Knowing pain and pleasure in all their variety, and seeing his life not yet decline, a wise man should know that to be the proper moment (for entering a religious life); while the perceptions of his ear, eye, organs of smelling, tasting, touching are not yet deteriorated, while all these perceptions are not yet deteriorated, man should prosecute the real end of his soul. Thus I say.
The philosopher Tsang being ill, Meng Chang went to ask how he was. Tsang said to him, "When a bird is about to die, its notes are mournful; when a man is about to die, his words are good. …
But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
Every soul shall have a taste of death: And only on the Day of Judgment shall you be paid your full recompense. Only he who is saved far from the Fire and admitted to the Garden will have attained the object (of Life): For the life of this world is but goods and chattels of deception.
He turned to his wife and said, "O dame, / The harvest of December is not as that of July; / Though they be dead or though they be living, / Are they not equally visible to the eyes of the heart? / I behold them clearly before me, / Wherefore should I disfigure my countenance like you? / Though they have gone forth by revolution of fortune, / They are with me still, playing round me. …