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146
Why is there laughter?
Why is there joy
when the world is on fire?
Since you are clouded in darkness
should you not seek the light?
147
Gaze upon this once-decorated body –
it used to attract attention
but now it is only festering flesh,
a putrid thing.
It is neither sure nor substantial.
148
This body wears out with age;
it becomes a host to disease
– vulnerable, fragile,
a decrepit, disintegrating mass,
which eventually ends in death.
149
What pleasure does life hold
once one has seen
old bleached bones,
discarded and scattered round?
150
The physical body consists of bones
covered with flesh and blood.
Stored up inside it
are decay and death, pride and malice.
151
Passed down by the wise
is the knowledge that,
though what is externally impressive
loses its splendour,
and though our bodies will decay,
the truth itself outlasts all degeneration.
152
While ageing fools put on weight
like oxen in their stalls,
their minds remain small.
153 -154
For many lives I have wandered
looking for, but not finding,
the house-builder
who caused my suffering.
But now you are seen and
you shall build no more.
Your rafters are dislodged and
the ridge-pole is broken.
All craving is ended;
my heart is as one with the unmade.
155
Those who while still young
neither choose a life of renunciation
nor earn a good living,
end up like dejected old herons
beside a pond without fish.
156
Those who while still young
neither choose a life of renunciation
nor earn a good living,
will end up bemoaning the past,
falling like spent arrows
that have missed their mark.
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© 2006 Aruna Publications |