dn19:46.1 “Sir, I understand what ‘giving up possessiveness’ means.
dn19:46.2 It’s when someone gives up a large or small fortune, and a large or small family circle. They shave off hair and beard, dress in ocher robes, and go forth from the lay life to homelessness.
dn19:46.3 That’s how I understand ‘giving up possessiveness’.
dn19:46.4 Sir, I understand what ‘at one’ means.
dn19:46.5 It’s when someone frequents a secluded lodging—a wilderness, the root of a tree, a hill, a ravine, a mountain cave, a charnel ground, a forest, the open air, a heap of straw.
dn19:46.6 That’s how I understand ‘at one’.
dn19:46.7 Sir, I understand what ‘compassionate’ means.
dn19:46.8 It’s when someone meditates spreading a heart full of compassion to one direction, and to the second, and to the third, and to the fourth. In the same way above, below, across, everywhere, all around, they spread a heart full of compassion to the whole world—abundant, expansive, limitless, free of enmity and ill will.
dn19:46.9 That’s how I understand ‘compassionate’.
dn19:46.10 But I don’t understand what you say about putrefaction.
dn19:46.11 What among mankind, O the Divinity, is putrefaction?
dn19:46.12 I don’t understand, so tell me, attentive one:
dn19:46.13 wrapped in what do people stink,
dn19:46.14 headed for hell, shut out of the realm of divinity?”
dn19:46.15 “Anger, lies, cheating, and treachery,
dn19:46.16 miserliness, vanity, jealousy,
dn19:46.17 desire, stinginess, harassing others,
dn19:46.18 greed, hate, vanity, and delusion—
dn19:46.19 those bound to such things <j>are not devoid of putrefaction;
dn19:46.20 they’re headed for hell, <j>shut out of the realm of divinity.”
dn19:46.21 “As I understand what you say about putrefaction, it’s not easy to quell while living at home.
dn19:46.22 I shall go forth from the lay life to homelessness!”
dn19:46.23 “Please do so, Steward, at your convenience.”


