20 DIFFICULT THINGS

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>From the _The Sutra of 42 Sections_

(Recently posted on the Dharma-Direct list)

 

20 DIFFICULT THINGS

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The Buddha said :

 

"There are twenty difficult things which are hard for human beings:

1. It is hard to practise charity when one is poor.

2. It is hard to study the Way when occupying a position of

great authority.

3. It is hard to surrender life at the approach of inevitable death.

4. It is hard to get an opportunity of reading the sutras.

5. It is hard to be born directly into Buddhist surroundings.

6. It is hard to bear lust and desire without yielding to them.

7. It is hard to see something attractive without desiring it.

8. It is hard to bear insult without making an angry reply.

9. It is hard to have power and not pay regard to it.

10. It is hard to come in contact with things and yet remain

unaffected by them.

11. It is hard to study widely and investigate everything thoroughly.

12. It is hard to overcome selfishness and sloth.

13. It is hard to avoid making light without having studied the

Way enough.

14. It is hard to keep the mind evenly balanced.

15. It is hard to refrain from defining things as being something or

not being something.

16. It is hard to come into contact with clear perception of the Way.

17. It is hard to perceive one's own nature and through such

perception to study the Way.

18. It is hard to help others towards Enlightenment according to

their various needs.

19. It is hard to see the end of the Way without being moved.

20. It is hard to discard successfully the shackles that bind us

to the wheel of life and death as opportunities present themselves."

 

(The Sutra of 42 Sections)

 

Greg Goode (e-mail: goode)

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