Text of Confucianism Part 02

SR No.: 007676
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: James Legge
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1882
Total Pages: 2405
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 43 MB

Page 1102

CHAPTER XXXVII, 129-XXXVIII, 4.
121
measure good works with being revealed ", how is it then when there is more, or not, done by us?
2. The reply is this, that every thought, word, and deed whose result is joy, happiness, and commendable recompense—when a happy result is obtainable, and the exuberance (afzûno) of thought, word, and deed is important—is well-thought, wellsaid, and well-done? 3. And for him the result of whose wish for good works is conclusively joy and exaltation of soul — which are his attainment of recompense from the constantly-beneficial space 3, the immortal and unlimited, which shall never perish —there is no measure of the multitude of good works. 4. For every one by whom many are performed, and who engages in still more, appropriates the result more fully, and is more worthy; but it is not obtained for the completion of that which is a definite measure, therefore he does not obtain still more, and it is not necessary he should; and it is, moreover, not obtained even for the completion of a limit of unlimitedness 4.
1 They are balanced against the sins committed (see Chaps. XIII, 2-4, XXIV, 5, 6); if the good works exceed the sins by a very small quantity the soul is supposed to go to the ordinary heaven (vahisto), but if by a quantity sufficient to balance one unatonable sin it goes to the best existence, or supreme heaven (garôdmâno, see Sls. VI, 3, 4). M14 and J have merely: 'The measure for good works being revealed.'
· The three characteristics of good works. . See Chaps. XXVI, 3, XXXI, 24, XXXVII, 22.
• The good works in excess of the quantity necessary for admitting the soul into the supreme heaven cannot affect the destination of the soul, but they add to its future enjoyment (see Chap. VIII, 4), and no limit can be assigned to the quantity that can be tbus absorbed.
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