Page:Sacred Books of the Buddhists Vol 1.djvu/150

 of such texts as this: 'In this way the faithful votary of our creed ( a), being well-guarded by the trench of his shame, avoids what is noxious and fosters what is wholesome.' Likewise in texts dealing with the feeling of shame and the regard of public opinion.]

Even when sick with heavy sorrow, the virtuous are disinclined to follow the road of the low-minded, being prevented from such actions by the firmness of their constancy. This will be taught as follows.

In the time when the Bodhisattva by the practice of his surpassing virtues, veracity, liberality, tranquillity of mind, wisdom &c., was exerting himself for the benefit of the creatures, he was, it is said, a king of the Sibis, behaving like the embodied Righteousness and Discipline, and being intent on promoting the welfare of his subjects like a father.

1. Being withheld from sinful actions and put in the possession of virtues by their king, (who was solicitous of their true happiness) as a father is of his son's, his people rejoiced both in this world and in the next.

2. For his administration of justice followed the path of righteousness, and made no difference between kinsmen and the rest of his subjects. It obstructed