Wherever you look, there is a rushing and a struggling, and an eager
pursuit of pleasure. There is a panic flight from pain and death,
and hot are the flames of burning desires. The world is Vanity Fair,
full of changes and transformations. All is Samsara, the turning Wheel
of Existence.

  Is there nothing permanent in the world? Is there in the universal
turmoil no resting-place where our troubled heart can find peace? Is
there nothing everlasting? Oh, that we could have cessation of
anxiety, that our burning desires would be extinguished! When shall
the mind become tranquil and composed?

  The Buddha, our Lord, was grieved at the ills of life. He saw the
vanity of worldly happiness and sought salvation in the one thing that
will not fade or perish, but will abide for ever and ever.
  You who long for life, learn that immortality is hidden in
transiency. You who wish for happiness without the sting of regret,
lead a life of righteousness. You who yearn for riches, receive
treasures that are eternal. Truth is wealth, and a life of truth is
happiness.

  All compounds will be dissolved again, but the verities which
determine all combinations and separations as laws of nature endure
for ever and aye. Bodies fall to dust, but the truths of the mind will
not be destroyed.

  Truth knows neither birth nor death; it has no beginning and no end.
Welcome the truth. The truth is the immortal part of mind. Establish
the truth in your mind, for the truth is the image of the eternal;
it portrays the immutable; it reveals the everlasting; the truth gives
unto mortals the boon of immortality.

  The Buddha has proclaimed the truth; let the truth of the Buddha
dwell in your hearts. Extinguish in yourselves every desire that
antagonizes the Buddha, and in the perfection of your spiritual growth
you will become like unto him. That of your heart which cannot or will
not develop into Buddha must perish, for it is mere illusion and
unreal; it is the source of your error; it is the cause of your
misery.

  You attain to immortality by filling your minds with truth.
Therefore, become like unto vessels fit to receive the Master's words.
Cleanse yourselves of evil and sanctify your lives. There is no
other way of reaching truth.

  Learn to distinguish between Self and Truth. Self is the cause of
selfishness and the source of evil; truth cleaves to no self; it is
universal and leads to justice and righteousness. Self, that which
seems to those who love their self as their being, is not the eternal,
the everlasting, the imperishable.

 

Seek not self, but seek the truth.
  If we liberate our souls from our petty selves, wish no ill to
others, and become clear as a crystal diamond reflecting the light
of truth, what a radiant picture will appear in us mirroring things as
they are, without the admixture of burning desires, without the
distortion of erroneous illusion, without the agitation of clinging
and unrest.

  Yet you love self and will not abandon self-love. So be it, but
then, verily, you should learn to distinguish between the false self
and the true self. The ego with all its egotism is the false self.
It is an unreal illusion and a perishable combination.

 

He only who
identifies his self with the truth will attain Nirvana; and he who has
entered Nirvana has attained Buddhahood; he has acquired the highest
good; he has become eternal and immortal.

  All compound things shall be dissolved again, worlds will break to
pieces and our individualities will be scattered; but the words of
Buddha will remain for ever.

 

  The extinction of self is salvation; the annihilation of self is the
condition of enlightenment; the blotting out of self is Nirvana.
  Happy is he who has ceased to live for pleasure and rests in the
truth. Verily his composure and tranquility of mind are the highest
bliss.