Japanese Buddhist Proverbs
183
52.—Kwahō wa, nété maté.
If you wish for good luck, sleep and wait.[1]
53.—Makanu tané wa haënu.
Nothing will grow, if the seed be not sown.[2]
54.—Matéba, kanrō no hiyori.
If you wait, ambrosial weather will come.[3]
55.—Meidō no michi ni Ō wa nashi.
There is no King on the Road of Death.[4]
56.—Mekura hebi ni ojizu.
The blind man does not fear the snake.[5]
- ↑ Kwahō, a purely Buddhist term, signifying good fortune as the result of goad actions in a previous life, has come to mean in common parlance good fortune of any kind. The proverb is often used in a sense similar to that of the English saying: “Watched pot never boils.” In a strictly Buddhist sense it would mean, “Do not be too eager for the reward of good deeds.”
- ↑ Do not expect harvest, unless you sow the seed. Without earnest effort no merit can be gained.
- ↑ Kanrō, the sweet dew of Heaven, or amrita. All good things come to him who waits.
- ↑ Literally, “on the Road of Meidō.” The Meidō is the Japanese Hades,—the dark under-world to which all the dead must journey.
- ↑ The ignorant and the vicious, not understanding the law of cause-and-effect, do not fear the certain results of their folly.
