Think

not that 1 am your light or your refuge. Be to yourselves, An and a, your own light, your own refuge; seek no other refuge. The truth is your light and your refuge: seek no other refuge. And he, An and a, who either now, or when I am gone, walks in the path of righteousne with the truth for his lamp and shield, he shall be truly my disciple.” To his monks he said again, “He who walks without stumbling, holding fast to the word of truth, will escape from life, with its bonds of death and birth; he will be free. He will reach the further shore.” “Next day Buddha looked back for the last time on the great city of Vesali, whose rich men and whose courtesans had been among his disciples, He may have been standing in the grove of mango trees which the woman Ambapali, ‘who was a sinner,’ had given to the Order. Accompanied by a great crowd of disciples he set out for Kusinara, On the way the sickne which was to terminate his life attacked him at Pawa. Sick and weary he journeyed on and came to the river Kakuttha.... At last he reached the city where it had been given to him to know that he should die. On the bank of the stream that washed it there was a grove of Sala trees, ‘Lay my bed, An and a, between these two trees, with my head to the north. For I am tired and desire to lie down,’... Again he said, ‘In my honour the trees put forth untimely blo oms, the heavens rain down flowers, and the angels sing. But the honour I desire, and the reward I seek, are not in these things. 385