All that we are is the result of what we have thought:  it is founded on our thoughts; it is made up of our thoughts.  If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought pain follows him as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage, (but) if a man speaks or acts with a pure thought happiness follows him like a shadow that never leaves him.

     Earnestness is the path that leads to escape from death,
     thoughtlessness is the path that leads to death.  Those who
     are in earnest do not die;[71]

     those who are thoughtless are as if dead already.  Long is
     the night to him who is awake; long is a mile to him who is
     tired; long is life to the foolish.

     There is no suffering for him who has finished his journey
     and abandoned grief, who has freed himself on all sides and
     thrown off the fetters.

     Some people are born again; evil-doers go to hell; righteous
     people go to heaven; those who are free from all worldly
     desires attain Nirv[=a]na.

     He who, seeking his own happiness, punishes or kills beings
     that also long for happiness, will not find happiness after
     death.

Looking for the maker of this tabernacle I shall have to run through a course of many births, so long as I do not find; and painful is birth again and again.  But now, maker of the tabernacle, thou hast been seen; thou shalt not make up this tabernacle again.  All thy rafters are broken, thy ridge-pole is sundered; thy mind, approaching Nirv[=a]na, has attained to extinction of all desires.[72]

     Better than going to heaven, better than lordship over all
     worlds, is the reward of entering the stream of holiness.

     Not to commit any sin, to do good, and to purify one’s mind,
     that is the teaching of the Buddhas.

     Let us live happily, not hating them that hate us.  Let us
     live happily, though we call nothing our own.  We shall be
     like bright gods, feeding on happiness.

     From lust comes grief, from lust comes fear; he that is free
     from lust knows neither grief nor fear.

The best of ways is the eightfold (path); this is the way, there is no other that leads to the purifying of intelligence.  Go on this way!  Everything else is the deceit of Death.  You yourself must make the effort.  Buddhas are only preachers.  The thoughtful who enter the way are freed from the bondage of Death.[73]

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES: 

     [Footnote 1:  Compare Colebrooke’s Essays, vol. ii. 460;
     and Muir, OST. iv. 296]

     [Footnote 2:  Compare Oldenberg. Buddha, p. 155.]

     [Footnote 3:  Especially Koeppen views Buddha as a democratic
     reformer and liberator.]