Latest / Sacred Texts Archive / 02 - On Earnestness - The Dhammapada
Transcript
- 0:00Chapter two on earnestness. Earnestness is the path of immortality nirvana. Thoughtlessness the
- 0:11path of death. Those who are in earnest do not die. Those who
- 0:17are thoughtless are as if dead already. Those who are advanced in earnestness,
- 0:24having understood this, clearly, delight in earnestness and rejoice in the knowledge of
- 0:31the arrias the elect. These wise people, meditative study, always possessed of
- 0:40strong powers, attain to nirvana, the highest happiness. If an earnest person
- 0:48has roused himself, if he is not forgetful, if his deeds are pure,
- 0:55if he acts with consideration, if he restrains himself and lives according to
- 1:00law, then his glory will increase by rousing himself by earnestness. By restraint
- 1:10and control, the wise man may make for himself an island which no flood
- 1:15can overwhelm. Fools follow after vanity, men of evil wisdom. The wise
- 1:26man keeps earnestness as his best jewel, follow not after vanity, nor after
- 1:34the enjoyment of love and lust. He who is earnest and meditative obtains ample
- 1:42joy. When the learned man drives away vanity by earnestness. He the wise,
- 1:51climbing the terraced heights of wisdom, looks down upon the fools, serene.
- 1:57He looks upon the toiling crowd as one that stands on a mountain,
- 2:02looks down upon them that stand upon the plain, earnest among the thoughtless,
- 2:12awake, among the sleepers. The wise man advances like a racer, leaving
- 2:17behind the hack By earnestness did magarvern Indra rise to the lordship of the gods.
- 2:29People praise earnestness, thoughtlessness is always blamed. A big shoe mendicant who
- 2:38delights in earnestness, who looks with fear on thoughtlessness, moves about like fire,
- 2:46burning all his fetters, small or large. A big shoe mendicant who
- 2:54delights in reflection, who looks with fear on thoughtlessness, cannot fall away from
- 3:01his perfect state. He is close upon Nirvana. End of chapter two,