Chapter 20: The Way

The speaker establishes that the eightfold path is the best way, alongside the four truths, passionlessness, and enlightened vision as the highest virtues.

The author claims this path is the sole means to purify intelligence and warns that all alternatives are deceptions of Mara.

Following this way leads to the end of suffering, a truth taught by the Buddha when he understood the removal of afflictions.

The individual must undertake their own effort; the Buddhas are merely teachers, and only the thoughtful who practice are freed from Mara's bondage.

Understanding that all created things perish, cause suffering, and are unreal brings equanimity and leads to the way of purity.

A person lacking diligence and mental strength, despite youth and physical capability, will never attain knowledge or the way.

A practitioner must guard speech, restrain the mind, and refrain from bodily wrongdoing; these three disciplines constitute the wise path.

Knowledge grows through diligence and diminishes through negligence, so one must actively cultivate zeal for knowledge to flourish.

One must destroy lust completely (not partially) because danger emanates from this forest; full elimination brings freedom.

Even the smallest attachment of man to woman keeps the mind enslaved, comparable to a calf's dependence on its mother's milk.

One must uproot self-love as easily as plucking an autumn lotus and pursue the peaceful path to Nirvana shown by Buddha.

A fool makes worldly plans without acknowledging death's inevitability, delaying recognition of life's impermanence.

Death claims even the prosperous and distinguished, carrying them away while distracted, like a flood sweeping away a sleeping village.

Family relationships—children, parents, and relatives—provide no protection when death arrives; kinship cannot prevent or stop death.

A wise person who understands the powerlessness of kinship against death should urgently pursue the path to Nirvana.