The Light of Asia: Or, The Great Renunciation. (Mahâbhinishkramana). Being the Life and Teaching of Gautama, Prince of India and Founder of Buddhism. (As Told in Verse by an Indian Buddhist.)Trübner & Company, 1879 - 238 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
ache Ardjuna arithmic beauteous bird bliss blood blooms Brahm breast breath bright bring brow Buddh Buddhism Channa cometh cried Crimson and blue dark dawn dead dear death Devadatta Devas doth dream drew earth evil eyes fair fear feet flesh flowers Four Noble Truths gates gifts glad gods gold golden Gunga hand hath heart heaven hills holy Kantaka Kapilavastu laid light lips live Lord Buddha Master moaned night NIRVANA noble nought o'er ofttimes pain palms passed path peace pearl pity pray Prince Queen Maya Rajagriha Rishi rose round Sakya sate sesamum shining Siddartha sighed silver sitar sleep soft song sorrow soul spake stars steed stood strife string sweet Yasodhara tears tender thee things thou thy dream toil tread Tree Trishna Truth unto Viswamitra watch waves wheel Whereof wind World-honoured worship Yakshas Yesan
Popular passages
Page 178 - MANY A HOUSE OF LIFE HATH HELD ME — SEEKING EVER HIM WHO WROUGHT THESE PRISONS OF THE SENSES, SORROW-FRAUGHT ; SORE WAS MY CEASELESS STRIFE ! BUT NOW, THOU BUILDER OF THIS TABERNACLE — THOU ! I KNOW THEE ! NEVER...
Page 94 - Making its dust my bed, its loneliest wastes My dwelling, and its meanest things my mates: Clad in no prouder garb than outcasts wear, Fed with no meats save what the charitable Give of their will, sheltered by no more pomp Than the dim cave lends or the jungle-bush. This will I do because the woful cry Of life and all flesh living cometh up Into my ears, and all my soul is full Of pity for the sickness of this world; Which I will heal, if healing may be found By uttermost renouncing and strong strife.
Page 211 - Shall any gazer see with mortal eyes, ' Or any searcher know by mortal mind , Veil after veil will lift — but there must be Veil upon veil behind.
Page 232 - Kill not — for Pity's sake — and lest ye slay The meanest thing upon its upward way. Give freely and receive, but take from none By greed, or force or fraud, what is his own. Bear not false witness, slander not, nor lie ; Truth is the speech of inward purity. Shun drugs and drinks which work the wit abuse ; Clear minds, clean bodies, need no Soma juice." Touch not thy neighbor's wife, neither commit Sins of the flesh unlawful and unfit.
Page 26 - Find him soft wives and pretty playfellows; The thoughts ye cannot stay with brazen chains A girl's hair lightly binds." And all thought good, But the King answered, "if we seek him wives, Love chooseth ofttimes with another eye; And if we bid range Beauty's garden round, To pluck what blossom pleases, he will smile And sweetly shun the joy he knows not of.
Page x - Buddhistical books yet agree in the one point of recording nothing — no single act or word — which mars the perfect purity and tenderness of this Indian teacher, who united the truest princely qualities with the intellect of a sage and the passionate devotion of a martyr.
Page 222 - Learn ! Only when all the dross of sin is quit, Only when life dies like a white flame spent Death dies along with it. Say not " I am," " I was," or " I shall be," Think not ye pass from house to house of flesh Like travellers who remember and forget, Ill-lodged or well-lodged. Fresh Issues upon the Universe that sum Which is the lattermost of lives. It makes Its habitation as the worm spins silk And dwells therein. It takes...
Page 219 - That which ye sow ye reap. See yonder fields ! The sesamum was sesamum, the corn Was corn. The Silence and the Darkness knew ! So is a man's fate born.
Page 22 - So saying, the good Lord Buddha seated him Under a jambu-tree, with ankles crossed, — As holy statues sit, — and first began To meditate this deep disease of life, What its far source and whence its remedy. So vast a pity filled him, such wide love For living things, such passion to heal pain, That by their stress his princely spirit passed To ecstasy, and, purged from mortal taint Of sense and self, the boy attained thereat Dhyana, first step of
Page 51 - We are the voices of the wandering wind, Which moan for rest and rest can never find ; Lo ! as the wind is so is mortal life, A moan, a sigh, a sob, a storm, a strife. " Wherefore and whence we are ye cannot know, Nor where life springs nor whither life doth go ; We are as ye are, ghosts from the inane, What pleasure have we of our changeful pain ? " What pleasure hast thou of thy changeless bliss ? Nay, if love lasted, there were joy in this ; But life's way is the wind's way, all these things Are...