full Enlightenment and final Nirvana, which is the Purity and Harmony of Perfection.

3. THE MORAL CODE IS: Kill not, Steal not, Commit not Adultery, Lie not, Drink no Intoxicants, Eat not Excessively, Use not personal Ornaments, Sit not on Lofty Seats, Indulge not in Sensuous Music or Dancing, Seek not and Accept not Accumulations of Wealth.

4. THE LAW OF LOVE IS: Never seek nor consent to receive personal or individual Salvation, never seek nor consent to enter into Bliss alone, in this world and in all worlds labor for the elevation and happiness of every living creature.

5. THE BEATITUDES ARE: Blessed they who have done good deeds in former lives and now reap the Karma of souls filled with right desires. Blessed they of pure hearts who serve the wise and give honor to whom honor belongs. Blessed they who, with well trained minds, attain much knowledge and much science with wise and well-guarded speech. Blessed they who succor father and mother, cherish wife and child and follow a peaceful calling. Blessed they who help their relatives, give to the needy, do blameless deeds and live religiously. Blessed they who possess reverence, and humility, and contentment, and gratitude, and the knowledge and practice of religious truth. Blessed they who cease from sin, are chaste and temperate, long suffering and kind, diligent in good deeds, unshaken by

changes in life, inaccessible to sorrow, and who discern the great truths essential to Nirvana. They who do these things walk in safety and are invincible; Yea, blessed are they.

6. O Infinite Light and Life! We and all men commit grievous errors of thought and of deed by reason of our ignorance of Holy Teachings and our disregard of the consequences that follow conduct. We disobey Supreme Wisdom even when enlightened as to its dictates and so prevent ourselves from attaining true Enlightenment and Liberation. Now we humble ourselves and repent of our errors. For the sake of all sentient creatures as well as for our own eternal good we confess and repent in order that these grievous obstacles may be removed from our Path of Advancement. Lead us from darkness to light, from error to truth, from death to the deathless. Before Thee may we be sinless, O Thou who art pure and merciful, the Infinite One, the Eternal Spirit, the Universal Self.

SELECTION XV.

WISE people walk on, whatever befall and neither murmur nor long for pleasure. Whether touched by success or by failure they never exult nor complain; leaving pleasures behind and calling nothing their own they reach serenity and peace. There is no suffering for those who have thrown off all fetters and abandoned grief. They depart with their

thoughts well collected and do not cling to their earthly abode. Like swans who leave one lake for another, they depart willingly and calmly. Where the world finds no delight there the wise, abandoning pleasure, delight to dwell; in hamlet or forest, on sea or land, wherever they dwell, that place is delightful; their thoughts are quiet, quiet are their words and deeds, they are the greatest of men.

2. One word of sense is better than ten thousand that are senseless. Selfconquest is better than the conquest of ten thousand men. One moment of devotion to Truth is better than ten thousand years of sacrifice. A life of virtue for one day is better than a vicious life of a hundred years. One day of knowledge is better than a hundred years of ignorance. To live one day with faith in the Immortal is better than a hundred years of despair. If one commits a sin, let him not delight in it, and let him not do it again; if he does what is good, let him delight in it and let him do it again; let him hasten toward the good and flee from the evil, for happiness is the outcome of good.

3. As one who carries treasures avoids a thief, so the wise avoid all evil; as one who loves his life avoids poison and disease, so the wise avoid all evil; not in the sky, nor sea, nor desert can a spot be found secret enough for an evil deed. Self is the lord of self; all evil is done by one's self, self-begotten, self-bred. Purity

and Impurity belong to oneself; by one's self one is purified, by one's self one suffers. Heaven is one's self; Hell is one's self; other Heavens as Hells exist nowhere. Follow not evil customs; obey not unjust laws; assent not to untrue teachings. Rouse thyself to virtue; do not be idle; be not conformed to the world, neither cling to it. Better than lordship over all worlds, better than going to heaven is the first step in holiness.

4. Lusts are never satisfied; the wise know that lusts have a short taste and end in pain. There is no fire like passion; from passion comes all grief, and fear and misery and pain. Those who have overcome all lust and passion have crossed the flood of sorrow and found deliverance. Live free from ailments among the ailing, free from greed among the greedy; let us live free from folly among the foolish, free from sorrow among the sorrowing; let us follow good and wise men as the moon ever follows in the path of the stars. He whose heart is fixed, whose evil inclinations are destroyed, whose life is pure, whose senses well controlled-he alone is free.

5. The sinner ofttimes thinks that evil is good, so long as it hath not ripened, but when it has ripened, then he understands that it was evil. The good ofttimes think goodness is evil, so long as it hath not ripened; but when it has ripened, then he understands that it was good. In the

sight of the All Holy One there is no such thing as a trifling evil; there is no such thing as a trifling good, if only there be a loving heart. As the wind uproots a weak tree, so temptations uproot the evil doer; he who lives for pleasures chiefly, with senses uncontrolled, shall be uprooted.

6. Beautiful garments are becoming to those only whose hearts are beautiful and pure; those only who are well established in all virtues are worthy of the orange-colored dress. The virtuous delight in this world and in the next, they delight in both; the sensuous suffer in this world and in the next, they suffer in both; the former delight in the good they have done, the latter suffer from their own sins. The wise, having reached equanimity, look with pity upon the anxious throngs of men; reflecting among the thoughtless, awake among the sleepers, they attain to Harmony and Peace; they guard both their thoughts and deeds and thus attain Nirvana, the Highest Happiness.

SELECTION XVI.

A MAN fallen among filth and beholding a purifying lake seeks it not, the fault is not in the lake; so when there exists a Lake of Purification that cleanses the stains of sin, if one seeks it not, the fault is not in the Lake of Purification. A man beset with foes and there being a way of escape he flees not away, the fault is not with the road; so, when there is a Way of Bliss, if one beset with

sin seeks not that road, the fault is not in the Way of Bliss.

2. As a man gladly throws off a grievous burden from his shoulders, even so let us throw off the perishable body whenever the time shall come and depart, regretting nothing. As the owner forsakes the rotten bark that is shattered and leaking, so let us forsake the decaying body without regret or longing. As men and women throw forth the digested materials from their bodies gladly, so let them gladly throw forth their entire bodies when the end of life shall come. As one confined in a prison feels no pleasure therein, but longs for release, even so let us look upon all carnal bodies as prisonhouses and long for release.

3. As the earth endures all that is thrown upon it, whether things pure or impure, so let us endure without pride or anger the praises and reproaches of men. As the planets balanced in all their movements depart not from their course, even so let us steadfast and persistent depart not from the course of Truth. As water refreshes good men and bad men alike, and carries off all impurity, even so let us look with friendship alike on the evil and on the good. All these perfections are neither in the heaven above nor in the earth below, nor are they to be found in the east or in the other quarters, but reside only in the heart.

4. Inward victories once gained are never lost; naught can distort this self-control. No craving wants

can lead astray; no sin, no guile allure us to fall. Follow after a holy life, follow not after sin. Rise up, and loiter not! follow after a holy life! Who follows virtue rests in bliss; follow after a holy life! He who needs not others to attend him, nor others to defend him-He is the true king! Oh, Happiness! Happiness!! They live untroubled whose hearts are pure, hating all sin, kindly in word and deed-these are the beings in the world whose nature is divine.

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5. The fragrant odour of good people surrounds them as an atmosphere, and pervades every place; but mean is the scent of bad people and repels the virtuous from them everywhere. As flowers without fragrance, so are they who praise virtue but do not practice it. To those who are absorbed in sensuous enjoyments Death comes as an overwhelming flood; Those who walk in the Path of Virtue, shall never Death; for they overcome this world, which is the World of Death and attain the Life Eternal. One road One road leads to pleasure, another to wealth, another to fame and another to Eternal Peace. Who follows this latter road lives happily with a mind pure and serene. The wise fashion themselves to Eternal Peace as carpenters fashion a house or sculptors a statue.

SELECTION XVII.

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BETTER than to be Lord of the Land is to live in virtue, guiltless

and guileless. Though the whole earth should accrue as gain, never speak a word with falsehood mixed. Men of wisdom permit not the disease of lust; but repress and extinguish its consuming fires.

2. More to be feared than poison, fire or sword is lust, which burns the mind and consumes the soul. As every calf seeks its own mother, so every deed, evil or good, returns to the doer of that deed. All we are is the fruit of deeds of former days; what other cause can there be!

3. When prosperity attends friends are countless, but when adversity comes few will acknowledge alliance. Self-interested friends, like the plough in dry and scanty soil, only graze the surface. As wood cast in the fire will burn, so they who cherish self-interested friends will suffer bitter anguish.

4. What man can fully know the inmost self of others? otherwise are the minds and motives of all. Except the good one does, however small, there is no true result to any living soul. Integrity of soul, that gives the conscience peace, that only is beauty and wisdom true.

5. True wisdom consists in wellweighed instruction, not in recitations of high-sounding words. For a truly noble soul it is natural to do noble things; to act or think basely is impossible. Association with the good, purity of mind, and charitable opinions are characteristics of all noble souls.

6. Whether or not success attend the work, the excellent will ever follow a pure and useful life. The excellent, though poor and despised, as long as they live do what it behoves them to do. The excellent never return abuse, or contempt, or speak a false word, or grieve over any distress.

7. Only those possessors of wealth are really wealthy who relieve the sufferings of mankind. When youth and friends are gone, to depart with hope for higher joys is wisdom of the wise. Sow seed for happiness in other worlds, free your life from meanness, stand for virtue and truth!

8. Though worthy men be ruined, worthy men are still right worthy. When worthless men are ruined, worthless are they indeed. If vase of gold be broken, still is it gold; but shattered lies the earthen pot. 9. Knowledge is good, and wealth and pleasure righteously obtained; to leave these all for Holy Wisdom, this is highest Bliss of Heaven. Heaven here, or there, or then? Show me where Heaven is not!

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10. Death is the Way of Life; till we go thence let us help others and aspire. Let us acquire wealth in order to give, and learn in order to be virtuous. Let us speak every word with gracious purposes; thus shall we prepare for death.

11. Like the flash when the thunder cloud opens its mouth, so are selfish and sensuous enjoyments. They who soothe no sorrow, do no

deeds of self-forgetting virtue; Aha! they lose all. The sinner's days are gone, are gone! death close pressing on is come, is come! all, all is lost!

12. Renounce sensuous joys ere feeble old age comes; be not a slave to lust, be wise betimes. All ties of friendship severed; vanished the pleasant ones; love's bonds all loosened; the ship of life sinking! now look within and say: What treasures have I here?

13. Before your joyous days on earth have passed, perform the fitting deeds of grace. When the soul ceases to inform this skin-clad frame, bereft of soul, how vile it is! As birds build and desert their nests, so souls build and desert their well-knit human frames.

14. Those who neglect lives of virtue shall stand outside the Gate, and gain no entrance with the blest. When the Fruit of Deeds is come fools sigh heavily and are filled with remorse and grief. Put away every evil thing and embrace Virtue, of which all the saintly sages teach.

15. Aromatics, garlands, adornments, only give false splendor to decaying bodies that are not beautiful within. They who boast of outward beauty and are not beautiful within know not how vile they are. Souls of repentant ones departed say in Virtue's Path stand fast for this alone is Grace and Worth.

16. A true friend is like the artificer's rod that holds the gold. A false friend hastens to share your joys but shuns your poverty and