Look at the image beautified,
a heap of festering wounds, shored up:
ill, but the object
of many resolves,
where there is nothing
lasting or sure.6
Look at the form beautified
with earrings & gems:
a skeleton wrapped in skin,
made attractive with clothes.
Feet reddened with henna,
a face smeared with powder:
enough to deceive a fool,
but not a seeker for the further shore.
Hair plaited in eight pleats,
eyes smeared with unguent:
enough to deceive a fool,
but not a seeker for the further shore.
Like a newly painted unguent pot—
a putrid body adorned:
enough to deceive a fool,
but not a seeker for the further shore.
The hunter set out the snares
but the deer didn’t go near the trap.
Having eaten the bait,
I go,
leaving the hunters
to weep.
I see in the world
people with wealth
who, from delusion,
don’t make a gift
of the treasure they’ve gained.
Greedy, they stash it away,
hoping for even more
sensual pleasures.
A king who, by force,
has conquered the world
and rules over the earth
to the edge of the sea,
dissatisfied with the ocean’s near shore,
longs for the ocean’s
far shore as well.
Kings & others
—plenty of people—
go to death with craving
unabated. Unsated,
they leave the body behind,
having not had enough
of the world’s sensual pleasures.
One’s relatives weep
& pull out their hair.
‘Oh woe, our loved one is dead,’ they cry.
Carrying him off,
wrapped in a piece of cloth,
they place him
on a pyre,
then set him on fire.
So he burns, poked with sticks,
in just one piece of cloth,
leaving all his possessions behind.
They are not shelters for one who has died—
not relatives,
friends,
or companions.
His heirs take over his wealth,
while the being goes on,
in line with his kamma.
No wealth at all
follows the dead one—
not children, wives,
dominion, or riches.
Long life
can’t be gotten with wealth,
nor aging
warded off with treasure.
The wise say this life
is next to nothing—
impermanent,
subject to change.
The rich & the poor
touch the touch of Death.
The foolish & wise
are touched by it, too.
But while fools lie as if slain by their folly,
the wise don’t tremble
when touched by the touch.
Thus the discernment by which
one attains to mastery,
is better than wealth—
for those who haven’t reached mastery
go from becomings to becomings,
out of delusion,
doing bad deeds.
One goes to a womb
& to the next world,
falling into the wandering on
—one thing
after another—
while those of weak discernment,
trusting in one,
also go to a womb
& to the next world.
Just as an evil thief
caught at the break-in
is destroyed
by his own act,
so evil people
—after dying, in the next world—
are destroyed
by their own acts.
Sensual pleasures—
variegated,
enticing,
sweet—
in various ways disturb the mind.
Seeing the drawbacks in sensual strings:
that’s why, O king, I went forth.
Just like fruits, people fall
—young & old—
at the break-up of the body.
Knowing this, O king,
I went forth.
The contemplative life is better
for sure.
Notes
1. The preceding three sentences appear in this location only in the Thai edition of the Canon, although they appear below in all editions of the Canon.
2. This reference to the number of days Raṭṭhapāla went without food appears only in the Thai edition of the Canon.
3. This paragraph is not in the Thai edition of the Canon.
4. This first sentence in quotation marks is not in the Thai edition of the Canon.
5. This passage in the Thai edition of the Canon is much more elaborate than the corresponding passage in other editions of the Canon. The other editions mention simply that the father went home and had a heap of gold & silver made and concealed with a screen. The detail of the height of the heaps seems to have been adopted from the Commentary, for the commentators—in discussing this passage—feel called upon to explain how tall the piles were. If that detail had been in the original Pali, they wouldn’t have had to supply it. As for the two heaps, that detail seems required by the later passage where Ven. Raṭṭhapāla’s father points out three separate inheritances, although that passage—as indicated in the translation, mentions “heap” in the singular.
Apparently there were some discrepancies in the original discourse that subsequent editors tried to correct, but it’s hard to reach a definitive conclusion as to which version is closer to the original. On the one hand, it might be that the two extra heaps were mentioned in the original, but later deleted in some editions to bring the description in line with the fact that the later passage mentions “heap” in the singular; on the other hand, it might be that the original described the father making one heap, and the editors later amended the passage to account for his later reference to three inheritances.
6. This verse is identical with Dhp 147.
7. For the meaning of the word “world” in this discourse, see SN 35:82.
8. In ancient Indian medicine, a variety of illnesses—such as indigestion, sharp pains running through the body, etc.—were said to be caused by an imbalance of the wind-property (vāyo-dhātu) in the body.
Origin URL: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/MN/MN82.html