Page:Gospel of Buddha.djvu/144

 pronounces a stanza and the disciple who attentively listens co his teacher's instruction, repeats the stanza. Thus the stanza is reborn in the mind of the disciple. "The body is a compound of perishable organs. It is subject to decay; and we should take care of? it as of a wound or a sore; we should attend to its needs without being attached to it, or loving it.

"The body is like a machine, and there is no self in it that makes it walk or act, but the thoughts of it, as the windy elements, cause the machine to work.

"The body moves about like a cart. Therefore 'tis said:

"As ships are by the wind impelled, As arrows from their bowstrings speed, So likewise when the body moves The windy element must lead.

"Machines are geared to work by ropes; So too this body is, in fact, Directed by a mental pull Whene'er it stand or sit or act.

"No independent self is here That could intrinsic forces prove To make man act without a cause, To make him stand or walk or move.

"He only who utterly abandons all thought of the ego escapes the snares of the Evil One; he is out of the reach of Māra.

"Thus says the pleasure-promising tempter: "So long as to the things Called 'mine' and 'I' and 'me' Thine anxious heart still clings, My snares thou canst not flee." 116