A Single Excellent Night

buddha_face

“Let not a person revive the past
Or on the future build his hopes;
For the past has been left behind
And the future has not been reached.
Instead with insight let him see
Each presently arisen state;
Let him know that and be sure of it,
Invincibly, unshakeably.
Today the effort must be made;
Tomorrow Death may come, who knows?
No bargain with Mortality
Can keep him and his hordes away,
But one who dwells thus ardently,
Relentlessly, by day, by night —
It is he, the Peaceful Sage* has said,
Who has had a single excellent night.”

~ The Buddha
from the “Bhaddekaratta Sutta”
(A Single Excellent Night),
Sutta 131, “The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha,”
translated by Bhikkhu Nanamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi

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* The “Peaceful Sage” (santo muni) is the Buddha

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