Pleasure

Books: Sacred Books Of The East

He who gives himself to vanity, and does not give himself to meditation,

forgetting the real aim of life and grasping at pleasure, will in time

envy him who has exerted himself in meditation.



Let no man ever cling to what is pleasant, or to what is unpleasant. Not

to see what is pleasant is pain, and it is pain to see what is

unpleasant.



Let, therefore, no man love anything; loss of the belo ed is evil. Those

who love nothing, and hate nothing, have no fetters.



From pleasure comes grief, from pleasure comes fear; he who is free from

pleasure knows neither grief nor fear.



From affection comes grief, from affection comes fear; he who is free

from affection knows neither grief nor fear.



From lust comes grief, from lust comes fear; he who is free from lust

knows neither grief nor fear.



From love comes grief, from love comes fear; he who is free from love

knows neither grief nor fear.



From greed comes grief, from greed comes fear; he who is free from greed

knows neither grief nor fear.



He who possesses virtue and intelligence, who is just, speaks the truth,

and does what is his own business, him the world will hold dear.



He in whom a desire for the Ineffable (Nirvana) has sprung up, who in

his mind is satisfied, and whose thoughts are not bewildered by love, he

is called urdhvamsrotas (carried upwards by the stream).



Kinsmen, friends, and lovers salute a man who has been long away, and

returns safe from afar.



In like manner his good works receive him who has done good, and has

gone from this world to the other;--as kinsmen receive a friend on his

return.









ANGER





Let a man leave anger, let him forsake pride, let him overcome all

bondage! No sufferings befall the man who is not attached to name and

form, and who calls nothing his own.



He who holds back rising anger like a rolling chariot, him I call a real

driver; other people are but holding the reins.



Let a man overcome anger by love, let him overcome evil by good; let him

overcome the greedy by liberality, the liar by truth!



Speak the truth, do not yield to anger; give, if thou art asked for

little; by these three steps thou wilt go near the gods.



The sages who injure nobody, and who always control their body, they

will go to the unchangeable place (Nirvana), where, if they have gone,

they will suffer no more.



Those who are ever watchful, who study day and night, and who strive

after Nirvana, their passions will come to an end.



This is an old saying, O Atula, this is not as if of to-day: "They blame

him who sits silent, they blame him who speaks much, they also blame him

who says little; there is no one on earth who is not blamed."



There never was, there never will be, nor is there now, a man who is

always blamed, or a man who is always praised.



But he whom those who discriminate praise continually day after day, as

without blemish, wise, rich in knowledge and virtue, who would dare to

blame him, like a coin made of gold from the Gambu river? Even the gods

praise him, he is praised even by Brahman.



Beware of bodily anger, and control thy body! Leave the sins of the

body, and with thy body practise virtue!



Beware of the anger of the tongue, and control thy tongue! Leave the

sins of the tongue, and practise virtue with thy tongue!



Beware of the anger of the mind, and control thy mind! Leave the sins of

the mind, and practise virtue with thy mind!



The wise who control their body, who control their tongue, the wise who

control their mind, are indeed well controlled.