Gautama Buddha Poems

You are now like a withered leaf;
the messengers of death have come near you.
You stand at the threshold of your departure.
Have you made provision for your journey?
...

The one whose conquest cannot be conquered again,
into whose conquest no one in this world enters,
by what track can you lead that one,
the awakened, the omniscient, the trackless?
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Stop the stream valiantly, drive away the desires, O Brahmana!
When you have understood the destruction of all that was made,
you will understand that which was not made.
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What we are is the result of what we have thought,
is built by our thoughts, is made up of our thoughts.
If one speaks or acts with an impure thought,
suffering follows one,
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Awareness is the path of immortality;
thoughtlessness is the path of death.
Those who are aware do not die.
The thoughtless are as if dead already.
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If you see a wise person who shows you your faults,
who shows what is to be avoided,
follow that wise person
as you would one who reveals hidden treasures;
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A person should hurry toward the good
and restrain one's thoughts from the bad.
If a person is slow in doing good,
one's mind will find pleasure in wrong.
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Whoever gives oneself to distractions
and does not give oneself to meditation,
forgetting true purpose and grasping at pleasure,
will eventually envy the one who practices meditation.
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The thirst of a thoughtless man grows like a creeper; he runs
from life to life, like a monkey seeking fruit in the forest.
Whomsoever this fierce thirst overcomes, full of poison, in this
world, his sufferings increase like the abounding Birana grass.
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Long is the night to one who is awake.
Long is ten miles to one who is tired.
Long is the cycle of birth and death
to the fool who does not know the true path.
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