Be lamps unto yourselves; be your own confidence. Hold truth within yourselves.

Do not let pleasure distract you from meditation, from the way. Free yourself from pleasure and pain.

For those who are ready the door to the deathless state is open. If you have ears give up the conditions that bind you and enter in.

Apply yourself to solitude. One who is given to solitude knows things as they really are.

Therefore, be islands unto yourselves. Be your own refuge. Have recourse to none else for refuge. Hold fast to the Dharma as a refuge. Resort to no other refuge. Whosoever, either now or after I am gone, shall be islands unto themselves, shall seek no eternal refuge, it is they, among my disciples who shall reach the very topmost height! But they must be keen to progress.

To be selfish, greedy and unwilling to help the needy gives rise to future starvation and clothlessness.

The right time to show your good character is when you are pestered by someone weaker than you.