The
Mother taking
Class in playground
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All
tremble when faced with punishment; all fear
death-
Seeing others as ourselves, do not strike, do not
cause another to strike.
All
tremble when faced with punishment, life is dear
to all. Seeing others as ourselves', do not strike,
do not cause another to strike.
Whosoever
hurts creatures eager for happiness for the
sake of his own happiness, nevertheless will not
obtain it after his death.
Whosoever
does not hurt creatures eager for happiness
for the sake of his own happiness, will obtain
it after death.
Never
speak harsh words to anyone, for they will be
returned to you. Angry words cause suffering
and one who utters them will bear them
in return.
If
you remain as silent as a broken gong, you
have
already
entered Nirvana, for violence no, longer abides
in you.
As
the cowherd, with his stick, drives the herd to pasture,
so old age and death drive the life out of all
living beings.
The
fool does evil without knowing it, he is consumed
and tormented by his actions as by a fire.
One
who does harm to one who does none, one who
offends one who offends not, will soon suffer one
Of the ten states that follow:
He
will endure intense pain, he will suffer disastrous
losses and terrible injury, serious illness, madness.
Or
he will come in conflict with authority, he will be
the object of gross calumny, he will lose his near
ones or his possessions.
Or
else fire will destroy his dwelling-place, and at
the time of the dissolution of his body he
will be reborn in Hell.
Neither
going naked or with matted hair, nor remaining dirty,
nor fasting, nor sleeping on the bare ground, nor
smearing the body with ashes, nor the practice of
ascetic postures, can purity the mortal who has not
cast away all doubt.
However
richly he is dressed, if a man cultivates tranquility
of mind, if he is calm, resigned, master of himself,
pure, if he does no harm to any creature, he is a
Brahmin, he is an ascetic, he is a Bhikku.
Is
there in this world a man beyond reproach that merits
no blame, as a thoroughbred needs no blow from the
whip ?
Like
a spirited horse, be quick and eager for the goal.
By trust, virtue, energy, meditation, the quest for
truth, perfection of knowledge and conduct, by faith
destroy in you all suffering.
Those
who build waterways lead the water where they
Want; those who make arrows
straighten them; carpenters shape their wood; the
sage controls himself.
One has the impression that these things were written
for rather primitive people, The series of calamities
that will befall you if you do harm is quite amusing.
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It
would seem - provided of course that this is an exact record
of the words that the Buddha spoke - that he must have changed
the terms of his talks according to his audience and if
he
had to do with rustic people without education, he would
language with very practical and concrete comparisons so
that they might understand him. There is a considerable
difference of level in these verses. Some have become very
'famous, as, for example, the last verse here, where it
is said that the shapes his material to achieve what he
has to do, and this striking conclusion: the sage controls
himself.
Truly one has the impression that human mentality has
progressed since that age. Thought has become more complex,
psychology more profound, to the extent that these arguments
appear almost puerile. But when we mean to practice them,
then we realise that we have remained almost on the same
level, and that if thought has progressed, practice, far
from being better, seems to have become worse. And here
there is a childlike simplicity, something rather healthy,
an absence of perversion that unfortunately the human race
no longer possesses.
There was a moral healthiness in those days which has
now completely disappeared. These arguments make you smile,
but the practice of what is taught here is much more difficult
now
than
it was at that time. A kind of hypocrisy, pretension, under
and hand duplicity seems to have taken possession of
the human mind and especially its way of being, and men
have learnt to
deceive
themselves in a most pernicious way.
In those times, one could say, "Don't I do harm, you
will be punished"; hearts were simple and the mind as well,
and one said, "Yes, it is better not to do harm, because
I will be punished." But now, with an ironical smile, you
say, "Oh! I shall surely find a way to avoid punishment."
Mental capacity seems to have grown, mental power seems
to have developed, men seem to be much more capable of playing
with ideas, of having mental command over all principles,
but at the same time they have lost the simple and healthy
candour of people who lived closer to Nature and knew less
how to Play with ideas. Thus humanity as a whole seems to
have reached a very dangerous turning-point. Those who are
trying to find a solution to the general corruption preach
a return to the simplicity of yore, but of course that is
quite impossible: you cannot go back.
We must go farther on, we must advance, climb greater
heights and go beyond the and search for pleasure and personal
welfare, not through fear of punishment, even punishment
after death, but through the development of a new sense
Of beauty, a thirst for truth and light, through understanding
that it is only by widening yourself, illumining yourself,
setting yourself ablaze with the ardour for progress, that
you can find both integral peace and enduring happiness.
One must rise up and widen -rise up... and widen.
18
April 1958
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