2018.08.18 Saturday

The Bhikshu and the Muni

266. A man is not a mendicant (Bhikshu) simply because he asks others for alms; he who adopts the whole law is a Bhikshu, not he who only begs.

267. He who is above good and evil, who is chaste, who with knowledge passes through the world, he indeed is called a Bhikshu.

268., 269. A man is not a Muni because he observes silence (mona, i.e. mauna), if he is foolish and ignorant; but the wise who, taking the balance, chooses the good and avoids evil, he is a Muni, and is a Muni thereby; he who in this world weighs both sides is called a Muni.

Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 10: The Dhammapada and Sutta Nipata,
by Max Müller and Max Fausböll, [1881], at:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/sbe10/sbe1021.htm

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