“Our mind shall not waver. No evil speech will we utter. Tender and compassionate will we abide, loving, void of malice. And with rays of love shall we suffuse all that is, even with love grown great and measureless.” And because of this high teaching many men and women attained to Arhatship, becoming perfected saints, seeing things as they are in themselves and not according to their illusory appearances in this world of illusion,—and they made great songs of triumph and victory, saying that when the Hindrances are removed from a man he is as one set free from debt, imprisonment, and slavery. “For when the five Hindrances are put away within him, he is a free man and secure, and gladness springs up within him, and joy, and so rejoicing all his frame becomes at ease, and in that peace his heart is stayed.” And again, this song of Right Rapture. “It is in very bliss we dwell, we who hate not those who hate us: Among men full of hate we dwell, who are void of hate. It is in very bliss we dwell, we in health among the ailing. Among men weary and sick, we continue well. It is in very bliss we dwell, we, free from care among the careworn. Among men tortured with unrest, we are calm. It is in very bliss we dwell, we who have no hindrances. We have become feeders on joy, like to the shining Gods.” “The shining Gods.” What then are these Gods and Shining Ones? Thus have I heard. Surely the Gods are they who having acquired mighty merit by great good deeds reign and shine for ages until the power of their good deeds is exhausted. For they knew not the Nirvana and the disintegration of the false self, and so desired Paradise as their reward, and Paradise they have. But though it last for ages, when the power of their good deeds is exhausted then they too must enter again by the gate of birth and humbly learn to extinguish all desire, even though it be the desire of Heaven, and to know that the greedy _I_ which desired these things is non-existent, until they too, treading the Noble Eightfold Path, enter upon the highest wisdom and attain to the Nirvana, the Peace, for this alone is that comprehension which beholds the heavens and hells as pictures, as illusions, as nothing,—and whoso possesses it sits above manhood and Godhead alike, having utterly attained. Thus it must be when ignorance is dead and wisdom made perfect, for the vain shows of ignorance are dispersed in clear perception of the things that are true and eternal. When the wise man by earnestness has driven vanity far away, he has climbed the terraced heights of wisdom, and, care-free, looks down upon the illusory world, the careworn crowd, as he who standing upon a mountain top watches serenely the toilers in the plain. And a man must have what he desires, be it the Paradises that pass, or the Peace that is eternal. CHAPTER XV THUS have I heard.