Chapter 5

The night feels long to someone who can’t sleep; a mile feels long to someone who is tired; life feels long to the fool who does not know the true law.

If a traveler cannot find a companion who is better than or equal to himself, let him press on alone with determination; there is no real companionship with a fool.

“These children are mine, this wealth is mine” — such thoughts torment the fool. He does not even belong to himself; how much less do his children and his wealth?

A fool who recognizes his own foolishness is, to that extent, wise. But a fool who thinks himself wise is truly a fool.

A fool may keep company with a wise person for his entire life and still grasp the truth no more than a spoon grasps the taste of the soup.

An intelligent person, after spending only a moment with a wise one, quickly grasps the truth, just as the tongue tastes the soup.

Fools of weak understanding are their own worst enemies, for they commit evil deeds whose fruits are bitter.

A deed is not well done if a person must regret it afterward, receiving its result with tears and a weeping face.

A deed is well done when a person feels no regret, and receives its result with joy and gladness.

As long as the evil deed has not yet borne fruit, the fool imagines it sweet as honey; but when it ripens, the fool meets with grief.

Even if a fool fasts month after month, eating only what he can lift on the tip of a blade of kusa grass, he is not worth a sixteenth of those who have truly understood the law.

An evil deed, like fresh milk, does not curdle at once; it smolders like fire hidden under ashes and follows the fool wherever he goes.

And when at last the evil deed comes to light and brings the fool sorrow, it shatters his good fortune — indeed, it splits his head.

Let the fool crave a false reputation, precedence among the monks, authority within the monasteries, and the honor of laypeople!

“Let both the layperson and the renunciant believe this was done by me; let them defer to me in everything, in what should be done and what should not” — such is the mind of the fool, and his desires and pride only grow.

“One road leads to worldly gain, another leads to Nirvana.” Once the monk, the disciple of the Buddha, has understood this, he will not crave honor; he will pursue detachment from the world.