THE TWIN-VERSES
(First Five)

   1. All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage.

2. All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.

3. ‘He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me,’–in those who harbour such thoughts hatred will never cease.

4. ‘He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me,’–in those who do not harbour such thoughts hatred will cease.

5. For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: hatred ceases by love, this is an old rule.

• The Dhammapada as translated by Max Müller (1881) (with additional commentary and footnotes)]

Greed, aversion, delusion destroy
the self-same person of evil mind
from whom they are born,
like the fruiting
of the bamboo. The Buddha (Itivuttaka 50)

• Greed: gluttony, hunger, longing, craving, selfishness
• Aversion: loathing, abhorrence, animosity, revulsion, hatred, antipathy
• Delusion: illusion, hallucination, fallacy, mirage, mistake

Buddhist scripture uses the word delusion to mean ‘not seeing things they way they are’, especially in regards to their empty nature.

I’m starting to feel and look older. Things are falling apart. Nothing is permanent. The following strikes a chord:

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From  “Jaravagga: Aging” (Dhp XI), translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight (BCBS Edition), 30 November 2013, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/dhp/dhp.11.than.html .