19. Old Age (T210.19)

What’s there to rejoice about, what’s there to laugh about?
Life is always in a blaze!
Deeply concealed in Darkness,
It’s better to seek light.

Look at this physical body
Which [the fool] clings to as comfort.
It’s full of [false] thinking and causes sickness,
How does [the fool] know it’s unreality?

When one gets old, the body becomes weak,
Sickness befalls and lustre is lost;
The skin slackens, and muscles contract.
One is fast approaching death.

When the body dies, consciousness departs,
Like a driver abandoning a vehicle;
The flesh disappears, the bones scatter
What is there in the body to rely on?

The body is like a city,
Framed with bones and plastered with the flesh.
From birth till old-age and death,
It stores nothing but hatred and conceit.

When one gets old, the body changes,
Just like an old vehicle.
The Dharma can end suffering
—Practice it with diligence.

If a man has heard no [wise teaching]
He will grow old to be like a bull:
With only well developed flesh,
But no wisdom.

The cycle of birth and death is boring;
The coming and going is troublesome.
When one’s thoughts are attached to the body,
Endless suffering will follow.

As the wise perceives suffering,
He accordingly abandons the body;
His thoughts are ceased and conditioning cut off;
And lust being ended, there is no more birth.

He who neither practices the Brahmā-like faring,
Nor has acquired any wealth;
At old age, is like a white heron
Watching an empty pond.

If one neither observes the precepts,
Nor accumulates wealth;
When old and weak and panting,
What’s the use of reminiscing the past?

At old age, one is like autumn leaves;
One moves in filth, and wears tattered clothes.
Life is rapidly escaping from this birth;
There is no use to regret.

Life is running out as days and nights pass.
Strive hard when there is still time.
What pertains to the world is truly impermanent,
Don’t be deluded and fall into darkness.

Learn to kindle the mind lamp,
And train yourself to gain wisdom.
Move away from taints, don’t get stained;
Holding the [mind] candle, watch the stages of progress.

Translated from the Chinese by Bhikkhu Kuala Lumpur Dhammajoti

From his book The Chinese Version of Dharmapada, Translated with introduction and annotations.

Published here with the kind permission of the author.

Prepared for SuttaCentral by Ayya Vimala.