“Have you considered, O people, how all that we are is the result of what we have thought? Our life is founded on our thoughts, made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the vehicle. “‘I am abused, miserable, receive not my due in the world.’ For him who constantly harbors such thoughts, there is unending discontent. But for him who reflects: ‘I am happy in living, for the world is a spot of joy and beauty,’ discontent will cease forever. And so, also, hatred will never cease by hatred. Hatred ceases through love. This is an old rule. Again, he who lives seeking pleasures only, his senses unbridled, his nature through indulgence growing idle and weak, him will Mara (the tempter) overthrow, as the wind blows down a rotten tree. But for him who lives to labor and to love his fellows, his senses controlled, his appetites moderate, faithful and strong in his work, him Mara can no more overthrow than the wind blows down a rocky mountain-peak. “Now I declare to you that truth is an image clearly to be seen only by the pure in heart. And those that follow vain desires, imagine that truth is untruth and see untruth in truth, and never arrive at truth. But those whose aims are high, whose minds are unpolluted with vanity, are able to distinguish between the false and the true, and delight in truth. Therefore follow not after vanity nor the enjoyment of lusts; for when ye have known truth for yourselves, therein will ye find great joy. “Earnestness and meditation bring in their train serenity and happiness. By earnestness did Indra rise to the lordship of the gods. And he who delights in sincerity, who looks with fear upon hypocrisy, moves about like fire, burning all his fetters; and he that has conquered himself by reflection, is close upon Nirvana.