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The Dhammapada
Chapter Six: The Sage
Like someone pointing to treasure
Is the wise person
Who sees your faults and points them out.
Associate with such a sage.
Good will come of it, not bad,
If you associate with one such as this.
Let one such as this advise you, instruct you,
And restrain you from rude behavior.
Such a person is pleasing to good people,
But displeasing to the bad.
Do not associate with evil friends;
Do not associate with the lowest of people.
Associate with virtuous friends;
Associate with the best of people.
One who drinks in the Dharma
Sleeps happily with a clear mind.
The sage always delights in the Dharma
Taught by the noble ones.
Irrigators guide water;
Fletchers shape arrows;
Carpenters fashion wood;
Sages tame themselves.
As a solid mass of rock
Is not moved by the wind,
So a sage is not moved
By praise or blame.
As a deep lake
Is clear and undisturbed,
So a sage becomes clear
Upon hearing the Dharma.
Virtuous people always let go.
They don't prattle about pleasures and desires.
Touched by happiness and then by suffering,
The sage shows no sign of being elated or depressed.
A person who would not wish for success by unethical means,
Not for the sake of oneself,
Not for the sake of others,
Not with hopes for children, wealth, or kingdom,
Is a person of virtue, insight, and truth.
Few are the people
Who reach the other shore.
Many are the people
Who run about on this shore.
But those who are in accord with the Dharma
- with the well-taught Dharma -
Will go beyond the realm of Death,
So hard to cross.
Giving up dark ways,
Sages cultivate the bright.
They go from home to homelessness,
To the solitude so hard to enjoy.
There they should seek delight,
Abandoning sensual desires,
Having nothing.
Sages should cleanse themselves
Of what defiles the mind.
Those who
Fully cultivate the Factors of Awakening,
Give up grasping,
Enjoy non-clinging,
And have destroyed the toxins,
Are luminous,
And completely liberated in this life.
...excerpt from The Dhammapada
Continue to Chapter Seven...
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