BUDDHIST WISDOM

[Pravin Kumar]

If the eye never sleeps, all dreams will naturally cease. If the mind makes no discriminations, the ten thousand things are as they are, of single essence. To understand the mystery of this One essence is to be released from all entanglements. When all things are seen equally the timeless Self-essence is reached. No comparisons or analogies are possible in this causeless, relationless state.

- Seng-tsan, "Verses on the Faith Mind"

Whoever, with a rod, harasses an innocent man, unarmed, quickly falls into any of ten things: harsh pains, devastation, a broken body, grave illness, mental derangement, trouble with the government, violent slander, relatives lost, property dissolved, houses burned down. At the break-up of the body this one with no disconcernment, reappears in hell.

Like covering over with a false surface a hole full of fire, slipping thro' which the body is burnt, so is the fire of covetous desire. The wise man meddles not with it.

They awaken, always wide awake: Gotama's disciples whose hearts delight, both day & night, in harmlessness. They awaken, always wide awake: Gotama's disciples whose hearts delight, both day & night, in developing the mind.

Don't go by gossip and rumor, nor by what's told you by others, nor by what you hear said, nor even by the authority of your traditional teachings. Don't go by reasoning, nor by inferring one thing from another, nor by argument about methods, nor from liking an opinion, nor from awe of the teacher and thinking he must be deferred to. Instead, when you know from within yourselves that certain teachings are not good, that when put into practice they lead to loss and suffering, you must then trust yourselves and reject them.

It's easy to see The errors of others, But hard to see Your own. You winnow like chaff The errors of others, But conceal your own-- Like a cheat, an unlucky throw. If you focus on the errors of others, Constantly finding fault, Your effluents flourish. You're far from their ending.