Thoughts give joy when they speak or act. Joy follows them like a shadow that never leaves them. There has to be evil so that good can prove its purity above it. To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one's own in the midst of abundance. We are formed and molded by our thoughts. Those whose minds are shaped by selfless thoughts give joy when they speak or act. Joy follows them like a shadow that never leaves them. We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world. Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill. The world, indeed, is like a dream and the treasures of the world are an alluring mirage! Like the apparent distances in a picture, things have no reality in themselves, but they are like heat haze. When one has the feeling of dislike for evil, when one feels tranquil, one finds pleasure in listening to good teachings; when one has these feelings and appreciates them, one is free of fear. A wise man, recognizing that the world is but an illusion, does not act as if it is real, so he escapes the suffering. As irrigators lead water where they want, as archers make their arrows straight, as carpenters carve wood, the wise shape their minds. | 
