(11) 'This, the firm holding back of the senses, is what is called Yoga. He must be free from thoughtlessness then, for Yoga comes and goes.'

(28) From steadfastly following after the means of Yoga, until impurity is worn away, there comes the illumination of thought up to full discernment.

(12) Besides such cautious discrimination before acting, a man should call himself strictly to account for his past actions. Every evening he should examine his heart as to what he has done to see whether he has gained or lost in his spiritual capital. This is the more necessary as the heart is like a treacherous business partner, always ready to cajole and deceive; sometimes it presents its own selfishness under the guise of obedience to God, so that a man supposes be has gained, whereas he has really lost.

(10) Ananda:

The Buddha then said to Ananda:

“You call on Vimalakirti and inquire after his health on my behalf.”

Ananda replied:

“World Honoured One, I am not qualified to call on him to inquire after his health. This is because once when the World Honoured One had a slight indisposition and needed some cow milk, I took a bowl and went to a Brahmin family where I stood at the door. Vimalakirti came and asked me:

‘Why are you out so early holding a bowl in your hand?”

I replied:

‘Venerable Upasaka, the World Honoured One is slightly indisposed and wants some cow milk; this is why I have come here.’

Vimalakirti said:

‘Stop, Ananda, stop speaking these words. The Tathagata’s body is as strong as a diamond for He has cut off all evils and has achieved all good. What kind of indisposition and trouble does He still have? Ananda, do not slander the Tathagata and do not let other people hear such coarse language. Do not let the god (devas) as well as the Bodhisattvas of other pure lands hear about it. Ananda, world ruler (cakravarti) who has accumulated only a few small merits is already free from all ailments; how much more so is the Tathagata who has earned countless merits and has achieved all moral excellences? Go away, Ananda, do not cover us all with shame. If the Brahmins heard you they would say:

“How can this man be a saviour if he cannot cure his own illness; how can he pretend to heal the sick?” Get away unnoticed and quickly and do not let others hear what you have said. Ananda, you should know that the body of the Tathagata is the Dharmakaya and does not come from (the illusion of) thought and desire. The Buddha is the World Honoured One (Bhagavat); His body is above and beyond the three realms (of desire, form and beyond form) and is outside the stream of transmigratory suffering. The Buddha body is transcendental (we wei) and is beyond destiny. How then can such a body be ill?’

World Honoured One, his word covered me with shame and I asked myself if I had not wrongly understood the Buddha’s order. At that time, a voice was heard in the air above, saying:

‘Ananda, the Upasaka is right, but since the Buddha appears in the five kasaya (or periods of turbidity on earth), He uses this (expedient) method (upaya) to liberate living beings. Ananda, go and beg for the cow milk without shame.’

World Honoured One, Vimalakirti’s wisdom and power of speech being such, I am really not qualified to call on him to inquire after his health.”

Thus each of the five hundred chief disciples related his encounter with Vimalakirti and declined to call on him to inquire after his health.

(281) Watching his speech, well restrained in mind, let a man never commit any wrong with his body! Let a man but keep these three roads of action clear, and he will achieve the way which is taught by the wise.

(6) Now, if one's wife have a paramour, and he hate him, let him put fire in an unannealed vessel, spread out a row of reed arrows in inverse order, and therein sacrifice in inverse order those reed arrows, their heads smeared with ghee, saying: — in-breath and out-breath (prdndpanaii) — you, so-and-so ' You have made a libation in my fire! I take away your sons and cattle — you, so-and-so! You have made a libation in my fire! I take away your sacrifices and meritorious deeds x— you, so-and-so ' You have made a libation in my fire! I take away your hope and expectation 1 — you, so-and-so! } Verily, he whom a Brahman who knows this curses — he departs from this world impotent and devoid of merit. There- fore one should not desire sport with the spouse of a person learned in sacred lore (srotriyd] who knows this, for indeed he who knows this becomes superior.

(32) For that time there is a profound teaching. O nobly-born, when the attraction and repulsion arise, meditate as follows: 'Alas! what a being of evil karma am I! That I have wandered in the Sangsara hitherto, hath been owing to attraction and repulsion. If I still go on feeling attraction and repulsion, then I shall wander in endless Sangsara and suffer in the Ocean of Misery for a long, long time, by sinking therein. Now I must not act through attraction and repulsion. Alas, for me! Henceforth I will never act through attraction and repulsion.'

(14) You are from all phenomena released; hence, to the King of Dharma, I bow down. You preached neither is nor is not for all things by causes are created. There is neither self nor doing nor thing done, but good or evil karma is infallible.

(2) When one sets out to carry out one's decision, care must be taken to see that everything can proceed in a comfortable, easy manner. Too much must not be demanded of the heart. One must be careful that, quite automatically, heart and power correspond to one another. Only then can a state of quietness be attained. During this quiet state the right conditions and the right place must be provided. One must not sit down (to meditate) in the midst of frivolous affairs. That is to say, one must not have any vacuities in the mind. All entanglements must be put aside and one must be supreme and independent. Nor must the thoughts be directed toward the right procedure. If too much trouble is taken there

(11) "Not so this manner of man. Aiming at Tao, he perfects his virtue. By perfecting his virtue he perfects his body, and by perfecting his body he perfects his spiritual part. And the perfection of the spiritual part is the Tao of the Sage. Coming into life he is as one of the people, knowing not whither he is bound. How complete is his purity? Success, profit, skill,—these have no place in his heart. Such a man, if he does not will it, he does not stir; if he does not wish it, he does not act. If all the world praises him, he does not heed. If all the world blames him, he does not repine.

(26) The Buddha said:

“Ananda, do not give way to backsliding. Why? Because I have said that you have heard much more about the Dharma than the sravakas but not than the Bodhisattvas. Ananda, a wise man should not make a limited estimate of the Bodhisattva stage (because) the depths of the oceans can be measured but the Bodhisattva’s serenity, wisdom, imperturbability, power of speech and all his merits cannot be measured. Ananda, let us put aside the Bodhisattva conduct. The transcendental powers which Vimalakirti has demonstrated today cannot be achieved by all sravakas and pratyeka-buddhas using their spiritual powers for hundreds and thousands of aeons.”

(221) Let a man leave anger, let him forsake pride, let him overcome all bondage! No sufferings befall the man who is not attached to name and form, and who calls nothing his own.

(42) O ye Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, let not the might of the method of your compassion be weak towards this one. Catch hold of him with [the hook of] your grace. Let not the sentient being fall under the power of evil karma.

(225) The sages who injure nobody, and who always control their body, they will go to the unchangeable place (Nirvâna), where, if they have gone, they will suffer no more.

(3) £ Yajnavalkya/ said he, 'when the voice of a dead man goes into fire, his breath into wind, his eye into the sun, his mind into the moon, his hearing into the quarters of heaven, his body into the earth, his soul (atman) into space, the hairs of his head into plants, the hairs of his body into trees, and his blood and semen are placed in water, what then becomes of this person (purusa)? ' 'Artabhaga, my dear, take my hand. We two only will know of this. This is not for us two [to speak of] in public/ The two went away and deliberated. What they said was karma (action). What they praised was karma. Verily, one becomes good by good action, bad by bad action. Thereupon Jaratkarava Artabhaga held his peace.

(4) Maitreya, further, there are two categories of Bodhisattvas who harm themselves and fail to realize the patient endurance of the uncreate in spite of their belief and understanding of the deep Dharma: they are (firstly) those who belittle newly initiated Bodhisattva and do not teach and guide them; and (secondly) those who, despite their faith in the deep Dharma, still give rise to discrimination between form and formlessness.”

(390) It advantages a Brâhmana not a little if he holds his mind back from the pleasures of life; when all wish to injure has vanished, pain will cease.

(7) By thus being set face to face, however weak the mental faculties may be, there is no doubt of one's gaining Liberation. Yet, though so often set face to face, there are classes of men who, having created much bad karma, or having failed in observance of vows, or, their lot [for higher development] being altogether lacking, prove unable to recognize: their obscurations and evil karma from covetousness and miserliness produce awe of the sounds and radiances, and they flee. [If one be of these classes], then, on the Fourth Day, the Bhagavan Amitabha and his attendant deities, together with the light-path from the Preta-loka, proceeding from miserliness and attachment, will come to receive one simultaneously.

(1) Do not even think of doing what ought not to be done.

Choose rather to be strong in soul than in body.

(26) Again, when any recitation of the Kamkani Mantra is being made on thy behalf as a funeral rite, or when any rite for the absolving of bad karma liable to bring about thy birth in lower regions is being performed for thee, the sight of their being conducted in an incorrect way, mixed up with sleep and distraction and non-observance of the vows and lack of purity [on the part of any officiant], and such things indicating levity — all of which thou wilt be able to see because thou art endowed with limited karmic power of prescience — thou mayst feel lack of faith and entire disbelief [in thy religion]. Thou wilt be able to apprehend any fear and fright, any black actions, irreligious conduct, and incorrectly recited rituals. In thy mind thou mayst think, 'Alas! Thy are, indeed, playing me false'. Thinking thus, thou wilt be extremely depressed, and, through great resentment, thou wilt acquire disbelief and loss of faith, instead of affection and humble trustfulness. This affecting the psychological moment, thou wilt be certain to be born in one of the miserable states.