THE BLESSED NOBLE AWAKENED ONE - THE TATHAGATA
In Judgment
At Savatthi. As he was sitting to one side, King Pasenadi Kosala said to the Blessed One: “Just now, lord, as I was sitting in judgment, I saw that even affluent nobles, affluent brahmans, & affluent householders β rich, with great wealth & property, with vast amounts of gold & silver, vast amounts of valuables & commodities, vast amounts of wealth & grain β tell deliberate lies with sensual pleasures as the cause, sensual pleasures as the reason, simply for the sake of sensual pleasures. Then, the thought occured to me: ‘I’ve had enough of this judging! Let some other fine fellow be known for his judgments!’”
“That’s the way it is, great king! That’s the way it is! Even affluent nobles, affluent brahmans, & affluent householders… tell deliberate lies with sensual pleasures as the cause, sensual pleasures as the reason, simply for the sake of sensual pleasures. That will lead to their long-term harm & pain.”
That is what the Blessed One said. Having said that, the One Well-Gone, the Teacher, said further:
Impassioned with sensual possessions, greedy, dazed by sensual pleasures, they don’t awaken to the fact that they’ve gone too far β like fish into a trap set out. Afterwards it’s bitter for them: evil for them the result.
The ArrowWithout sign, unknown β the life here of mortals β difficult, short, tied up with pain. For there’s no way by which those who are born will not die. Beings are subject to death even when they attain old age. Like ripe fruits whose downfall, whose danger is falling, so for mortals, once born, the constant danger is death.As a potter’s clay vessels large & small fired & unfired all end up broken, so too life heads to death. Young & old wise & foolish rich & poor: all come under the sway of death, all have death as their end. For those overcome by death, gone to the other world, father cannot shelter son, nor relatives a relative. See: even while relatives are looking on, wailing heavily, mortals are one by one led away like cows to the slaughter. http://www.viva.org.uk/books/ark/ch6.html In this way is the world afflicted with aging & death, and so the awakened don’t grieve, knowing the way of the world. “You don’t know the path of his coming or going: seeing neither end, you lament in vain.” If, by lamenting, β confused, harming yourself β any use could be gained the prudent would do it as well. But not by weeping & grief do you gain peace of awareness. Pain arises all the more. Your body is harmed. You grow thin, pale, harming yourself by yourself. Not in that way are the dead protected. Lamentation’s in vain. Not abandoning grief, a person suffers all the more pain. Bewailing one whose time is done, you fall under the sway of grief. Look at others going along, people arriving in line with their actions: falling under the sway of death, beings simply shivering here. For however they imagine it, it always turns out other than that. That’s the type of (their) separation. See the way of the world. Even if a person lives a centuryβ or more β he’s parted from his community of relatives, he abandons his life right here. So, having heard the arahant, subduing lamentation, seeing the dead one whose time is done, [think,] “I can’t fetch him back.” Just as one would put out a burning refuge with water, so does the awakened one β discerning, skillful, & wise β blow away any arisen grief, like the wind, a bit of cotton fluff. Seeking your own happiness, you should pull out your own arrow: your own lamentation, longing, & sorrow. With arrow pulled out, independent, attaining peace of awareness, all grief transcended, griefless you are unbound.