PART III
CHAPTER XIII
So for a time the World-Honoured dwelt in the Deer Park of Isipatana, and men came eagerly to hear him, for his teachings resembled none they had heard as yet and delivered them from the yoke of priests in teachings and beliefs which if they could not inwardly accept made them very sorely afraid of the anger of the Gods and compelled much ceremonial and expiation.
But He, who has thus Attained, the Tathagata, taught them thus:
“No priest, no God, can deliver a man. By himself is evil done, by himself he endures the shame and pain. By himself and his own will and struggle he becomes pure. There is none can save a man but himself—No, none in heaven or earth. It is he himself who must walk the Way: The Enlightened can but show it. Therefore where and how can a priest aid you?”
And this appeared to them a most wonderful doctrine, inspiring with great courage and resolution, and looking upon each other they said:
“If it be thus, and a man holds deliverance in the hollow of his hand, it can be done. To-day, brother, let us take the first step.”
And so the Exalted One taught them to break the fetter of the delusion of self—the delusive belief that the individual self is real and self-existent. For to abide contented in the prison of this apparent self not looking forward to its expansion into the Universal self is the shadow of egoism and egoism is the mother of sin.
And he broke off them the fetter of the belief that outward righteousness of conduct will deliver a man, or that safety lies in rites and ceremonies, for truly a man can never say within himself, “I have placated the Gods and may now go my way in peace.”