Chapters 19 The Just

If you determine your course
With force or speed,
You miss the way of the dharma.
Quietly consider
What is right and what is wrong.
Receiving all opinions equally,
Without haste, wisely,
Observe the dharma.
Who is wise,
The eloquent or the quiet man?
Be quiet,
And loving and fearless.
For the mind talks.
But the body knows.
Gray hairs do not make a master.
A man may grow old in vain.
The true master lives in truth,
In goodness and restraint,
Non-violence, moderation and purity.
Fine words or fine features
Cannot make a master
Out of a jealous and greedy man.
Only when envy and selfishness
Are rooted out of him
May he grow in beauty.
A man may shave his head
But if he still lies and neglects his work,
If he clings to desire and attachment,
How can he follow the way?

The true seeker
Subdues all waywardness.
He has submitted his nature to quietness.
He is a true seeker
Not because he begs
But because he follows the lawful way,
Holding back nothing, holding to nothing,
Beyond good and evil,
Beyond the body and beyond the mind.
Silence cannot make a master out of a fool.
But he who weighs only purity in his scales,
Who sees the nature of the two worlds,
He is a master.
He harms no living thing.
And yet it is not good conduct
That helps you upon the way,
Nor ritual, nor book learning,
Nor withdrawal into the self,
Nor deep meditation.
None of these confers mastery or joy.
O seeker!
Rely on nothing
Until you want nothing.