Chapter 6
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If you meet an intelligent person who points out where real treasures lie, who shows you what to avoid, and who corrects you, follow that wise person. Those who follow such a guide will be better off, not worse.
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Let him advise, let him teach, let him forbid what is wrong. Good people will love him; bad people will hate him.
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Do not take wrongdoers as friends; do not take base people as friends. Take virtuous people as friends; take the finest of human beings as your friends.
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Whoever drinks in the dharma lives happily, with a calm mind. The sage always delights in the dharma taught by the noble ones (Aryas).
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Irrigators channel water where they want it; arrow-makers shape arrows; carpenters shape wood; wise people shape themselves.
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As a solid rock is not shaken by the wind, so wise people are not swayed by blame or praise.
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Once wise people have heard the teachings, they become serene, like a deep, smooth, still lake.
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Good people move forward whatever happens; they do not chatter on, craving pleasure. Whether touched by joy or by sorrow, wise people never seem elated or downcast.
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If a person, whether for his own sake or for others’, does not wish for a son, or wealth, or power, and does not wish for his own success through unfair means, then he is good, wise, and virtuous.
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Few among people reach the far shore (become Arhats); most others simply run up and down on this side of the bank.
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But those who, when the dharma has been well taught to them, follow it, will cross beyond the realm of death, hard as it is to overcome.
87, 88. A wise person should leave the dark state (of ordinary life) and follow the bright state (of the monk). Having gone from home into homelessness, he should, in his solitude, look for joy where there seemed to be none. Leaving all pleasures behind, and claiming nothing as his own, the wise person should cleanse himself of every trouble of the mind.
- Those whose minds are firmly established in the (seven) factors of awakening, who, without clinging to anything, rejoice in freedom from attachment, whose cravings have been overcome, and who are full of light, are liberated even in this world.
