Basic Passages 8

A Treasure Trove

kp8:1 A person stores away their savings in a deep trove by the water’s edge: “When need arises it will be there to help

kp8:2 free me from rulers if I am slandered, or from bandits if harassed, or to release me from debt, or in case of famine or losses.” What the world calls savings get stored away for such reasons.

kp8:3 But no matter how well stored away they are in a deep pit by the water’s edge, all their savings will fail to aid them all the time.

kp8:4 For perhaps those savings shift from there, or they forget what marks the site, or dragons make off with them, or spirits carry them away,

kp8:5 or unloved heirs secretly unearth them. When their merit is used up, all of that will vanish.

kp8:6 But by giving and morality, restraint and self-control, a woman or man keeps their savings safe.

kp8:7 At a shrine or with the Saṅgha, with mother or father, or else an elder sibling,

kp8:8 those savings are kept safe, they stay with you, undecaying. We must go on leaving all behind, only this you take when you go.

kp8:9 You don’t have to share it with others, no thief makes off with your savings. An attentive one would make merit, the savings that stay with you.

kp8:10 Such savings grant every desire of angels and humans too. Whatever it is that they wish for through this they have it all.

kp8:11 Good looks, a sweet voice, a good shape, and good appearance, leadership and followers: through this they have it all.

kp8:12 Sovereignty of a local kingdom, the happiness of a Wheel-Turning Monarch, even high rank in the Garden: through this they have it all.

kp8:13 Human success, heavenly delight, attaining salvation. through this they have it all.

kp8:14 Relying on having good friends, rational application of effort, mastery of knowledge and freedom: through this they have it all.

kp8:15 Analytical knowledge, the liberations, the perfections of the disciple, the plane of an independent Buddha: through this they have it all.

kp8:16 This accomplishment in merit is so very beneficial. That’s why the attentive and the astute praise the making of merit.