ntless kalpas none forgotten! His senses wandering
through the fields of sense, all these distinctly remembered; knowing
the wisdom learned in every state of mind, all this perfectly
understood! By spiritual discernment and pure mysterious wisdom equally
surveying all things! every vestige of imperfection removed! thus he has
accomplished all he had to do. By wisdom rejecting other spheres of
life, his wisdom now completely perfected, lo! he dies! let the world,
hard and unyielding, still, beholding it, relent!
"All living things though blunt in sense, beholding him, receive the
enlightenment of wisdom! their endless evil deeds long past, as they
behold, are cancelled and completely cleansed! In a moment gone! who
shall again exhibit qualities like his? no saviour now in all the
world--our hope cut off, our very breath is stopped and gone! Who now
shall give us life again with the cool water of his doctrine? his own
great work accomplished, his great compassion now has ceased to work for
long: has long ceased or stopped! The world ensnared in the toils of
folly, who shall destroy the net? who shall, by his teaching, cause the
stream of birth and death to turn again? Who shall declare the way of
rest to instruct the heart of all that lives, deceived by ignorance? Who
will point out the quiet place, or who make known the one true doctrine?
"All flesh suffering great sorrow, who shall deliver, like a loving
father? Like the horse changing his master loses all gracefulness, as he
forgets his many words of guidance! as a king without a kingdom, such is
the world without a Buddha! as a disciple with no power of dialectic
left, or like a physician without wisdom, as men whose king has lost the
marks of royalty, so, Buddha dead, the world has lost its glory! the
gentle horses left without a charioteer, the boat without a pilot left!
The three divisions of an army left without a general! the merchantman
without a guide! the suffering and diseased without a physician! a holy
king without his seven insignia. The stars without the moon! the loving
years without the power of life! such is the world now that Buddha, the
great teacher, dies!"
Thus spake the Arhat, all done that should be done, all imperfections
quite removed, knowing the meed of gratitude, he was grateful therefore.
Thus thinking of his master's love he spake! setting forth the world's
great sorrow; whilst those, not yet freed from the power of passion,
wept with
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