Seeker!
Do not be reckless.
Meditate constantly
or you will swallow fire
and cry out: “No more!”

If you are not wise,
how can you steady the mind?
If you cannot quieten yourself,
what will you ever learn?

How will you become free?

With a quiet mind
come into that empty house, your heart,
and feel the joy of the way
beyond the world.

Look within –
the rising and the falling.
What happiness!
How sweet to be free!

It is the beginning of life,
of mastery and patience,
of good friends along the way,
of a pure and active life.

So live in love.
Do your work.
Make an end of your sorrows.

For see how the jasmine
releases and lets fall
its withered flowers.

Let fall willfulness and hatred.

Are you quiet?
Quieten your body.
Quieten your mind.

You want nothing.
Your words are still.
You are still.

By your own efforts
waken yourself, watch yourself.
And live joyfully.

You are the master,
you are the refuge.
As a merchant breaks in a fine horse,
master yourself.
How gladly you follow
the words of the awakened.

How quietly, how surely
you approach the happy country,
the heart of stillness.

However young,
the seeker who sets out upon the way
shines bright over the world.

Like the moon,
come out from behind the clouds!
Shine.

The Scots angler died, made his way to heaven, and was stopped at the gate by Saint Peter who said, “You have told too many lies to get in here!”

“Have a heart,” replied the angler. “Remember you were a fisherman once yourself!”

Gautama the Buddha is reminding his bodhisattvas that the path that they have followed themselves, the very beginning of the path, they may have completely forgotten about by now. Who remembers the dreams in the morning when he is awake? Within seconds those dreams are forgotten.