Cleaning House From the Inside Out — The Dhammapada

You are like a dry leaf and death is close. Messengers of death have come near. You stand at the door of leaving and have no supplies for the trip. Make yourself an island. Work hard. Be wise. When your impurities blow away and guilt is gone, you enter the world of the elect or you stop the cycle of birth and decay.

A wise person removes impurities like a smith blows them off silver, little by little. Impurity in iron destroys the iron. A wrongdoer's own actions lead him to the bad road. Prayers fail when not repeated. Houses fail when not repaired. Bodies fail through laziness. Watchmen fail through thoughtlessness. Ignorance is the worst taint of all. Life is easy for a shameless troublemaker and hard for a modest person who wants what is pure.

Killing, lying, stealing, visiting another's partner, or drinking hard liquor digs up your own root even now. If you fuss over food and drink given to others, you find no rest. There is no fire like passion and no shark like hatred. A man sorts his neighbor's faults like chaff but hides his own like a cheater hides a bad die. Outward acts alone do not make a holy person. The world loves empty show, but the awakened are never shaken.