Texts from the Buddhist canon : commonly known as Dhammapada

WIDE AND DIFFUSIVE. 137
into the appearance of a Shaman, and transporting him-
self to the midst of a narrow defile, met them as they
came along. And then he asked them, " After so long a
trial in searching for supreme wisdom, why are ye leaving
(the mountains, and giving up the quest) ? " To which
they replied, " To gain wisdom {i.e., complete illumination,
or B6dhi) is difficult. To attend diligently (in extirpating)
the root of sorrow and sin is difficult. To go a-begging
through the tovra, and receive scant charity, is hard. And
to live here in the mountains, with no one to nourish us,
in constant discomfort to the end of one's days, this is un-
bearable ; and we are therefore going home to engage in
our worldly occupations and get wealth, and then when
we are old we will give ourselves up to seek for supreme
wisdom."
The Shaman repUed,' " Stand still awhile, and listen to
me. Man's life is inconstant ; a morning and an evening,
and it may be gone. Although the way of religion is
hard, yet it is. but the sorrow first which leads to the joy
which follows. To live in the world^ is also hard ; through
endless ages to have the cares of wife and child, without
interval of rest. To live in community, and to take the
vows of. equality in all earthly goods, looking forward to
and anticipating future happiness without interval of
sorrow, this is difficult. The present life is but a scene of
constant struggle against disease and hurts; wherever
there is bodily existence, there is pain and sorrow. He
only who has faith, and lives religiously (observing the
moral rules), his heart intent on gaining supreme wisdom,
vrith no interval of carelessness or remission of duty, to
him alone there is an end, an eternal end, of misery."
On this the Shaman resumed the glorious appearance of
Buddha, and spake these stanzas :
" To aim at supreme wisdom and to give up
sin is hard ; but to live in the world as a worldly
—
1 That is, a lecular life.