Then it was that I used to take with me that pike there and waving it in their faces, “Stand and deliver!” I would cry.
But at last a time came when it was not so.[38] And after that time I was glad enough to find shelter even in such a place as this. I yielded my will and was content. For at last I had indeed resolved to leave the hateful World.
Oh petty prowess of those days!
CHORUS.
For hand of priest unfit indeed
Such deeds and weapons had I thought;
Yet among gods
Hath not the Lord Amida his sharp sword?
Doth not the King of Love[39]
Shoot arrows of salvation from his bow?
Tamon with tilted lance
Outbattled demons and hath swept away
All perils from the world.
KUMASAKA.
Thoughts of love and pity
May be sins fouler
CHORUS.
Than the Five Faults of Datta;[40]
And the taking of life for faith
Be holiness greater
Than the six virtues of Bosatsu.[41]
These things have I seen and heard.
But for the rest, is it not Thought alone
That either wanders in the trackless night
Of Error or awakes to the wide day?
“Master thy thoughts, or they will master thee,”
An ancient proverb[42] says.