Prince

The qualities that we would say is that everything is okay, the mind is pure, it's good enough right now, it's clean enough, and that the Buddha was known for not ever getting into any arguments, that he would always ask questions, and the way that he would ask questions would generally finish off any argumentation that people would have.

There is a sutta where the Jains, the Nagantas, and I think it was actually Naganathaputta himself, Mahavir, put a prince up to going to the Dutta and challenging him in a way of, criticizing others and um he would uh so the the uh the Prince got that idea because of being put up with to it that uh oh you can stump the Buddha you can challenge him in a way that he has no answer because if you uh criticize someone then they're going to feel bad but if you don't criticize someone then they'll not get any help or anything and so the prince went up to the buddha and challenged him on this and the buddha said this he says i don't have a yes or no question answer to that question That dropped the prince right then and there.

He knew that he did not have now a response to the Buddha because the Buddha wouldn't take a side about whether to criticize someone or to not criticize someone based upon the condition.

And he said that there were conditions for right speech.

We can imagine those evenings at Sire.

End of chapter 3 CHAPTER FOUR POTSTAM AND FREDERICK THOSE WHO COULD NOT COME TO HIM WROTE TO HIM In 1736 began his correspondence with Frederick, then Prince, and not yet great.

frederick's first letter was like that of a boy to a king its lavish flattery gives us an inkling of the reputation which voltaire though he had not yet written any of his masterpieces had already won it proclaims voltaire as the greatest man of france and a mortal who does honour to language i count it one of the greatest honours of my life to be born the contemporary of a man of such distinguished attainments as yours It is not given to everyone to make the mind laugh, and what pleasures can surpass those of the mind? Frederick was a free thinker who looked upon dogmas as a king looks upon subjects, and Voltaire had great hopes that on the throne Frederick would make the Enlightenment fashionable while he himself perhaps might play Plato to Frederick's Dionysius.

When Frederick demurred to the flattery with which Voltaire answered his own, Voltaire replied, A prince who writes against flattery is as singular as a pope who writes against infallibility.

she was as white as snow with long soft silky fur and the prettiest little face imaginable below him were seated cats playing on harps and lutes and all around the hall hurried other cats busy on some errand his chair was placed beside the white cats every honor was shown him and because he could not eat the mice and rats that were served up in all sorts of ways the hands brought him his favorite dishes while they were thus feasting the prince happened to look at a bracelet that the cat was wearing what was his surprise to see that it was a band of gold that held the miniature of himself he was lost in wonderment and as well he might have been for he was sure that never in his life had he given his picture to a cat of any kind but when he asked her about it she only smiled sadly and shook her head refusing to say anything after the banquet was over as he was very tired from trampling all day long the hans led him to his chamber and helped him to bed the next morning he was awakened by the baying of hounds and the cries of huntsmen under his windows jumping up he quickly looked out and saw the whole court ready to set out to the forest when the hans had dressed him in a suit of lincoln green he joined the white cat who was waiting for him to come and ride by her side to the hunt she was mounted on a monkey and the hands led out a wooden horse for the prince to ride at first he was inclined to be angry at being given such a clumsy steed but the white cat begged him so gently to try it that he mounted the hobby horse and found that he had never ridden better in his life and so day after day the prince spent his time at the castle of the white cat Feasting, dancing, hunting, and so quickly did the time go by that he forgot that his year was nearly spent.

He had told the white cat of his quest and how he hoped to be able to take back to the king his father, the most beautiful little dog in the world.

But so happy was he that he had forgotten all about it, nor would he have remembered it at all if the cat had not called him to her and said, Prince, tomorrow you must leave me and go back to your own world.

The prince was heartbroken to think that he had forgotten his promise to his father, but the white cat told him not to grieve and placed in his hand an acorn, letting him hold it to his ear.

The prince did so, and it seemed to him that he heard the bark of a tiny dog.

section eight of kitty cat tells this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox thought o read by arnulf durnall kitty cat tells by alice van leer carrick the eighth night as empty settled down into his place the next night his purr sounded almost like a laugh why kitty what are you laughing at dolly asked for the black kitten was usually a sober little person i was just thinking of a prank my grandfather played in his young days long long before he ever thought of being the king of the cats if you like i'll tell you about it the funeral of tom there were once four crows that sat in an ash tree near an old farmhouse it wasn't long before the owl that lived hard by looked out of his window under the eaves of the loft and said to them good day to you good day answered the crows have you any spare time asked the owl then i can put you in the way of earning an honest penny indeed we'd like to said the four for the snow is lying old and thick over the whole country and there wasn't much to be earned my good comrade tom grimalkin is dead said the owl now i was thinking you might carry him to his grave when my old friend was alive he often used to say to me jan owl he would say you must give me a decent burial a respectable life deserves a respectable funeral he used to say for he was a clever cat now look here you four have good black coats on and are honest people come along then said the crows and crept in through the owl hole after him one by one now it was pretty dark in the loft and the thatched roof was low but they could see tom grimalkin where he lay he was stretched at full length in the hay without a move in him the owl took up his post at his friend's head and the crows hopped along all askew just as they do in windy weather among the young wheat many's the mice we've caught in this loft together tom said the owl we've always been good friends and many's the spree we've had with one another that all passed and gone now oh tom tom old fellow how you'd rejoice and what a spring you'd make if you were only alive and i said to you tom four stupid black crows are standing round you this minute then up sprang the tom cat and there was a crow hunt the like of which you've never seen didn't i tell you that owls were more like cats than birds why even that silly song that your uncle sings sometimes about the owl and the pussycat that went to sea in a pea-green boat and lived on honey says so i don't think that any self-respecting cat would eat honey but the rest of it's true enough This isn't getting on with my next story, though, and directly I'm through.

I've got to go to Catland.

There's to be a grand ball at the palace tonight, and I'm to open it with my cousin, the Princess Meowlina.