This is the victory of the monk Rahula and of the wise.
PART IV
CHAPTER XIX
So continued our Lord, wandering from place to place, or resting in the season of the rains in the monasteries provided by the supporters of the Brotherhood, and, followed by his own, he taught the Breaking of the Fetters—and the fetters he broke are these:
The delusion of self—namely that the individual ego is real and self-existent. For what can exist outside the Universal Self? And egoism is the very root of death.
Doubt. For who can advance boldly, doubting the way and where he shall set the next step?
Belief in good works and ceremonies. For what good work can open a man’s eyes if his motive is mean, and what value have rites and ceremonies in themselves?
Fleshly lust. By no means did the Lord command a cruel asceticism, for this he had tried to the uttermost and having laid it aside, passed on. No, but a joyous temperance, the child of wisdom and duty, the fosterer of endeavour. And duty in all things, a strength by some to be attained now, by others with patience in later lives.