The Buddha

Chapter Fourteen -- The Buddha

1. By what track can you trace
   that trackless Buddha of limitless range,
   whose victory nothing can undo,
   whom none of the vanquished defilements
   can ever pursue?
   
2. By what track can you trace that
   trackless Buddha of limitless range, in
   whom exists no longer the entangling and
   embroiling craving that perpetuates becoming?
   
3. Those wise ones who are devoted to
   meditation and who delight in the calm of
   renunciation--such mindful ones, Supreme
   Buddhas, even the gods hold dear.
   
4. Hard is it to be born a human, hard is the
   life of mortals. Hard is it to gain the
   opportunity to hear the Sublime Truth, and hard
   indeed, to encounter the arising of the Buddhas.
   
5. To avoid all evil, to cultivate good,
   and to cleanse one's mind--
   this is the teaching of the Buddhas.
   
6. Enduring patience is the highest austerity.
   "Nibbana is supreme," say the Buddhas.
   One is not a true renunciate who harms another, nor a real
   renunciate who oppresses others.
   
7. Not despising, not harming, restraint according
   to the code of monastic discipline, moderation in
   food, dwelling in solitude, devotion to meditation--
   this is the teaching of the Buddhas.
   
8. There is no satisfying sensual desires
   even with a rain of gold coins, for sense pleasures
   give little satisfaction and entail much pain. Having
   understood this, the wise person finds no delight even
   in heavenly pleasures. The disciple of the Supreme
   Buddha delights in the destruction of craving.
   
9. People, driven by fear, go for refuge to many
   places--to hills, woods, groves, trees and shrines.
   
10. Such, indeed, is no safe refuge; such
    is not the refuge supreme. Not by resorting to such
    a refuge is one released from all suffering.
    
11. Those who have gone for refuge to the
    Buddha, his Teaching and his Order, penetrate
    with wisdom the Four Noble Truths--suffering,
    the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering,
    and the Noble Eightfold Path leading to
    the cessation of suffering.
    
12. This indeed is the safe refuge, this is the
    refuge supreme. Having gone to such a refuge,
    one is released from all suffering.
    
13. Hard to find is the thoroughbred person
    (the Buddha). One is not born everywhere. Where
    such a wise person is born, that clan thrives happily.
    
14. Blessed is the birth of the Buddhas;
    blessed is the enunciation of the sacred Teaching;
    blessed is harmony in the Order; and blessed is
    the spiritual pursuit of the united truth-seekers.
    
15. They who revere those worthy of
    reverence, the Buddhas and their disciples, who
    have transcended all obstacles and passed beyond
    the reach of sorrow and lamentation--they who
    revere such peaceful and fearless ones, their merit
    none can compute by any measure.