“He abused me! He beat me! In those who harbour such thoughts how can hatred die? By oneself evil is done. By oneself one suffers. The swans go on the path of sun, they go through the air by means of their miraculous power. In a man’s power is his salvation from evil. There is no fire like passion: there is no losing throw like hatred. Let a man leave anger, let him forsake pride. Let him overcome anger by love and conquer the liar by truth. For hatred ceases not at any time by hatred, but only by love. This is an old rule.”
An old rule. Yet when the Lord spoke it from his heart of bliss it became a new commandment and wisdom. So these two saluted one another in love before the face of the Perfect One, and, hand clasped in hand, they left him.
And again when a young monk was led away by the transient smile of a woman to his undoing, the Perfected One said this:
“Rise above the five senses which see things as they are not, and open the sight which see things as they are. Even the Divine Beings may well envy him whose desires like horses well broken are utterly subdued. Him whom no false desires can lead captive any more, by what temptation can he be felled—he the Awakened, the all-seeing, the desireless? And make thought pure, for all that we are is the result of what we have thought. It is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts from an evil thought pain follows him as the wheel follows the ox that draws the carriage. Earnest among the thoughtless, awake among the drowsy, the wise man presses steadily onward to joy.”
And they said, “Even so, Lord,” and seeing their faces glad about him, he added:
“As on a heap of refuse cast forth by the highway a lily may grow filling the air with sweetness, thus the disciples of the true Buddha shine forth among the people who walk in darkness.”
And on another day when they talked of the lures of desire, the Lord said this:
“As long as the evil deed does not bear fruit the fool thinks it sweet as honey, but later comes the bitterness.
“And when the evil deed is thrown upward in recklessness, like a stone it falls back on the fool and breaks his head.
“For those who will not learn, who cannot as yet understand, hard to follow is the path of the wise man, like that of birds flying home through trackless depths of air. But what is difficult may with taking thought be done. The arrow-maker trues his arrow, the carpenter shapes his log, the wise man shapes himself, for no other hand can do it. Tranquil are his thoughts, serene his meditation when he has obtained freedom by knowledge. But the beginning is this—Let no man think lightly of the beginning of evil, saying—‘It is only a little thing,’ for by the falling of water drops one by one, a pit is filled, and so is it with a little evil,—and with good it is the same. Little by little do good thoughts and deeds grow into the Peace.