33 (354).

The greatest of gifts is the gift of the law; the greatest of delights is delight in the law; the greatest of strengths is the strength of patience; the greatest happiness is the destruction of desire (trichnâ).1

Chapter on Nirvana, the Twenty-sixth.

1 Spoken in answer to four questions of a deva.-P. I follow the Commentary in translating "delight

in the law;" the text has tchos-kyi dgah. See on the use of kyi instead of la, Foucaux, Gram. Tib., p. 92.

XXVII.

SIGHT.

I (252).

It is easier to see the faults of others than those of oneself; the faults of others are easily seen, for they are sifted like chaff, but one's own faults are difficult to see. It is like the cheat who shows the dice (of his adversary) and hides his own, calling attention to the shortcomings of the other (player), and continually thinking of accusing him; he is far from seeing what is right (dharma), and greatly increases his unhappy lot.1

2 (244).

Life is easy for an impudent, thieving, boasting fellow, with filthy (instincts ?) like a crow,2 who leads a life of sinfulness and impudicity.

3 (245).

Life is hard for the man who is always seeking what is pure, who is disinterested, temperate, chaste, and modest.

4 (174).

This world is in darkness; few there are who have

spiritual insight, and who, like birds escaped from a net, go to enjoy the heavens.

5.

The fool who is held in bondage by his body is wrapped in darkness; they who covet worldly goods consider all other things in this same (sinful) way.2

6.

Some think sentient beings are their own creators, some think that another (Isvara, &c.) made them; they who take as the truth what is not the truth can see nothing at all; not seeing that they are not even unanimous on this point, they cannot perceive misery.

7.

It enters not the mind of those beings who seek the pleasures of the senses that the misery they have until then seen (brought on themselves) is their own work; they do not understand that other like deeds will bring (misery also with them).

8.

Those beings who are selfish, fond of selfishness, held in the bonds of selfishness, who are given to controversial opinions, will not escape from the orb of transmigration.

1 Lhag-mthong-ldan (in Pâli vipassana), "produced by the successful exercise of ecstatic meditation, and is an attribute of arhatship." Childers, s. v.; Spence Hardy, Manual of Buddhism, p. 232, et passim.

2 He considers as despicable the qualities necessary for the attainment of happiness; (cupidity) is the foundation of all wickedness. He is like a wild beast, a piçâtcha, a famished beast, a wolf after other men's possessions.-P.

3 De ni hgas-kyang mi-mthong

dsing. I translate hgas by "not unanimous," in accordance with the Commentary, which says hgas-kyang, that is, "that is thus considered by only one." This phrase, however, is very obscure. It seems to imply that they who have such a very slight idea of the real nature of the world cannot, of course, perceive the misery of life and the cause of misery.

4 Who are fond of the sixty-two opinions (lta).-P. That is to say, the sixty-two heterodox opinions discussed in the Brahmajâla Sûtra.

9.

Know that the (births) that one has been subject to, and those that he will be subject to, all of these are wrapped in sinfulness (râga); they are subject to decay.1

IO.

There are those who practise morality, the precepts, good behaviour, who lead a life of holiness (brahmachariya), and there is an extreme which is to devote oneself to asceticism.2

II.

And there is another extreme in which they say: "Desires are pure; though one has desires he is virtuous; desires are to be indulged in; desires have nothing sinful in them." These men are swallowed up by their desires.3 (The followers of) both these extreme (theories), frequenting mostly burial-places, are called "frequenters of burial-places" (sosâniko).*

12.

Neither of these extremes see (the cause of suffering), so part of them are filled with desires, and part of them are wildly running about; 5 they who can see perceive how full of desires they are, and how they run about.

3 Like a fly falling in the milk (it is enjoying).-P.

4 I do not understand the latter part of this verse; the Commentary only says that “the dur-khrod-hphelba (sosâniko?) with unenlightened mind sees not and cannot understand." On the practice of frequenting burial-places, to reflect on the impermanency of the body, which is one of the thirteen dhutanga precepts, see Burnouf, Introd. à l'Hist. Bud., p. 308, et seq.

5 66

Mngon-par rgyug-par-byed." That is to say, going after desires even to a great distance, to enjoy the region of form, &c.-P. "Filled with desires" alludes to those who devote themselves to outward acts of penance.

13.

They who can see, perceive that if these two extremes could but see, they would give up desires and cease running (after them); so they have no desires, and do not run about (after them). As they do not thus, as they think not thus (i.e., as the two extremes), as they are not held in this way, they have found the end of suffering.

14 (170).

He who looks on the world as a bubble, who considers it as a mirage, the king of death will not see him.1

15.

He who looks on the body as a bubble, who considers it as a mirage, the king of death will not see him.

16 (171).

Look always at this body as at a beautiful royal chariot; the fool delights in it, the wise man has no fondness for it.2

17.

Look always at this body as at a beautiful royal chariot; the fool is deceived by it, the wise man is not deceived by it.

18.

Look always at this body as at a beautiful royal chariot; the fool is brought low through it, like an old elephant sunk in the mud.

19.

Look always at this body as sick and subject to decay, as a wounded man, as changing and impermanent.

1 "He will become an Arhat." -P.

2 The eight following verses (1623) were spoken of Ayuchmat Râstrapâla, who, having acquired the

perfect manners of the priesthood, went to Sthulakoshtha (sic) for the sake of his parents, &c.-P. See this episode in Dulva, ii. fol. 214, et seq.