Chapter 16

Someone who indulges in distractions instead of practicing meditation, who loses sight of life’s true goal and chases after pleasure, will eventually come to envy the one who applied themselves to meditation.

Don’t seek out what is pleasant, and don’t seek out what is unpleasant either. Not seeing what you find pleasant is painful, and seeing what you find unpleasant is also painful.

So don’t become attached to anything; losing what you love is a misfortune. Those who love nothing and hate nothing wear no chains.

Pleasure gives rise to grief, and pleasure gives rise to fear; whoever is free from pleasure knows neither grief nor fear.

Affection gives rise to grief, and affection gives rise to fear; whoever is free from affection knows neither grief nor fear.

Lust gives rise to grief, and lust gives rise to fear; whoever is free from lust knows neither grief nor fear.

Love gives rise to grief, and love gives rise to fear; whoever is free from love knows neither grief nor fear.

Greed gives rise to grief, and greed gives rise to fear; whoever is free from greed knows neither grief nor fear.

A person of virtue and insight, who is fair, who speaks the truth, and who attends to their own duties—such a person is cherished by the world.

When someone has awakened a longing for the Ineffable (Nirvana), feels contented in mind, and whose thoughts are not clouded by attachment, that person is called urdhvamsrotas—one carried upward by the stream.

Relatives, friends, and loved ones welcome a person who has been away a long time and returns safely from a distant place.

In the same way, when someone who has done good passes from this world to the next, their good deeds welcome them—just as relatives welcome a loved one coming home.