p.
67 CHAPTER XX.
THE WAY.
273.
The best of ways is the eightfold; the best of truths the four words; the best of virtues passionlessness; the best of men he who has eyes to see.
274.
This is the way, there is no other that leads to the purifying of intelligence.
Go on this way!
Everything else is the deceit of Mâra (the tempter).
275.
If you go on this way, you will make an end of pain!
The way was preached by me, when I had understood the removal of the thorns (in the flesh).
276.
You yourself must make an effort.
The Tathâgatas (Buddhas) are only preachers.
The thoughtful who enter the way are freed from the bondage of Mâra.
277.
'All created things perish,' he who knows and sees this becomes passive in pain; this is the way to purity.
[273.
The eightfold or eight-membered way is the technical term for the way by which Nirvâ n a is attained.
(See Burnouf, Lotus, p.
519.) This very way constitutes the fourth of the Four Truths, or the four words of truth, viz.
Du h kha, 'pain ;' Samudaya, 'origin;' Nirodha, 'destruction;' Mârga, 'road.' (Lotus, p.
517.) See note to verse 178 .
For another explanation of the Mârga, or 'way,' see Hardy, Eastern Monachism, p.
280.
274.
The last line may mean, 'this way is the confusion of Mâra,' i.e.
the discomfiture of Mâra.
275.
The s alyas, 'arrows or thorns,' are the s oka s alya, 'the arrows of grief.' Buddha himself is called mahâ s alya-hartâ, 'the great remover of thorns.' (Lalita-vistara, p.
550; Mahâbh.
XII, 5616.) 277.
See v.
255 .] p.
68 278.
'All created things are grief and pain,' he who knows and sees this becomes passive in pain; this is the way that leads to purity.
279.
'All forms are unreal,' he who knows and sees this becomes passive in pain; this is the way that leads to purity.
280.
He who does not rouse himself when it is time to rise, who, though young and strong, is full of sloth, whose will and thought are weak, that lazy and idle man will never find the way to knowledge.
281.
Watching his speech, well restrained in mind, let a man never commit any wrong with his body!
Let a man but keep these three roads of action clear, and he will achieve the way which is taught by the wise.
282.
Through zeal knowledge is gotten, through lack of zeal knowledge is lost; let a man who knows this double path of gain and loss thus place himself that knowledge may grow.
283.
Cut down the whole forest (of lust), not a tree only!
Danger comes out of the forest (of lust).
When you have cut down both the forest (of lust) and its undergrowth, then, Bhikshus, you will be rid of the forest and free!
[278.
See v.
203 .
279.
Dhamma is here explained, like sa n khâra, as the five khandha, i.e.
as what constitutes a living body.
281.
Cf.
Beal, Catena, p.
159.
282.
Bhûri was rightly translated 'intelligentia' by Dr.
Fausböll.
Dr.
Themes
◆Body As Obstacleanthropology
The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return.
The text explicitly mentions removing thorns in the flesh and viewing the body as a source of grief.
Eckhart's Abgeschiedenheit/Gelassenheit — radical letting-go of will, image, and grasping that opens the soul to God; distinct from inner_silence (quietness) and from material renunciation, and adjacent to Sufi tark and Buddhist non-grasping as a practice rather than a metaphysical claim.
Passionlessness is listed as the best virtue, aligning with the practice of letting go of grasping.
Disciplined inward attention — sitting, focused, or open-awareness practice — as a stand-alone term that umbrellas active_contemplation, inner_silence, and dhyana-style sitting.
The instruction to watch speech and restrain mind implies disciplined inward attention.
Eckhart's radical reading of Matthew 5:3 — the saint as one who wants nothing, knows nothing, and has nothing, having emptied even the will and the self with which to receive God; distinct from renunciation_of_wealth (material poverty).
Passionlessness and being free from the forest of lust align with the concept of spiritual emptiness.
The Buddhist doctrine that all phenomena lack independent self-nature; emptiness as the positive recognition that things arise only in dependence on conditions — distinct from kenoma's mere deficiency.
Verses 278 and 279 state that forms are unreal, reflecting the doctrine of emptiness regarding phenomena.