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126
FO-SHO-HING-TSAN-KING.
III, II.
and dies, or the winged bird that covets sensual pleasure (the net), or the fish that covets the baited hook, such are the calamities that lust brings; 874
Considering what are the requirements of life, none of these possess permanency; we eat to appease the pain of hunger, to do away with thirst we drink, 875
We clothe ourselves to keep out the cold and wind, we lie down to rest to get sleep, to procure locomotion we seek a carriage, when we would halt we seek a seat, 876
We wash to cleanse ourselves from dirt, all these things are done to avoid inconvenience; we may gather therefore that these five desires have no permanent character; 877
For as a man suffering from fever seeks and asks for some cooling medicine, so covetousness seeks for something to satisfy its longings; foolish men regard these things as permanent, 878
And as the necessary requirements of life, but, in sooth, there is no permanent cessation of sorrow; for by coveting to appease these desires we really increase them, there is no character of permanency therefore about them. 879
To be filled and clothed are no lasting pleasures, time passes, and the sorrow recurs; summer is cool during the moon-tide shining ; winter comes and cold increases; 880
'And so through all the eightfold laws of the world they possess no marks of permanence, sorrow and joy cannot agree together, as a person slavegoverned loses his renown. 881
Or,' that follows after form-covetousness.'
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