Page:Gospel of Buddha.djvu/200

 "Thou art the Buddha, thou art the Master, thou art the muni that conquers Māra; after having cut off desire thou hast crossed over and earnest this generation to the other shore." LX.

AMITĀBHA.

One of the disciples came to the Blessed One with a trembling heart and his mind full of doubt. And he asked the Blessed One: "O Buddha, our Lord and Master, why do we give up the pleasures of the world, if thou forbiddest us to work miracles and to attain the supernatural? Is not Amitabha, the infinite light of revelation, the source of innumerable miracles?"

And the Blessed One, seeing the anxiety of a truth-seeking mind, said: "O sāvaka, thou art a novice among the novices, and thou art swimming on the surface of samsāra. How long will it take thee to grasp the truth? Thou hast not understood the words of the Tathāgata. The law of karma is irrefragable, and supplications have no effect, for they are empty words."

Said the disciple: "So sayest thou there are no miraculous and wonderful things?"

And the Blessed One replied: "Is it not a wonderful, thing, mysterious and miraculous to the worldling, that a man who commits wrong can become a saint, that he who attains to true enlightenment will find the path of truth and abandon the evil ways of selfisness?

"The bhikkhu who renounces the transient pleasures of the world for the eternal bliss of holiness, performs the only miracle that can truly be called a miracle.

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