SOMEONE LIKE THAT

Don't waste the rest of your time Worrying about other people Unless it affects the common good It will keep you from doing anything useful Rob you of something You'll be too preoccupied With what so-and-so's doing And why What they're saying What they're thinking What they're up to and why And every thought of the kind It keeps you from focusing On your own mind On your own mind You must avoid certain things In your train of thought Everything random Everything irrelevant Over-curious Or malicious You must habituate yourself So if anybody says Hey! What you thinking about? You can answer right at once With the truth This or that And it's obvious from that Your thoughts were Kind and considerate Straightforward and benevolent The thoughts of a social being Unconcerned with anything Like pleasure or indulgence of any kind at all With squabbling With slander and envy And nothing more You'd be ashamed to say out loud Nothing you're ashamed to say out loud Someone like that Who refuses to put off Joining the elect Is something like priest A servant of the gods In touch with what's within him And with what Keeps a person undefiled by pleasures Someone like that Unscathed by any pain Untouched by any wrong Unconscious of no wickedness A wrestler in the greatest contest of all The struggle not to be Overwhelmed by anything That happens at all Dyed deep with justice Accepts with all of his soul Everything which happens And whatever he's assigned Not paying any mind Unless undeniably necessary at the time To what another says Does or thinks For he only has his Own Work To realize And keeps continually in mind What's assigned To him from the whole Does his best Trusting that all is for the best For we carry our fate with us And it carries us along with it He keeps in mind That all rational beings are related And that to care For all human beings Is part of being human Which doesn't mean We have to share Any of their opinions We should listen only To those whose lives conform to nature As for the others? He keeps in mind What sort of people they are Both at home and abroad By night as well as day Who they choose To defile themselves with He cares nothing for their praise Men not even acceptable To their own selves He cares nothing for their praise Men not even acceptable To their own selves Someone like that Who refuses to put off Joining the elect Is something like priest A servant of the gods In touch with what's within him And with what Keeps a person undefiled by pleasures Someone like that Unscathed by any pain Untouched by any wrong Unconscious of no wickedness A wrestler in the greatest contest of all The struggle not to be Overwhelmed by anything That happens at all