Old Age and Death (SN3.3)

Linked Discourses 3.3

1. Shackles

Old Age and Death

At Sāvatthī.

Seated to one side, King Pasenadi said to the Buddha,

“Sir, for someone who has been reborn, is there any exemption from old age and death?”¹

“Great king, for someone who has been reborn, there’s no exemption from old age and death.

Even for well-to-do aristocrats,

brahmins,

or householders—rich, affluent, and wealthy, with lots of gold and silver, lots of property and assets, and lots of money and grain—when they’re born, there’s no exemption from old age and death.

Even for mendicants who are perfected—who have ended the defilements, completed the spiritual journey, done what had to be done, laid down the burden, achieved their heart’s goal, utterly ended the fetter of continued existence, and are rightly freed through enlightenment—their bodies are liable to break up and be laid to rest.”

That is what the Buddha said. …

“Fancy chariots of kings wear out,

and even this body gets old.

But the truth of the good never gets old—²

so the good proclaim to the good.”