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FO-SHO-HING-TSAN-KING.
V, 26.
from anxious thoughts about relationships (family concerns), his heart is ever peaceful and at rest. 2064
'And so because he rests and is at peace within, the gods and men revere and do him service. Therefore we ought to put away all cares about relationship (the encumbrance of close or distant relationships). 2065
For like a solitary desert tree in which the birds and monkeys gather, so is it when we are cumbered much with family associations; through the long night we gather many sorrows. 2066
'Many dependents (relationships) are like the many bands (that bind us), or like the old elephant that struggles in the mud. By diligent perseverance a man may get much profit; 2067
*Therefore night and day men ought with ceaseless effort to exert themselves; the tiny streams that trickle down the mountain slopes (valleys) by always flowing eat away the rock. 2068
'If we use not earnest diligence in drilling wood in wood for fire, we shall not obtain the spark, so ought we to be diligent and persevere, as the skilful master drills the wood for fire. 2069
A “virtuous friend?" though he be gentle is not to be compared with right reflection (thought) right thought kept well in the mind, no evil thing can ever enter there. 2070
Wherefore those who practise (a religious life) should always think about “the body" (their true condition-themselves); if thought upon oneself be
This virtuous friend' is here, probably, to be taken in its literal sense. The right reflection' is samyak smriti. And so the others that follow are the eight portions of the holy path.
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