z:\ ambedkar\vol 011\vol11 05.indd MK SJ+YS 5 10 2013/YS 18 11 2013 370
370 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
the Perfect One acts, so He speaks. And because He speaks as He Acts and acts as He speaks, therefore is He Called the Perfect One.
IV
- This is the Buddhist Way of Life.
§ 12. On following the Right Way
Choose the Right Way. Depart not from it.
There are many paths ; not all lead to the Right Way.
The Right Path is for the happiness not of the few but of all.
It must be good at the beginning, good in the middle and good at the end.
To follow the right way is to lead the Buddhist Way of Life.
The best way is the eightfold way ; the best of truths the four words ; the best of virtues passionlessness; the best of men he who has eyes to see.
This is the way, there is no other that leads to the purifying of intelligence. Go on this path.
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).
You yourself must make an effort. The Tathagatas are only preachers.
‘All created things perish,’ he who knows and sees this becomes passive in pain.
‘All forms are unreal,’ he who knows and sees this becomes passive in pain.
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 never finds the way to knowledge.
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.
Through real knowledge is gotten, through lack of real knowledge is lost; let a man who knows