Texts from the Buddhist canon : commonly known as Dhammapada

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DHAMMAPADA
" How impermanent is man ! he grows old as
tlie stalled ox, fat, and fleshy, and strong, but lie
has no saving wisdom ; without thought of life and
death, and the perpetual troubles involved in them,
thinking only of the body and its wants, and thus
adding to his sorrows without prospect of escape.
But the wise man understanding (the cause of)
sorrow, on this account lets his body go ; he destroys
all thought (about it), he cuts off desire, and thus
making an end of all lustful appetites, he also puts
an end to renewed birth."
The king having heard these words and understood
them, at once received enlightenment, and others who
heard them in great numhers, arrived at the " eyes of the
law " (religious illumination).
2. In days of old there were seven mendicants, who to-
gether resorted to the mountain wilds for the purpose of
acquiring supreme wisdom. After twelve years' fruitless
effort, they hegan to reason amongst themselves and say
" To acquire supreme wisdom is very hard ; to mortify
one's body and cramp one's limbs, and to endure cold and
pain without interval, and to beg one's food and receive
such scant supplies, all this is hard. To persevere in the
path (of duty) so as to avoid any fault (sin) is hard. Why
then do we any longer consume away our life in the moun-
tain wUds ? Surely this course is not so agreeable as to
return home and establish our families, and marry wives
and have children, and enjoy ourselves to the end of our
days." On this the seven men agreed to leave the mountains,
and so went on their way homeward.
Now Buddha, knowing their case, and perceiving there
was a possibUity of their salvation, out of pity to them,
knowing that their impatience in religious exercises would,
if allowed to go on, end in their ruin, transformed himself
.
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