We have become feeders on joy, like to the shining Gods.”
“The shining Gods.” What then are these Gods and Shining Ones? Thus have I heard.
Surely the Gods are they who having acquired mighty merit by great good deeds reign and shine for ages until the power of their good deeds is exhausted. For they knew not the Nirvana and the disintegration of the false self, and so desired Paradise as their reward, and Paradise they have. But though it last for ages, when the power of their good deeds is exhausted then they too must enter again by the gate of birth and humbly learn to extinguish all desire, even though it be the desire of Heaven, and to know that the greedy I which desired these things is non-existent, until they too, treading the Noble Eightfold Path, enter upon the highest wisdom and attain to the Nirvana, the Peace, for this alone is that comprehension which beholds the heavens and hells as pictures, as illusions, as nothing,—and whoso possesses it sits above manhood and Godhead alike, having utterly attained.
Thus it must be when ignorance is dead and wisdom made perfect, for the vain shows of ignorance are dispersed in clear perception of the things that are true and eternal.
When the wise man by earnestness has driven vanity far away, he has climbed the terraced heights of wisdom, and, care-free, looks down upon the illusory world, the careworn crowd, as he who standing upon a mountain top watches serenely the toilers in the plain.
And a man must have what he desires, be it the Paradises that pass, or the Peace that is eternal.
CHAPTER XV
Thus have I heard.
Now persons of all castes, high and low, women as well as men, sought the teachings of the Lord—and he received all with courtesy and gladness, for he said:
“There is no caste in blood and tears.”