God laughs when two brothers divide their land with a string, saying to each other, ‘This side is mine and that side is yours.’ He laughs and says to Himself, ‘The whole universe belongs to me, but they say they own this portion or that portion.’
Develop a mind of equilibrium. You will always be getting praise and blame, but do not let either affect poise of mind: follow calmness, the absence of pride.
One is absolutely sickened, not by crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted; and a community is infinitely more brutalised by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime.
How much suffering and fear, and how many harmful things are in existence? If all arises from clinging to the “I”, what should I do with this great demon?
