C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Citations from Buddhistic Literature
By Indian Literature
A
There is no suffering for him who has finished his journey and abandoned grief, who has freed himself on all sides and thrown off the fetters.
Some people are born again; evil-doers go to hell; righteous people go to heaven; those who are free from all worldly desires attain Nirvāna.
He who, seeking his own happiness, punishes or kills beings that also long for happiness, will not find happiness after death.
Looking for the maker of this tabernacle I shall have to run through a course of many births, so long as I do not find; and painful is birth again and again. But now, maker of the tabernacle, thou hast been seen; thou shalt not make up this tabernacle again. All thy rafters are broken, thy ridge-pole is sundered; thy mind, approaching Nirvāna, has attained to extinction of all desires.
Better than going to heaven, better than lordship over all worlds, is the reward of entering the stream of holiness.
Not to commit any sin, to do good, and to purify one’s mind, that is the teaching of the Buddhas.
Let us live happily, not hating them that hate us. Let us live happily, though we call nothing our own. We shall be like bright gods, feeding on happiness.
From lust comes grief, from lust comes fear: he that is free from lust knows neither grief nor fear.
The best of ways is the eightfold [path]; this is the way, there is no other, that leads to the purifying of intelligence. Go on this way! Everything else is the deceit of Death. You yourself must make the effort. Buddhas are only preachers. The thoughtful who enter the way are freed from the bondage of Death.