Sermons on Righteousness : One need not wait for a companion to tread on the path of Righteousness.

5. One need not wait for a companion to tread on the path of Righteousness.

• An elephant in battle bears the arrow at him buried, I must bear men's bitter tongues for every evil in the world. 
• Tamed, they lead him into battle; tamed, the king his back ascends; tamed, is he the best of beings when no bitter speech offends. 
• Good are well-tamed mules, and good are Cindian steeds of' lineage famed, good indeed the mighty tusker; best of all the men self-tamed. 
• Yet such mounts can naught avail us, cannot be Nibbana's guide. We can only reach the Path on the self-tamed self-ride 
• Take delight in Earnestness; watch thy thoughts and never tire. Lift thee from the Path of Evil, take the Tusker out of mire. 
• Hast thou found a fellow-traveller, upright, firm, intelligent? Leaving all thy cares behind thee, gladly walk with him intent. 
• Hast thou found no fellow-traveller, upright, intelligent? As a King deserts his borders, by the enemy pursued, like the tusker* in the forest, so go thy way in solitude. 
• Better is the lonely life, for fools companions cannot be. Live alone and do no evil, live alone with scanty needs, lonely, as the. mighty tusker in the forest lonely feeds. 
• Expunge all bad thoughts. 
• Here is the way to expunge.
• You are to expunge by resolving that, though others may be harmful, you will be harmless.
• That, though others may kill, you will never kill. 
• That, though others may steal, you will not. 
• That, though others may not lead the higher life, you will. 
• That, though others may lie, traduce, denounce, or prattle, you will not. 
• That, though others may be covetous, you will covet not. 
• That, though others may be malignant, you will be benignant. 
• That, though others may be given over to wrong views, wrong aims, wrong speech, actions, wrong modes of livelihood, wrong effort, wrong mindfulness and wrong concentration you must follow the Noble Eight-fold Path in right outlook, right aims, right speech, right actions, right mode of livelihood, right efforts, right mindfulness and right concentration. 
• That, though others are wrong about the truth and wrong about Deliverance, you will be right about truth and right about Deliverance. 
• That, though others may be possessed by sloth and torpor, you will free yourself therefrom. 
• That, though others may be puffed up, you will be humble-minded. 
• That, though others may be perplexed by doubts, you will be free from them. 
• That, though others may harbour wrath, malevolence, envy, jealousy, niggardliness, avarice, hypocrisy, deceit, imperviousness, arrogance, forwardness, unscrupulousness, lack of instruction, inertness, bewilderment, and unwisdom—you will be the reverse of all these things.