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V, 26.
MAHẬPARINIRVANA.
297
thus to live (relying on this law, able to live) this is rightly to receive all (other things). 2025
*This is true wisdom which embraces all, this is the way (cause) to attain the end; this code of rules, therefore, ye should hold and keep, and never let it slip or be destroyed. 2026
For when pure rules of conduct are observed (not broken), then there is true religion ; without these, virtue languishes; found yourselves therefore well on these my precepts (moral rules); 2027
Grounded thus in rules of purity, the springs of feeling (animal feeling) will be well controlled, even as the well-instructed cowherd guides well his cattle (permits them neither to loiter nor hurry on). 2028
Ill-governed feelings (senses), like the horse, run wild through all the six domains of sense, bringing upon us in the present world unhappiness, and in the next, birth in an evil way. 2029
So, like the horse ill-broken, these land us in the ditch; therefore the wise and prudent man will not allow his senses licence. 2030
'For these senses (organs of sense) are, indeed, our greatest foes, causes of misery; for men enamoured thus by sensuous things cause all their miseries to recur. 2031
'Destructive as a poisonous snake, or like a savage tiger, or like a raging fire, the greatest evil in the world, he who is wise, is freed from fear of these. 2032
But what he fears is only this—a light and trivial heart, which drags a man to future misery (evil way
moksha.' The rules of the Pratimoksha (250 rules) were probably later in their origin than the rules here given.
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