..續本文上一頁tree, he desires nothing else. For what makes one stupid and irrational is attachments and passions."

　　4. The Buddha said, "There are ten things considered good by all beings, and ten things evil. What are they

　　 Three of them depend upon the body, four upon the mouth, and three upon the mind.

　　The three evil deeds depending upon the body are: killing, stealing and unchaste deeds. The four depending upon the mouth are: slendering, cursing, lying and flattery. The three depending upon the mind are: jealousy, hatred and ignorance. All these things are not in keeping with the Holy Way, and are therefore evil. When these evils are not done, they are ten good deeds."

　　5. The Buddha said, "If a man who has committed many sins, does not repent and purify his heart of evil, retribution will come upon his person as sure as the streams runs into the ocean which becomes ever deeper and wider. If a man who has committed sins, come to the knowledge of it, reforms himself, and practises goodness, the force of retribution will gradually exhaust itself as a disease gradually loses its baneful influence when the patient perspires."

　　6. The Buddha said, "When an evil-man, seeing you practise goodness, comes and maticiously insults you, you should patiently endure it and not feel angry with him, for the evil-man is insulting himself by trying to insult you."

　　7. The Buddha said, "Once a man came unto me and denounced me on account of my observing the Way and practicing great loving-kindness. But I kept silent and did not answer him. The denunciation ceased. Then I asked him. ”If you bring a present to your neighbour and he accepts it not; does the present come back to you

　　” He replied, ”It will.” I said, ”You denounce me now, but as I accept it not, you must take the wrong deed back on your own person. It is like echo succeeding sound, it is like shadow following object; you never escape the effect of your own evil deeds. Be therefore mindful, and cease from doing evil."

　　8. The Buddha said, "Evil-doers who denounce the wise resemble a person who spits against the sky; the spittle will never reach the sky; but comes down on himself. Evil-doers again resemble a man who stirs the dust against the wind, the dust is never raised without doing him injury. Thus, the wise will never be hurt but the curse is sure to destroy the evil-doers themselves."

　　9. The Buddha said, "If you endeavour to embrace the Way through much learning, the Way will not understood. If you observe the Way with simplicity of heart, great indeed is this Way."

　　10. The Buddha said, "Those who rejoice in seeing others observe the Way will obtain great blessing." A Sramana asked the Buddha, "Would this blessing be destroyed

　　" The Buddha replied, "It is like a lighted torch whose flame can be distributed to ever so many others torches which flame can be distributed to ever so many other torches which people may bring along; and therewith they will cook food and dispel darkness, while the original torch itself remains burning ever the same. It is even so with the bliss of the Way."

　　11. The Buddha said, "It is better to feed a good man than one hundred bad men. It is better to feed one who observe the Five Precepts of the Buddha than to feed one thousand good men. It is better to feed one Srotaapanna (Stream-enteree) than to feed ten thousands of those who observe the Five Precepts of Buddha. It is better to feed one Skriddagamin than to feed one million Srotaapanna. It is better to feed one Anagamin than to feed one Arhat than to feed one hundred millions of Anagamins. It is better to feed one Pratyekabuddha than to feed one billion of Arhats. It is better to feed one of the Buddha, either of the present, or of the past, or of the future, than to feed ten billions of Pratyekabud…

《四十二章經 The Sayings of the Buddha in Forty-Two Sections by Kasyapa Matanga and》全文未完，請進入下頁繼續閱讀…