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Appendix XII
Thus spoke Lord Mahāvira*
- Humility is the foundation of Dharma.
- Non-violence is eternal religion.
Pride, anger, carelessness, illness and idleness are the five obstacles in the path of acquiring knowledge.
- Company of the wise enhances one's wisdom but the company of wicked distorts one's understanding.
- By service a person acquires the meritorious karmas, which bring about for him the form (name) and status (Gotra) of Tīrthankara.
- Forgiveness, contentment, simplicity and modesty -these form the four gateways of righteousness.
- Lord Jina has said that knowledge; faith, conduct and austerity constitute the path of liberation.
- Anger spoils good relations, pride destroys modesty, deceit destroys amity (friendship) and greed destroys everything.
- Conquer anger by forgiveness, pride by humility, deceit by straightforwardness and greed by contentment.
- Desires are boundless like the sky; it is impossible to fulfil all of them.
- An indolent person can never by happy and a lethargic person can never acquire knowledge. A person with attachments
* Śramaṇopāśaka, 10 April 1998
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