Chapter 11
Old Age
146
When this world is ever ablaze,
why this laughter, why this jubilation?
Shrouded in darkness,
will you not seek the light?
147
Behold this body -- a painted image,
a mass of heaped up sores, infirm,
full of hankering -- of which
nothing is lasting or stable!
148
Fully worn out is this body,
a nest of disease, and fragile.
This foul mass breaks up,
for death is the end of life.
149
These dove-coloured bones
are like gourds that lie scattered about
in autumn.
Having seen them,
how can one seek delight?
150
This city (body) is built of bones,
plastered with flesh and blood;
within are decay and death,
pride and jealousy.
151
Even gorgeous royal chariots wear out,
and indeed this body too wears out.
But the Dhamma of the Good
does not age;
thus the Good make it known
to the good.
152
The man of little learning
grows old like a bull.
He grows only in bulk, but,
his wisdom does not grow.
153
Through many a birth in samsara
have I wandered in vain,
seeking the builder of this house (of life).
Repeated birth is indeed suffering!
154
O house-builder, you are seen!
You will not build this house again.
For your rafters are broken
and your ridgepole shattered.
My mind has reached the Unconditioned;
I have attained
the destruction of craving.*
155
Those who in youth
have not led the holy life,
or have failed to acquire wealth,
languish like old cranes in a pond
without fish.
156
Those who in youth
have not led the holy life,
or have failed to acquire wealth,
lie sighing over the past,
like worn-out arrows (shot from) a bow.
*According to the commentary, these verse are Buddha's "Song of Victory", his first utterance after Enlightenment. House-builder: craving; house: samsaric existence; rafters: passions; ridgepole: ignorance.
