I am the servant of none—­so said the Blessed One—­with what
     I have gained I wander about in all the world; I have no
     need to serve—­then rain if thou wilt, O sky!

     I have cows, I have calves—­so said the herdsman
     Dhaniya—­cows in calf and heifers also; and I have a bull as
     lord over the cows—­then rain if thou wilt, O sky!

     I have no cows, I have no calves—­so said the Blessed
     One—­no cows in calf, and no heifers; and I have no bull as
     a lord over the cows—­then rain if thou wilt, O sky!

The stakes are driven in and cannot be shaken—­so said the herdsman Dhaniya—­the ropes are made of holy-grass, new and well-made; the cows will not be able to break them—­then rain if thou wilt, O sky!

     Like a bull I have rent the bonds—­so said the Blessed
     One—­like an elephant I have broken through the ropes, I
     shall not be born again—­then rain if thou wilt, O sky!

Then the rain poured down and filled both sea and land.  And hearing the sky raining, Dhaniya said:  Not small to us the gain in that we have seen the Blessed Lord; in thee we take refuge, thou endowed with (wisdom’s) eye; be thou our master, O great sage!  My wife and myself are obedient to thee.  If we lead a pure life we shall overcome birth and death, and put an end to pain.

He that has sons has delight in sons—­so said the Evil One—­he that has cows has delight in cows, for substance is the delight of man, but he that has no substance has no delight.

He that has sons has care with his sons—­so said the Blessed One—­he that has cows has likewise care with his cows, for substance is (the cause of) care, but he that has no substance has no care.

From Buddha’s sermons choice extracts were gathered at an early date, which, as well as the few longer discourses, that have been preserved in their entirety, do more to tell us what was the original Buddha, before he was enwrapped in the scholastic mysticism of a later age, than pages of general critique.

Thus in the Mah[=a]parinibb[=a]na casual allusion is made to assemblies of men and of angels (divine beings), of the great thirty-three gods, Death the Evil One and Brahm[=a] (iii. 21).  Buddha, as we have said, does not deny the existence of spiritual beings; he denies only their power to affect the perfect man and their controlling part in the universe.  In the same sermon the refuge of the disciple is declared to be truth and himself (ii. 33):  “Be ye lamps unto yourselves.  Betake yourselves to no external refuge.  Hold fast to the truth as to a lamp.”

And from the famous ‘Path of Duty’ or ’Collection of truths’:[70]