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THE REFLECTIONS
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to everyone of the terms in order to indicate the avoidance of temporal objectives. The practice of these moral virtues coupled with the thought of evil caused by the opposites of these leads to stoppage of karmic inflow.
The passions such as anger do not rise, as the self embraces the moral virtues such as consummate forbearance and discards the opposites of these. Now how is the self able to practise these and refrain from the opposites of these? The self desiring his good becomes one with moral virtues, as the heated ball of iron becomes one with heat.
अनित्याशरणसंसारैकत्वान्यत्वाशुच्यानवसंवरनिर्जरालोक
बोधिदुर्लभधर्मस्वाख्यातत्त्वानुचिन्तनमनुप्रेक्षाः ॥७॥ Anityāśaranasansāraikattānyatvāśncyāsravasaitvaranirjarälokabodhidurlabhadharmastākhyātattvānicintanamcuprekşiiḥ
(7) 7. Reflection is meditating on transitoriness, helplessness, transmigration, toneliness, distinctness, impurity, influx, stoppage, dissociation, the universe, rarity of enlightenment and the truth proclaimed by religion.
The bodies as well as the objects of pleasure of the senses are transient like bubbles. In the endless cycle of worldly existence, union and separation in the womb etc. alternate in quick succession. However, the self under delusion considers the persons and objects associated with him as permanent. But there is nothing in the world which is permanent except the natural characteristics of knowledge and perception of the self. This is contemplation on the transitory nature of things. He who contemplates thus is free from intense attachment to persons and things, and hence he does not feel distress when he loses them or separates from them as in the case of the garlands used and cast off. (1)
There is no escape for the young one of a deer pounced upon by a hungry tiger fond of the flesh of animals. Similarly, there is no way of escape for the self caught in the meshes of birth, old age, death, disease and sorrow. Even the stout body is helpful in the presence of food, but not in the presence of distress. And wealth acquired by great effort does not
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