"
Then Bodhisattva answered the Brahmakarins and told them what his
desires were: "I am seeking for a true method of escape, I desire solely
to destroy all mundane influences; but you, with strong hearts, practise
your rules as ascetics, and pay respectful attention to such visitors as
may come. My heart indeed is moved with affection towards you, for
pleasant conversation is agreeable to all, those who listen are affected
thereby; and so hearing your words, my mind is strengthened in religious
feeling; you indeed have all paid me much respect, in agreement with the
courtesy of your religious profession; but now I am constrained to
depart, my heart grieves thereat exceedingly: first of all, having left
my own kindred, and now about to be separated from you. The pain of
separation from associates, this pain is as great as the other; it is
impossible for my mind not to grieve, as it is not to see others'
faults. But you, by suffering pain, desire earnestly to obtain the joys
of birth in heaven; whilst I desire to escape from the three worlds, and
therefore I give up what my reason tells me must be rejected. The law
which you practise, you inherit from the deeds of former teachers, but
I, desiring to destroy all combination, seek a law which admits of no
such accident. And, therefore, I cannot in this grove delay for a longer
while in fruitless discussions.
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