Revealed by the Buddha of Western bloodline, it answers the deepest cry of the manussa: aging, suffering, and death. This path leads beyond Saṃsāra into Nibbāna-dhātu — the deathless realm beyond all worlds.
佛法是普世的——人族（manussa）的古老解脫之道。
佛陀出自西方血脈，他的教導直指人族最深的呼聲：老、病、死。此道超越輪迴，通往 涅槃界 Nibbāna-dhātu——超越一切世界的不死境界。
“Atta-dīpā viharatha, atta-saraṇā, anañña-saraṇā; dhamma-dīpā, dhamma-saraṇā, anañña-saraṇā.”
(DN 16, Mahāparinibbāna Sutta)
The Buddha’s words — “Dwell with your Self as your island, Self as your refuge, there is no other refuges;
The Dhamma as your island, Dhamma as your refuge, there is no other refuges.” — are a call to spiritual maturity.
Self (atta): Here, “self” points not to ego or personality, but to the true inner essence — the luminous citta or soul that seeks liberation.
Island (dīpa): The island is the safe haven from the floods of saṃsāra — and one of the thirty-five epithets (characteristics) of Nibbāna described in the Pāli Canon (AN 4.41 / SN 43.44). Nibbāna is called the Island, Harbor, Shelter, Refuge.
The Buddha is saying: rely on your Self (soul) and on the Dhamma itself — not on external authorities, sects, or rituals. When the storms of the world rise, only the purified Self and the timeless Dhamma can provide a place of safety.
This teaching is universal, calling all mankind (sabba-manussa) and indeed for all beings (sabba-satta) — to make the Dhamma their own (self) refuge and cross over from Saṃsāra to Nibbāna-dhātu.
“Bhikkhus, if one thing is developed and cultivated, it leads to the realization of the fruit of knowledge and liberation. What is that one thing? It is Kayagatasati (mindfulness directed to the body). This one thing, bhikkhus, if developed and cultivated, leads to the realization of the fruit of knowledge and liberation.”
Anguttara Nikaya, Eka Nipata, Kayagatasati Vagga (AN 1.570)
Eka-dhammo, bhikkhave, bhāvito bahulī-kato vijjā-vimutti-phala-sacchikiriyāya saṃvattati. Katamo eka-dhammo? Kāyagatā sati. Ayaṃ kho, bhikkhave, eka-dhammo bhāvito bahulī-kato vijjā-vimutti-phala-sacchikiriyāya saṃvattatī ti.
“Just like the ocean has just one taste, the taste of salt; this Dhamma teaching and Vinaya training has one taste, the taste of liberation.犹如大海只有一味，即是咸味；此法与律的教法，亦只有一味，即是解脱味。”
Aṅguttara Nikāya 8.19
“Bhikkhus, I am a brāhmana, committed to charity, always open-handed, bearing my final body, a healer, a surgeon.
Itivuttaka 4.100 Brāhmaṇa dhamma yāga sutta
You are my rightful children, born of my mouth, born of my dhamma, created by my dhamma, heirs in my dhamma, not in material things.”
“Ahamasmi, bhikkhave, brāhmaṇo yācayogo sadā payatapāṇi antimadehadharo anuttaro bhisakko sallakatto. Tassa me tumhe puttā orasā mukhato jātā dhammajā dhammanimmitā dhammadāyādā, no āmisadāyādā.”
在这包括天(Deva)、死神(Māra)、梵(Brahmā)的世界(loka)；包括其后代(pajā)沙门/萨满(samāna)和梵人/婆罗门(brāhmana)、天(devā)和人族(manussa)的世界(loka)中
SN 56:11 Dhamma Cakka Pavattana Sutta 转法轮经
in this world(loka) with all Devā, Māra, and Brahma, with their descendants (pajā) of samāna and brāhmana, devā and the race of Man(Manussa).
“Sabbe saṅkhārā aniccā” — All worldly conditioned phenomena are impermanent.
(Dhammapada 277)
This realization leads to disenchantment from the worldly. Disenchantment leads to dispassion. Dispassion leads to liberation from the worldly bondage.
The Search for the Soul: For countless lifetimes, the mind (citta) has wandered through saṃsāra, unknowingly trapped in the cycle of birth and death. Searching for the house-builder—the force constructing each new body (geham)—it has suffered again and again. At last, the house-builder (gahakāraka), the mind itself, is seen and understood. With this realization, the conditioned cycle is broken—the framework of craving and attachment that sustained rebirth is dismantled. The foundation of existence is shattered. Purified and freed from all conditioning (visaṅkhāra), the mind no longer constructs another body. With craving uprooted, it enters the Unconditioned and attains ultimate liberation, never to reenter the world of birth and death.
(Dhammapada Verses 153-154)
8(153). Anekajāti saṃsāraṃ, sandhāvissaṃ anibbisaṃ;
Gahakāraṃ gavesanto: dukkhā jāti punappunaṃ.
Through many births in saṃsāra I wandered, not finding the house-builder. Painful is birth again and again. 轮回无数次，漂泊无止境；不见造屋者，轮回皆是苦。
9(154). Gahakāraka diṭṭho’si, puna gehaṃ na kāhasi;
Sabbā te phāsukā bhaggā, gahakūṭaṃ visaṅkhataṃ;
Visaṅkhāragataṃ cittaṃ, taṇhānaṃ khayam ajjhagā.
O house-builder, you are seen! You will not build this house again. All your rafters are broken, your roof-ridge is destroyed. The mind (citta), having reached the Unconditioned, has attained the destruction of craving. 造屋者，我已见你！你将无法再造屋；你所有的椽子都已折断，屋脊已摧毁；心已经离行，已止息渴爱。
He who reigns within himself, and rules passions, desires, and fears, is more than a king.
John Milton (1608-1674), English poet, polemicist, and civil servant. “A Hero”, “Making Darkness Light”.
Whoever overcomes lust overcomes the world.
Carl Jung (1875-1961), Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and psychologist.
No man is free who is not master of himself.
Epictetus (50-135 AD), Greek Stoic philosopher.
What Defines Us is not what we are, but what we do.
“The mind, unconquered by violent passions, is a citadel, for a man has no fortress more impregnable in which to find refuge and remain safe forever.“
Marcus Aurelius
“It is our attitude toward events, not events themselves, which we can control. Nothing is by its own nature calamitous – even death is terrible only if we fear it.”
Epictetus
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
Yoda
“Happiness is not on my list of priorities. I just deal with day-to-day things. If I’m happy, I’m happy – and if I’m not, I don’t know the difference… Knowing that you are the person you were put on this earth to be – that’s much more important than just being happy.”
Bob Dylan
All the arts and sciences, said he, have some goal or mark; and end or aim of their own, on which the diligent pursuer of each art has his eye, and so endures all sorts of toils and dangers and losses, cheerfully and with equanimity, e.g., the farmer, shunning neither at one time the scorching heat of the sun, nor at another the frost and cold, cleaves the earth unweariedly, and again and again subjects the clods of his field to his ploughshare, while he keeps before him his goal; viz., by diligent labour to break it up small like fine sand, and to clear it of all briers, and free it from all weeds, as he believes that in no other way can he gain his ultimate end, which is to secure a good harvest, and a large crop; on which he can either live himself free from care, or can increase his possessions. Again, when his barn is well stocked he is quite ready to empty it, and with incessant labour to commit the seed to the crumbling furrow, thinking nothing of the present lessening of his stores in view of the future harvest. Those men too who are engaged in mercantile pursuits, have no dread of the uncertainties and chances of the ocean, and fear no risks, while an eager hope urges them forward to their aim of gain. Moreover those who are inflamed with the ambition of military life, while they look forward to their aim of honours and power take no notice of danger and destruction in their wanderings, and are not crushed by present losses and wars, while they are eager to obtain the end of some honour held out to them. And our profession too has its own goal and end, for which we undergo all sorts of toils not merely without weariness but actually with delight; on account of which the want of food in fasting is no trial to us, the weariness of our vigils becomes a delight; reading and constant meditation on the Scriptures does not pall upon us; and further incessant toil, and self-denial, and the privation of all things, and the horrors also of this vast desert have no terrors for us. And doubtless for this it was that you yourselves despised the love of kinsfolk, and scorned your fatherland, and the delights of this world, and passed through so many countries, in order that you might come to us, plain and simple folk as we are, living in this wretched state in the desert. Wherefore, said he, answer and tell me what is the goal and end, which incite you to endure all these things so cheerfully.
And when he insisted on eliciting an opinion from us on this question, we replied that we endured all this for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.
To which he replied: Good, you have spoken cleverly of the (ultimate) end. But what should be our (immediate) goal or mark, by constantly sticking close to which we can gain our end, you ought first to know. And when we frankly confessed our ignorance, he proceeded: The first thing, as I said, in all the arts and sciences is to have some goal, i.e., a mark for the mind, and constant mental purpose, for unless a man keeps this before him with all diligence and persistence, he will never succeed in arriving at the ultimate aim and the gain which he desires. For, as I said, the farmer who has for his aim to live free from care and with plenty, while his crops are springing has this as his immediate object and goal; viz., to keep his field clear from all brambles, and weeds, and does not fancy that he can otherwise ensure wealth and a peaceful end, unless he first secures by some plan of work and hope that which he is anxious to obtain. The business man too does not lay aside the desire of procuring wares, by means of which he may more profitably amass riches, because he would desire gain to no purpose, unless he chose the road which leads to it: and those men who are anxious to be decorated with the honours of this world, first make up their minds to what duties and conditions they must devote themselves, that in the regular course of hope they may succeed in gaining the honours they desire. And so the end of our way of life is indeed the kingdom of God. But what is the (immediate) goal you must earnestly ask, for if it is not in the same way discovered by us, we shall strive and wear ourselves out to no purpose, because a man who is travelling in a wrong direction, has all the trouble and gets none of the good of his journey. And when we stood gaping at this remark, the old man proceeded: The end of our profession indeed, as I said, is the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven: but the immediate aim or goal, is purity of heart, without which no one can gain that end: fixing our gaze then steadily on this goal, as if on a definite mark, let us direct our course as straight towards it as possible, and if our thoughts wander somewhat from this, let us revert to our gaze upon it, and check them accurately as by a sure standard, which will always bring back all our efforts to this one mark, and will show at once if our mind has wandered ever so little from the direction marked out for it.
As those, whose business it is to use weapons of war, whenever they want to show their skill in their art before a king of this world, try to shoot their arrows or darts into certain small targets which have the prizes painted on them; for they know that they cannot in any other way than by the line of their aim secure the end and the prize they hope for, which they will only then enjoy when they have been able to hit the mark set before them; but if it happens to be withdrawn from their sight, however much in their want of skill their aim may vainly deviate from the straight path, yet they cannot perceive that they have strayed from the direction of the intended straight line because they have no distinct mark to prove the skilfulness of their aim, or to show up its badness: and therefore while they shoot their missiles idly into space, they cannot see how they have gone wrong or how utterly at fault they are, since no mark is their accuser, showing how far they have gone astray from the right direction; nor can an unsteady look help them to correct and restore the straight line enjoined on them. So then the end indeed which we have set before us is, as the Apostle says, eternal life, as he declares, having indeed your fruit unto holiness, and the end eternal life; Romans 6:22 but the immediate goal is purity of heart, which he not unfairly terms sanctification, without which the afore-mentioned end cannot be gained; as if he had said in other words, having your immediate goal in purity of heart, but the end life eternal. Of which goal the same blessed Apostle teaches us, and significantly uses the very term, i.e., σκοπός, saying as follows, Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those that are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of the Lord: Philippians 3:13-14 which is more clearly put in Greek κατὰ σκοπὸν διώκω, i.e., I press toward the mark, as if he said, With this aim, with which I forget those things that are behind, i.e., the faults of earlier life, I strive to reach as the end the heavenly prize. Whatever then can help to guide us to this object; viz., purity of heart, we must follow with all our might, but whatever hinders us from it, we must shun as a dangerous and hurtful thing. For, for this we do and endure all things, for this we make light of our kinsfolk, our country, honours, riches, the delights of this world, and all kinds of pleasures, namely in order that we may retain a lasting purity of heart. And so when this object is set before us, we shall always direct our actions and thoughts straight towards the attainment of it; for if it be not constantly fixed before our eyes, it will not only make all our toils vain and useless, and force them to be endured to no purpose and without any reward, but it will also excite all kinds of thoughts opposed to one another. For the mind, which has no fixed point to which it may return, and on which it may chiefly fasten, is sure to rove about from hour to hour and minute to minute in all sorts of wandering thoughts, and from those things which come to it from outside, to be constantly changed into that state which first offers itself to it.
from John Cassian’s Conferences
Never say of anything, “I have lost it”; but, “I have returned it.” Is your child dead? It is returned. Is your wife dead? She is returned. Is your estate taken away? Well, and is not that likewise returned? “But he who took it away is a bad man.” What difference is it to you who the giver assigns to take it back? While he gives it to you to possess, take care of it; but don’t view it as your own, just as travelers view a hotel.
Enchiridion by Epictetus
When you see anyone weeping in grief because his son has gone abroad, or is dead, or because he has suffered in his affairs, be careful that the appearance may not misdirect you. Instead, distinguish within your own mind, and be prepared to say, “It’s not the accident that distresses this person., because it doesn’t distress another person; it is the judgment which he makes about it.” As far as words go, however, don’t reduce yourself to his level, and certainly do not moan with him. Do not moan inwardly either.
The Enchiridion by Epictetus
Men are disturbed, not by things, but by the principles and notions which they form concerning things. Death, for instance, is not terrible, else it would have appeared so to Socrates. But the terror consists in our notion of death that it is terrible. When therefore we are hindered, or disturbed, or grieved, let us never attribute it to others, but to ourselves; that is, to our own principles. An uninstructed person will lay the fault of his own bad condition upon others. Someone just starting instruction will lay the fault on himself. Some who is perfectly instructed will place blame neither on others nor on himself.
The Enchiridion by Epictetus
Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions.
The Enchiridion by Epictetus
The things in our control are by nature free, unrestrained, unhindered; but those not in our control are weak, slavish, restrained, belonging to others. Remember, then, that if you suppose that things which are slavish by nature are also free, and that what belongs to others is your own, then you will be hindered. You will lament, you will be disturbed, and you will find fault both with gods and men. But if you suppose that only to be your own which is your own, and what belongs to others such as it really is, then no one will ever compel you or restrain you. Further, you will find fault with no one or accuse no one. You will do nothing against your will. No one will hurt you, you will have no enemies, and you not be harmed.
He who never forgives is destined to live bitter memories in his own hell.
Willie Colón
if you cannot explain simply to somebody any subject, then you do not understand that subject.
albert einstein
Carnel affections must die, that spiritual affections may live. And all who will be true followers of Christ must lead a celibate life.
mother ann
Death Is Nothing At All
Henry Scott-Holland(1847–1918) was Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Oxford. He was also a canon of Christ Church, Oxford.
Death is nothing at all.
It does not count.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
Nothing has happened.
Everything remains exactly as it was.
I am I, and you are you,
and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged.
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
Call me by the old familiar name.
Speak of me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was.
There is absolute and unbroken continuity.
What is this death but a negligible accident?
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am but waiting for you, for an interval,
somewhere very near,
just round the corner.
All is well.
Nothing is hurt; nothing is lost.
One brief moment and all will be as it was before.
How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!
(1) The disciples said to Jesus: “Tell us how our end will be.”
Gospel of Thomas
(2) Jesus said: “Have you already discovered the beginning that you are now asking about the end? For where the beginning is, there the end will be too.
(3) Blessed is he who will stand at the beginning. And he will know the end, and he will not taste death.”
We must not follow those who advise us to have human thoughts, since we are human, and mortal thoughts, as mortals should; on the contrary, we should try to become immortal as far as is possible and do our utmost to live in accordance with what is highest in us.
Aristotle
There is only one way out of this, namely, total separation from all the world. But withdrawal from the world does not mean physical removal from it. Rather, it is the withdrawal by the soul of any sympathy for the body. One becomes stateless and homeless. One gives up possessions, friends, ownership and property, livelihood, business connection, social life and scholarship. The heart is made ready to receive the imprint of sacred teaching, and this making ready involves the unlearning of knowledge deriving from evil habits. To write on wax, one has first to erase the letters previously written there, and to bring sacred teaching to the soul one must begin by wiping out preoccupation rooted in ordinary habits.
Saint Basil of Caesarea
We live in deeds, not years;
PHILIP JAMES BAILEY, Festus
in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.
Fortunately, some are born with spiritual immune systems that sooner or later give rejection to the illusory worldview grafted upon them from birth through social conditioning. They begin sensing that something is amiss, and start looking for answers.
Henri bergson
Inner knowledge and anomalous outer experiences show them a side of reality others are oblivious to, and so begins their journey of awakening. Each step of the journey is made by following the heart instead of following the crowd and by choosing knowledge over the veils of ignorance.
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
John 8:32
But when the soul inquires alone by itself, it departs into the realm of the pure, the everlasting, the immortal and the changeless, and being akin to these it dwells always with them whenever it is by itself and is not hindered, and it has rest from its wanderings and remains always the same and unchanging with the changeless, since it is in communion therewith. And this state of the soul is called wisdom.
[79c-79d] Plato – Phaedo
For the mind does not require filling like a bottle, but rather, like wood, it only requires kindling.
Plutarch, Moralia
What was it that you remembered?
A pre-hispanic (pre-conquest, pre-colonial) set of poems by native Aztecs, on philosophy and, I would say, attention, penetration of reality, emptiness, non-attainment, and suffering. Crudely translated.
Where, truly, lies your heart?
This is why you give it (your heart) to every thing,
Without a heading, you bring it along for the ride, destroying it.
On earth, can you even search for some thing?
Where do we go?
Only to be born we come.
There, beyond, lies our home:
The place of the unfleshed.
I suffer: to me, joy never came.
Am I here to act in vain?
This is not the region where things are done.
Certainly, no thing flourishes here
But misery.
In irish when you talk about emotion, you don’t say, ‘i am sad’. You’d say, ‘sadness is on me’- ‘tá brón orm’.
P. Ó tuama
And i love that because there’s an implication of not identifying yourself with the emotion fully. I am not sad, it’s just that sadness is on me for a while. Something else will be on me another time, and that’s a good thing to recognise.
It’s a hell of a responsibility to be yourself. It’s much easier to be somebody else or nobody at all.
Sylvia Plath
Nothing is more hidden from us than the illusion which lives with us day by day, and our greatest illusion is to believe that we are what we think ourselves to be.
Amiel
uddhared ātmanātmānaṁ nātmānam avasādayet
Bhagavadgītā Chapter 6 Verse 5
ātmaiva hyātmano bandhur ātmaiva ripur ātmanaḥ
Uplift yourself by your own efforts, do not degrade yourself
For you are your own best-friend, and you can be your own worst-enemy
attā hi attano nātho ko hi nātho paro siyā
Dhammapada verse 160
attanā va sudantena nāthaṁ labhati dullabhaṁ.
You are your own refuge, for who else can your refuge be
With yourself well disciplined, you obtain a refuge that is otherwise hard to obtain.
āpadāṃ kathitaḥ panthā indriyāṇāmasaṃyamaḥ ।
tajjayaḥ saṃpadāṃ mārgo yeneṣṭaṃ tena gamyatām ॥
The unrestrained enjoyment of the senses is said to be the route to disaster
Control over the senses is said to be the way to good fortune.
You can however choose the path you’d like to travel on.
in gain not overjoyed
chapter 43 of the book of the radiant sayings of the wise, or “Isibhasiyaim”, Jameṇa on self control
in loss not overwhelmed
that one indeed is supreme amongst men
like the gods are the self controlled
thus spoke the arahant Jameṇa.
_
Isibhasiyaim 43 jamaṇṇāṃ ajjhayaṇaṃ:
lābhammi je a sumaṇo
alābhe eva dummaṇo
se hu seṭhe maṇussāṇaṃ
devāṇaṃ va sayakkaū
jameṇa arahatā isiṇā buitaṃ.
Gautama Dhamma 