Buddha was born a prince. Seeing the suffering of the world he left his kingdom, family, and friends to wander India as a roving monk. He faced starvation, ridicule, and years of privations. He tried various sects, practices, and austerities, looking as most do, everywhere but within for answers. Finally, in desperation, he sat beneath a bohdi tree with the resolve not to arise again until he was free. Grace and good luck opened him to silent joy. Here are some of the words he said to have spoken in the years that followed:

All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world. …. Wanting nothing
With all your heart
Stop the stream. When the world dissolves
Everything becomes clear. Go beyond
This way or that way,
To the farther shore
Where the world dissolves
And everything becomes clear. Beyond this shore
And the farther shore,
Beyond the beyond,
Where there is no beginning,
No end. Without fear,go. Meditate,
Live purely.
Be quiet.
Do your work, with mastery. By day the sun shines,
And the warrior in his armor shines.
By night the moon shines,
And the master shines in meditation. But day and night
The man who is awake
Shines in the radiance of the spirit. A master gives up mischief.
He is serene.
He leaves everything behind him.
He does not take offense
And he does not give it.
….
Matted hair or family or caste
Do not make a master
But the truth and goodness
With which he is blessed. Your hair is tangled
And you sit on a deerskin.
What folly!
When inside you are ragged with lust. ….
He wants nothing from this world
And nothing from the next.
He is free. Desiring nothing, doubting nothing,
Beyond judgment and sorrow
And the pleasures of the senses,
He has moved beyond time.
He is pure and free. ….
Calmly
He lets go of life,
Of home and pleasure and desire.
Nothing of men can hold him.
Nothing of the gods can hod him.
Nothing in all creation can hold him. ….
And with great gladness
Hi knows that he has finished.
He has woken from his sleep.
….
. In him there is no yesterday,
No tomorrow
No today. Possessing nothing,
Wanting nothing.

From the Dhammapada, translated and transliterated by Thomas Byrom.
The wonderful painting by Cecilia Soprano. It is used with her kind permission.