Look about and contemplate life! Everything that is of matter is transient and nothing endures. There is birth and death, growth and decay; there is combination and separation. The glory of the world is like a flower: it stands in full bloom in the morning and fades in the heat of the day.
Wherever you look, there is a rushing and a struggling, and an eager pursuit of pleasure. There is a panic flight from pain and death, and hot are the flames of burning desires. The world is full of changes and transformations. All is Samsara, the turning Wheel of Existence.
Is there nothing permanent in the world? Is there in the universal turmoil no resting-place where our troubled heart can find peace? Is there nothing everlasting? Oh, that we could have cessation of anxiety, that our burning desires would be extinguished! When shall the mind become tranquil and composed?
Buddha Mani teaches against the vanity of worldly happiness; he tells his disciples to seek salvation in the one thing that will not fade or perish, but will abide for ever and ever.
You who long for life, learn that immortality is hidden in the Divine Light. You who wish for happiness without the sting of regret, lead a life of righteousness. You who yearn for riches, receive treasures that are eternal. Truth is wealth, and a life of truth is happiness.
All matter will be dissolved, but the truths which determine all combinations and separations as laws of nature endure for ever. Bodies fall to dust, but the truths of the mind and the Light from the Divine, will not be destroyed.
Truth knows neither birth nor death; it has no beginning and no end. Welcome the truth. The truth is the immortal part of mind. Establish the truth in your mind, for the truth is the image of the eternal; it portrays the immutable; it reveals the everlasting; the truth gives unto mortals the boon of immortality.
Buddha Mani has proclaimed the truth; let this truth dwell in your hearts. Extinguish in yourselves every desire that antagonizes the Buddha, and in the perfection of your spiritual growth you will become like unto him. That of your heart which cannot or will not develop into Buddha must perish, for it is mere illusion and unreal; it is the source of your error; it is the cause of your misery; it is attachment to darkness and matter.
You attain to immortality by filling your minds with truth and light. Therefore, become like unto vessels fit to receive the Master’s words. Cleanse yourselves of evil and sanctify your lives. There is no other way of reaching truth.
The truth is universal and leads to justice and righteousness. Matter is not the eternal, the everlasting, the imperishable. Seek not the darkness, but seek the Light.
If we liberate even a small amount of the Light within our souls from matter, wish no ill to others, and become clear as a crystal diamond reflecting the light of truth, what a radiant picture will appear in us mirroring things as they are, without the admixture of burning desires, without the distortion of erroneous illusion, without the agitation of clinging and unrest.
Yet you love the body of flesh and will not abandon that body. So be it, but then, truly, you should learn to distinguish between the body, which is matter, and the true self, which is the Light in the soul. The ego with all its egotism is the false body. It is an unreal illusion and a perishable combination. He only who identifies his soul with the truth will attain Nirvana; and he who has entered Nirvana has attained Buddhahood, which is true enlightenment; he has acquired the highest good; he has become eternal and immortal, liberating the light from matter.
All compound things shall be dissolved, worlds will break to pieces and our individualities will be scattered; but the words of Light will remain for ever.
The extinction of matter is salvation; the annihilation of matter is the condition of enlightenment; the blotting out of matter from ourselves is Nirvana.
Happy is he who has ceased to live for pleasure and rests in the truth. Truly his composure and tranquility of mind are a great joy.
Let us take our refuge in Buddha Mani, for he has found the everlasting in the Light. Let us take our refuge in that which is the immutable in the changes of existence. Let us take our refuge in the truth that is established by the Source of the Divine Light. Let us take our refuge in the community of those who seek the truth and endeavor to live in the truth.
United Manichaeism 