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“All unenlightened mankind envy the bliss of him who has escaped from the floods of passion and has climbed the shores of nirvana. His heart is cleansed from all defilement and free from all illusion. He is like unto the lotus: which grows in the water, yet not a drop of water adheres to its petals.
“The man who walks in the noble Way lives in the world, and yet his heart is not defiled by worldly desires. He who does not see the four noble truths, he who does not understand the three characteristics* and has not grounded himself in the Uncreate, has still a long path to traverse, by repeated new beginnings, through the desert of ignorance, with its mirages of illusion, and through the morass of wrong.
“But now that you have gained comprehension, the cause of further migrations and aberrations is removed. The goal is reached: the craving of selfishness is destroyed, and the truth is attained. This is true deliverance; this is salvation; this is the bliss of a life.”
From the Hallowed Book of Man
(Chapter: The Straight Path of Wisdom)
*Consideration (due respect), truthfulness (reasoning, seeing things as they are) and dishonesty (unreason, seeing things as they are not).