Death carries off a man busy picking flowers with an besotted mind, like a great flood does a sleeping village.

Though one should live a hundred years without wisdom and control, yet better, indeed, is a single day's life of one who is wise and meditative.

But when one masters this wretched desire, which is so hard to overcome, then one's sorrows just drop off, like a drop of water off a lotus.

Do not believe what you have heard Do not believe in tradition because it is handed down many generations Do not believe in anything that has been spoken of many times Do not believe because the written statements come from some old sage Do not believe in conjecture Do not believe in authority, or teachers, or elders But after careful observation and analysis, when it agrees with reason and it will benefit one and all, then accept it and live by it.

If you know something hurtful and not true, don't say it. If you know something hurtful and true, don't say it. If you know something helpful but not true, don't say it. If you know something helpful and true, find the right time to say it.

When a man venerates those worthy of veneration, be they Buddhas or their disciples, who have transcended all obstacles and passed beyond sorrow and tears - venerating such as these, whose passions are extinguished and for whom there is no further source for fear, no one can calculate how great his merit is.

May all sentient beings be happy and free of suffering.