the action as an adult would have to; he may be playing happily with the same child minutes later. But when an adult says angry words to someone, the will is an
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The reason the Buddha cautions us against repeating wrong actions – and recommends repeating good actions (117–118) – is that such habits cut a track in consciousness upon which future actions in similar circumstances are likely to run. If we continue to commit a mistake – say, an outburst of anger – each repetition makes it easier to make the same mistake again, so that gradually anger becomes part of our character.
That is very close to what the Buddha means by a samskara: a habit of thinking which karmically locks us into patterns of behavior over which we have less and less control with every succeeding repetition. In a samskara like anger, karma acts on the individual not just in his external environment, but also from within. An anger-prone person may get anger returned to him from other individuals, but he may also suffer karmic harm within: increased anxiety, risk of heart disease or other behavior-aggravated ailments, the turmoil of an unruly mind.
The Buddha’s emphasis is always on choice, and his prognosis is always hopeful. He shows us the power of evil habits, then reminds us that good habits are just as strong (121–122). If we do not try to shape our lives, the conditioning of our samskaras will shape them for us, little by little; but if we do try – again, little by little, in the numberless decisions of everyday life – then any one of us can become good, as a bucket is filled drop by drop. –S.R.
Little by little a person becomes good, as a pot is filled by drops of water.
127 Not in the sky, not in the ocean, not in mountain canyons is there a place anywhere in the world where a person can hide from his evil deeds. 128 Not in the sky, not in the ocean, not in mountain canyons is there a place where one can hide from death.
137If one harms the innocent, suffering will come in these ten ways.
141 Going about with matted hair, without food or bath, sleeping on the ground smeared with dust or sitting motionless – no amount of penance can help a person whose mind is not purified. 142 But those whose mind is serene and chaste, whose senses are controlled and whose life is nonviolent – these are true brahmins, true monks, even if they wear fine clothes.
158Learn what is right; then teach others, as the wise do.
160 Your own self is your master; who else could be? With yourself well controlled, you gain a master very hard to find.
The great ideal of Mahayana Buddhism is to remain in this world, so tempting and full of snares, but at the same time attain this awareness of the Absolute which underlies it, thus remaining free while helping others to free themselves. Nagarjuna captures the essence of this state when he proclaims, There is no difference at all between samsara and nirvana; There is no difference at all between samsara and nirvana. –S.R.
167 Don’t follow wrong laws; don’t be thoughtless; don’t believe false doctrines.
168–169 Wake up! Don’t be lazy. Follow the right path, avoid the wrong. You will be happy here as well as hereafter.
170 Look on the world as a bubble; look on it as a mirage. Then the King of Death cannot even see you.
179 He is the conqueror who can never be conquered, into whose conquest no other can ever enter.
182 It is hard to obtain human birth, harder to live like a human being, harder still to understand the dharma, but hardest of all to attain nirvana.
184 Cultivate the patience that endures, and attain nirvana, the highest goal of life. Do not oppress others or cause them pain; that is not the way of the spiritual aspirant.
190 Take refuge in the Buddha, the dharma, and the sangha and you will grasp the Four Noble Truths: 191 suffering, the cause of suffering, the end of suffering, and the Noble Eightfold Path that takes you beyond suffering. 192 That is your best refuge, your only refuge. When you reach it, all sorrow falls away.
199 Let us live in joy, never attached among those who are selfishly attached. Let us live in freedom even among those who are bound by selfish attachments.
204 Health is the best gift, contentment the best wealth, trust the best kinsman, nirvana the greatest joy.
207 Keeping company with the immature is like going on a long journey with an enemy. The company of the wise is joyful, like reunion with one’s family. 208 Therefore, live among the wise, who are understanding, patient, responsible, and noble. Keep their company as the moon moves among the stars.
The person who sees life as it is understands that the pleasant contains the unpleasant. Pleasant and unpleasant are not separate or separable; they are two sides of one experiential fact: that life is change.
What blocks spiritual growth is not pleasurable things and experiences themselves, but selfish attachment to them (211). In a Zen story, two monks approaching a river see a young woman who has no means of getting across. One of the monks carries her over and gently puts her down on the other side. On the way to the monastery, the other monk is so obsessed by what his friend has done that he can talk of nothing else. “A monk is not even supposed to touch a woman,” he keeps saying, “let alone carry her around in his arms. What have you done?” Finally his friend puts an end to it. “I left that
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The Buddha would agree with the modern neuroscientist: we never really experience the world; we experience only our own nervous system.
All the dualities of human experience – pleasure and displeasure, praise and blame, success and defeat – produce suffering if we cannot face them with equanimity: that is, without the emotional response of attachment or aversion, which conditions us to crave or avoid such experiences the next time.
The “hidden meaning,” of things as they really are, lies beyond dualistic experience, waiting to be discovered by those who can travel upstream against conditioning (218).
217 Those who have character and discrimination, who are honest and good and follow the dharma with devotion, win the respect of all the world.
218 If you long to know what is hard to know and can resist the temptations of the world, you will cross the river of life.
