your royal father frets and sighs; for a short while you have essayed
the road, and leaving home have wandered through the wilds, to return
then would not now be wrong; of old, King Ambarisha for a long while
dwelt in the grievous forest, leaving his retinue and all his kinsfolk,
but afterwards returned and took the royal office; and so Rama, son of
the king of the country, leaving his country occupied the mountains, but
hearing he was acting contrary to usage, returned and governed
righteously. And so the king of Sha-lo-po, called To-lo-ma, father and
son, both wandered forth as hermits, but in the end came back again
together; so Po-'sz-tsau Muni, with On-tai-tieh, in the wild mountains
practising as Brahmakarins, these too returned to their own country.
Thus all these worthies of a by-gone age, famous for their advance in
true religion, came back home and royally governed, as lamps
enlightening the world. Wherefore for you to leave the mountain wilds,
religiously to rule, is not a crime."

The royal prince, listening to the great minister's loving words without
excess of speaking, full of sound argument, clear and unconfused, with
no desire to wrangle after the way of the schools, with fixed purpose,
deliberately speaking, thus answered the great minister: "The question
of being and not being is an idle one, only adding to the uncertainty of
an unstable mind, and to talk of such matters I have no strong
inclination; purity of life, wisdom, the practice of asceticism, these
are matters to which I earnestly apply myself, the world is full of
empty studies which our teachers in their office skilfully involve; but
they are without any true principle, and I will none of them! The
enlightened man distinguishes truth from falsehood; but how can truth be
born from such as those? For they are like the man born blind, leading
the blind man as a guide; as in the night, as in thick darkness both
wander on, what recovery is there for them? Regarding the question of
the pure and impure, the world involved in self-engendered doubt cannot
perceive the truth; better to walk along the way of purity, or rather
follow the pure law of self-denial, hate the practice of impurity,
reflect on what was said of old, not obstinate in one belief or one
tradition, with sincere mind accepting all true words, and ever
banishing sinful sorrow (i.e. sin, the cause of grief). Words which
exceed sincerity are vainly spoken; the wise man uses not such wo