The Beginning

If you are wise, look toward the meaning, for meaning outlasts the outer form. Whoever lacks knowledge, generosity, and virtue has no real substance inside his outer shape. The one who rests easy beneath the earth is the one who let others rest with easy hearts. Tend to your own soul while you live, for your kin, out of their own greed, will not bother with the dead. Give away your gold and goods now, while they are yours; after you, they slip beyond your command. If you don't want a scattered, anxious heart, don't turn the scattered and needy from your mind. Scatter your hoarded treasure freely today, for tomorrow its key won't be in your hand. Carry your own provisions with you, for no tender care will come from child or wife. Only that person wins fortune's prize from this world who carries a share of it into the next. When it comes to caring, no one in the whole world will scratch my back the way my own fingertip does. Don't lay out everything you own on your open palm, or tomorrow you'll be biting the back of your hand in regret. Work to cover the poor man's shame, so that God may draw a veil over yours. Don't send the stranger empty-handed from your door, lest you yourself become a stranger begging at other doors. The great man does good to the one in need, fearing that one day he may need another's help himself. Look at the state of the broken-hearted, for someday you too may be broken-hearted. Bring joy to those who are stranded and helpless; remember your own days of helplessness. Aren't you a beggar at other people's doors? In gratitude, don't drive the beggar from yours.