--

"This woman is indeed exceedingly beautiful, able to fascinate the minds
of the religious; so then keep your recollections straight! Let wisdom
keep your mind in subjection! Better fall into the fierce tiger's mouth,
or under the sharp knife of the executioner, than to dwell with a woman. . . .
A woman is anxious to exhibit her form and shape, whether walking, standing,
sitting, or even sleeping; even when represented as a picture,
she desires most of all to set off the blandishments of her beauty,
and thus rob men of their steadfast heart! How then ought you
to guard yourselves? By regarding her tears and her smiles as enemies,
her stooping form, her hanging arms, and all her disentangled hair
as toils designed to entrap man's heart. Then how much more
should you suspect her studied, amorous beauty! when she displays
her dainty outline, her richly ornamented form, and chatters gaily
with the foolish man! Ah, then! what perturbation and what evil thoughts,
not seeing underneath the sorrows of impermanence, the impurity,
the unreality! Considering these as the reality, all desires die out."*

--
* `Sacred Books of the East', vol. 19 pp. 253-4.
--

How different is this meeting of beauty and Buddhism from the meeting
of Ssu-K`ung T`u, the great Taoist poet, with an unknown girl!

Gathering the water-plants
From the wild luxuriance of spring,
Away in the depth of a wild valley
Anon, I see a lovely girl.