The Thousands
Buddhism — the Buddha’s Path of Verses · text: Translated by F. Max Müller (Sacred Books of the East, 1881) — Project Gutenberg eBook #2017 (public domain). Highlighted passages are answered beneath the text.
100Even though a speech be a thousand (of words), but made up of senseless words, one word of sense is better, which if a man hears, he becomes quiet.
101Even though a Gatha (poem) be a thousand (of words), but made up of senseless words, one word of a Gatha is better, which if a man hears, he becomes quiet.
102Though a man recite a hundred Gathas made up of senseless words, one word of the law is better, which if a man hears, he becomes quiet.
103If one man conquer in battle a thousand times thousand men, and if another conquer himself, he is the greatest of conquerors. ★ REFUTED
'If another conquer himself, he is the greatest of conquerors.' Self-conquest is Buddhism's summit — and man's most flattering delusion. Scripture is honest about the self: it cannot cast out itself; the heart is deceitful above all things, and the warfare within (Romans 7) ends not in self-mastery but in a deliverer: 'Who shall deliver me? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.' Victory over sin is received, not achieved — 'thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory.'
104–105One's own self conquered is better than all other people; not even a god, a Gandharva, not Mara with Brahman could change into defeat the victory of a man who has vanquished himself, and always lives under restraint.
106If a man for a hundred years sacrifice month after month with a thousand, and if he but for one moment pay homage to a man whose soul is grounded (in true knowledge), better is that homage than sacrifice for a hundred years.
107If a man for a hundred years worship Agni (fire) in the forest, and if he but for one moment pay homage to a man whose soul is grounded (in true knowledge), better is that homage than sacrifice for a hundred years.
108Whatever a man sacrifice in this world as an offering or as an oblation for a whole year in order to gain merit, the whole of it is not worth a quarter (a farthing); reverence shown to the righteous is better.
109He who always greets and constantly reveres the aged, four things will increase to him, viz. life, beauty, happiness, power.
110But he who lives a hundred years, vicious and unrestrained, a life of one day is better if a man is virtuous and reflecting.
111And he who lives a hundred years, ignorant and unrestrained, a life of one day is better if a man is wise and reflecting.
112And he who lives a hundred years, idle and weak, a life of one day is better if a man has attained firm strength.
113And he who lives a hundred years, not seeing beginning and end, a life of one day is better if a man sees beginning and end.
114And he who lives a hundred years, not seeing the immortal place, a life of one day is better if a man sees the immortal place.
115And he who lives a hundred years, not seeing the highest law, a life of one day is better if a man sees the highest law.