CONFUCIUS

Said Kung the Master: "I have passed whole days without food, entire nights without sleep for the sake of my meditation, and in this there was no real use. It would have been better to have studied something in particular." Confucius, as quoted in Ezra Pound's Guide to Kulchur.

This is why Kung surpasses Siddhartha in MY book. Pound for pound (no pun intended) the practicality and enthusiasm he expresses are worth twenty Buddhas or more. Go to your local bookstore and order Confucius by Ezra Pound, his translation of The Unwobbling Pivot, The Great Digest, and The Analects. Everything that is left of the stones, the commentaries, and E.P.'s fantastic notes. New Directions Paperback, order it if you have to. The above quote is taken from the first chapter of Kulchur, also a book well worth reading and keeping.

My copy of Selected Prose fell into a friend's hands years ago, never to return. Once I re-acquire it, I'll mine it, along with others from time to time for valuable quotes to post here.