I've read this many times and, each time, I gain some new insight. If it interests you, do yourself a favor and read the entire text: Bodhicharyavata or "The Way of the Bodhisattva", by Shantideva.
The author was a Buddhist monk living in India during the 8th century C.E. He defied the religious conventions of his time in arguing for a "Middle Way" between the extremes of two opposing schools of Buddhist thought, mainly the Sautantrika and Prasangika Madhyamaka. This, over many years (and with the contribution of many scholars before and after Shantideva...Nagarjuna, especially), has formed what is known as the Mahayana (translated as, you guessed it, "Middle Way") Buddhist path. I would deliniate that further, but, trust me, that is another blog altogether.
In my own view, I think Shantideva's use of language is both insightful and beautiful...especially when you consider it was translated from ancient Sanskrit into English. Whether or not you agree with the philosophy behind it, there is plenty of valid commentary on our circuitious path to understanding our selves.
Here we go:
Thus with things devoid of true existence,
What is there to gain and what to lose?
Who is there to pay me court and honors,
And who is there to scorn and revile me?
Pain and pleasure, whence do these arise?
And what is there to give me joy and sorrow?
In this quest and search for perfect truth,
Who is craving, what is there to crave?
Examine now this world of living beings:
Who is there therein to pass away?
What is there to come, and what has been?
And who, indeed, are relatives and friends?
May beings like myself discern and grasp
That all things have the character of space!
But those who long for happiness and ease,
Through disputes or the causes of pleasures,
Are deeply troubled, or else thrilled with joy.
They suffer, strive, contend among themselves,
Slashing, stabbing, injuring each other:
They live their lives englufed in many evils.
From time to time they surface in the state of bliss,
Abandoning themselves to many pleasures.
But dying, down they fall to suffer torment,
Long, unbearable in the realms of sorrow.
Many are the chasms and abysses of existence,
Where the truth of emptiness is not found.
All is contradiction, all denial,
Suchness, or its like, can find no place.
There, exceeding all description,
Is the shoreless sea of pain unbearable.
Here it is that strength is low,
And lives are flickering and brief.
All activities for the sake of life and health,
Relief of hunger and of weariness,
Time consumed in sleep, all accident and injury,
And sterile friendships with the childish--
Thus life passes quickly, meaningless.
True discernment--hard it is to have!
How then shall we ever find the means
To curb the futile wanderings of the mind?
Further, evil forces work and strain
To cast us headlong into states of woe;
Manifold are false, deceptive trails,
And it is hard to dissipate our doubts.
Hard is it to find again this state of freedom,
Harder yet to come upon enlightened teachers,
Hard, indeed, to turn aside the torrent of defilement!
Alas, our sorrows fall in endless streams!
Sad is it indeed that living beings,
Carried on the flood of bitter pain,
However terrible their plight may be,
Do not perceive they suffer so!
Some there are who bathe themselves repeatedly,
And afterward scorch themselves with fire,
Suffering intensely all the while,
Yet there they stay, proclaiming loud their bliss.
Likewise there are some who live and act
As though old age and death will never come to them.
But then life's over, and there comes
The dreadful fall into the state of loss.
When shall I be able to allay and quench
The dreadful heat of suffering's blazing fires,
With the plenteous rain of my own bliss
That pour torrential from my clouds of merit?
My wealth of merit gathered in,
With reverence but without conceptual aim,
When shall I reveal this truth of emptiness
To those who go to ruin through belief in substance?
"The Way of the Bodhisattva", by Shantideva (9th chapter, stanzas 151-167). Translated by the Padmakara Translation Group. Wisdom Publications, 1997.
