1. THE ADVANTAGES OF MEDITATION.

SECLUDED meditation has many virtues. All the Tathagatas [Sanskrit: "Thus gone one."; those who have attained Buddhahood] have won their all-knowledge in a state of secluded meditation, and, even after their enlightenment, they have continued to cultivate meditation in the recollection of the benefits it brought to them in the past. It is just as a man who has received some boon from a king, and who would, in recollection of the benefits he has had, remain also in the future in attendance on that king.

There are, in fact, twenty-eight advantages to be gained from secluded meditation, and they are the reason why the Tathagatas have devoted themselves to it. They are as follows:

Secluded meditation guards him who meditates, lengthens his life, gives him strength, and shuts out faults; it removes ill-fame, and leads to good repute; it drives out discontent, and makes for contentment; it removes fear, and gives confidence; it removes sloth and generates vigor; it removes greed, hate, and delusion; it slays pride, breaks up preoccupations, makes thought one-pointed, softens the mind, generates gladness, makes one venerable, gives rise to much profit, makes one worthy of homage, brings exuberant joy, shows the own-being of all conditioned things, abolishes rebirth in the world of becoming, and it bestows all the benefits of an ascetic life. These are the twenty-eight advantages of meditation which induce the Tathagatas to practice it.

And it, is because the Tathagatas wish to experience the calm and easeful delight of meditational attainments that they practice meditation with this end in view. Four are the reasons why the Tathagatas tend meditation: so that they may dwell at ease; on account of the manifoldness of its faultless virtues; because it is the road to all holy states without exception; and because it has been praised, lauded, exalted, and commended by all the Buddhas.

2. THE PRACTICE OF INTROVERSION

With his vigor grown strong, his mind should be placed in samadhi;
For if thought be distracted we lie in the fangs of the passions.

No distractions can touch the man who's alone both in his body and mind.
Therefore renounce you the world, give up all thinking discursive!

Thirsting for gain, and loving the world, the people fail to renounce it.
But the wise can discard this love, reflecting as follows:

Through stillness joined to insight true,
His passions are annihilated.

Stillness must first of all be found.
That springs from disregarding worldly satisfactions.

Shortlived yourself, how can you think that others, quite as fleeting, are worthy of your love?
Thousands of births will pass without a sight of him you cherish so.

When unable to see your beloved, discontent disturbs your samadhi;
When you have seen, your longing, unstated as ever, returns as before.

Then you forfeit the truth of the Real; Your fallen condition shocks you no longer;
Burning with grief you yearn for re-union with him whom you cherish.

Worries like these consume a brief life — over and over again to no purpose;
You stray from the Dharma for the sake of a transient friend.

To share in the life of the foolish will lead to the states of woe;
You share not, and they will hate you; what good comes from contact with fooIs?

Good friends at one time, of a sudden they dislike you,
You try to please them, quite in vain — the worldly are not easily contented!

Advice on their duties stirs angers; your own good deeds they impede;
When you ignore what they say they are angry, and head for a state of woe.

Of his betters he is envious, with his equals their is strife;
To inferiors he is haughty, mad for praise and wroth at blame;
Is there ever any goodness in these foolish common men?

Self-applause, belittling others, or encouragement to sin,
Some such evil’s sure to happen where one fool another meets.

Two evils meet when fools consort together,
Alone I’ll live, in peace and with unblemished mind!

Far should one flee from fools. When met, they should be won by kindness,
Not in the hope of intimacy, but so as to preserve an even, holy, mind.

Enough for Dharma's work I'll take from him, just as a bee takes honey from a flower.
Hidden and unknown, like the new moon, I will live my life.

The fools are no one's friends, so have the Buddhas taught us;
They cannot love unless their interest in themselves impels them.

Trees do not show disdain, and they demand no toilsome wooing;
Fain would I now consort with them as my companions.

Fain would I dwell in a deserted sanctuary, beneath a tree, or in a cave,
In noble disregard for all, and never looking back on what I left.

Fain would I dwell in spacious regions owned by no one,
And there, a homeless wanderer, follow my own mind,

A clay bowl as my only wealth, a robe that does not tempt the robbers,
Dwelling exempt from fear, and careless of my body.

Alone a man is born, and quite alone he also meets his death;
This private anguish no one shares; and friends can only bar true welfare.

Those who travel through Becoming should regard each incarnation
As no more than a passing station on their journey through Samsara.

So will I ever tend delightful and untroubled solitude.
Bestowing bliss, and stilling all distractions.

And from all other cares released, the mind set on collecting my own spirit,
To unify and discipline my spirit I will strive.

Translated by Edward Conze in Buddhist Scriptures.