20 quotes
Birthless and deathless and changeless remainaineth the spirit forever;
Death hath not touched it at all, dead though the house of it seems!
That what will come, and must come, shall come well.
Light of Asia (1879)
Making all futures fruits of all the pasts.
Light of Asia (1879)
Pity makes the world
Soft to the weak and noble for the strong.
The Light of Asia (1879)
Pity and need
Make all flesh kin. There is no caste in blood.
The Light of Asia (1879)
A little rain will fill
The lily's cup which hardly moists the field.
The Light of Asia (1879)
Who doth right deeds
Is twice born, and who doeth ill deeds vile.
Light of Asia (1879)
That rich celestial music thrilled the air
From hosts on hosts of shining ones, who thronged
Eastward and westward, making bright the night.
Light of Asia (1879)
We are the voices of the wandering wind,
Which moan for rest and rest can never find;
Lo! as the wind is, so is mortal life,
A moan, a sigh, a sob, a storm, a strife.
The Dewdrop slips into the shining sea!
Light of Asia (1879)
What good I see humbly I seek to do,
And live obedient to the law, in trust
That what will come, and must come, shall come well.
The Light of Asia (1879)
The Buddhas who have been and who shall be, of these am I and what they did, I do.
The Light of Asia (1879)
The school
Where round their Guru, in a grave half-moon,
The Sâkya children sang their mantras through,
And learned the greater and the lesser gods.
The Light of Asia (1879)
The sunbeams dropped
Their gold, and, passing in porch and niche,
Softened to shadows, silvery, pale, and dun,
As if the very Day paused and grew Eve.
Light of Asia (1879)
Of course they embalm’d you! Yet not so sweet
Were aloes and nard, as the youthful glow
Which Amenti stole when the small dark feet
Wearied of treading our world below.
Life, which all creatures love and strive to keep
Wonderful, dear and pleasant unto each,
Even to the meanest; yea, a boon to all
Where pity is, for pity makes the world
Soft to the weak and noble for the strong.
Like a plank of driftwood
Tossed on the watery main,
Another plank encountered,
Meets, touches, parts again;
So tossed, and drifting ever,
On life's unresting sea,
Men meet, and greet, and sever,
Parting eternally.
Somewhere there waiteth in this world of ours
For one lone soul another lonely soul,
Each choosing each through all the weary hours,
And meeting strangely at one sudden goal,
Then blend they, like green leaves with golden flowers,
Into one beautiful and perfect whole;
And life's long night is ended, and the way
Lies open onward to eternal day.
[P]ity comes
To those that pity.
The foolish oft times teach the wise:
I strain too much this string of life, belike,
Meaning to make such music as shall save.
Mine eyes are dim now that they see the truth,
My strength is waned now that my need is most;
Would that I had such help as man must have,
For I shall die, whose life was all men's hope.
Light of Asia (1879)