The Life or Legend of Gaudama, the Buddha of the Burmese (Volume II)Bigandet, Paul Ambroise
Religion
The Life or Legend of Gaudama, the Buddha of the Burmese (Volume II)
Bigandet, Paul Ambroise
Buddhism -- Burma; Burma -- Religion; Gautama Buddha
Speaking of _aneitsa_, our author says: Let us reflect on this, that
there is nothing permanent or stable in this world. We hold all things as
a sort of borrowed property, or on tenure; we are by no means proprietors
of what we possess. We acquire goods but to lose them very soon. All in
nature is subjected to pain, old age, and death; everything comes to an
end, either by virtue of its own condition, or by the agency of some
external cause. Shall we ever be able to find in this world anything
stable? No; we leave one place, but only to go and occupy another, which,
in its turn, is soon vacated. No one is able to enumerate the countless
changes that incessantly take place. What exists to-day disappears
to-morrow. In fact, all nature is pervaded from beginning to end by the
principle of mutability, which incessantly works upon it.
On the miseries of this world our philosopher speaks as follows: Pain
is the essential appendage of this world. Survey, if you can, the whole
of this universe, and everywhere you will find a heavy load of pain and
afflictions, so harassing and oppressing that we can scarcely bear them
with a tolerable amount of patience. Look at birth, examine existence
during its duration, consider senses, the organs of our life. In every
direction our eyes will meet with an accumulation of pain, sufferings,
and miseries; on every side we are beset with dangers, difficulties, and
calamities; nowhere lasting joy or permanent rest is to be found. In vain
we may go in quest of health and happiness; both are chimerical objects
nowhere to be met with. Everywhere we meet with afflictions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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