54. I have broken Thy word; yet I see what it will cost me, and I am afraid. I take refuge in Thee: delay not, and save me from danger.
55. When one fears a slight illness, one does not disobey the physician. How much less, then, when one is assailed by the four hundred and four diseases!
56. Yet there are diseases, any one of which can carry off all the men of Jambudvîpa, and for which no human remedy exists.
57. For these diseases there is an omniscient physician, skilled in curing every suffering: this physician’s word I scorn. Is this not the height of folly?
58. At the edge of a precipice, I venture only with the utmost care; and shall I heedlessly walk beside the bottomless, pathless abyss of the hells?
59. Is death not coming today? Is that a reason to be at ease? The hour will surely come when all is over for me.
60. Who will say to me, “Fear not,” or what way is there for me to escape? Surely I shall die: be calm, O my soul, if thou canst!
61-62. Thou hast gained nothing from all thy sensations, now brought to naught; thou hast been absorbed in them, thou hast broken the word of the masters, and thou shalt leave this world of the living, thy parents and thy friends. Thou shalt depart alone, I know not whither. What have thy loves and hatreds profited thee?
55. When one fears a slight illness, one does not disobey the physician. How much less, then, when one is assailed by the four hundred and four diseases!
56. Yet there are diseases, any one of which can carry off all the men of Jambudvîpa, and for which no human remedy exists.
57. For these diseases there is an omniscient physician, skilled in curing every suffering: this physician’s word I scorn. Is this not the height of folly?
58. At the edge of a precipice, I venture only with the utmost care; and shall I heedlessly walk beside the bottomless, pathless abyss of the hells?
59. Is death not coming today? Is that a reason to be at ease? The hour will surely come when all is over for me.
60. Who will say to me, “Fear not,” or what way is there for me to escape? Surely I shall die: be calm, O my soul, if thou canst!
61-62. Thou hast gained nothing from all thy sensations, now brought to naught; thou hast been absorbed in them, thou hast broken the word of the masters, and thou shalt leave this world of the living, thy parents and thy friends. Thou shalt depart alone, I know not whither. What have thy loves and hatreds profited thee?
63. Mortal and sinful, it behoves me day and night to ponder one thing alone: “From sin suffering necessarily arises; how may I escape sin?”
64-65. The sin amassed through my folly and delusion, sin against the natural law, sin against the laws of the Brotherhood, without reserve I confess in the presence of the Protectors, humbly prostrate in my dread, humbly prostrate.
66. I hide it not: ye see it as it is; and I pledge, O my Protectors, never again to commit it willingly.
64-65. The sin amassed through my folly and delusion, sin against the natural law, sin against the laws of the Brotherhood, without reserve I confess in the presence of the Protectors, humbly prostrate in my dread, humbly prostrate.
66. I hide it not: ye see it as it is; and I pledge, O my Protectors, never again to commit it willingly.