Snp 4.6 - Sn 4:6 Old Age
Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu
Source: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/StNp/StNp4_6.html
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Copyright: Copyright 2014 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Revised edition 2017
License notice: Copyright 2014 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Revised edition 2017 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Unported. To see a copy of this license visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. “Commercial” shall mean any sale, whether for commercial or non-profit purposes or entities. Questions about this book may be addressed to Metta Forest Monastery Valley Center, CA 92082-1409 U.S.A. Additional resources More Dhamma talks, books and translations by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu are available to download in digital audio and various ebook formats at dhammatalks.org. Printed copy A paperback copy of this book is available free of charge. To request one, write to: Book Request, Metta Forest Monastery, PO Box 1409, Valley Center, CA 92082 USA.
Attribution: From Handful of Leaves, Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu; https://www.dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writings/Ebooks/SuttaPitaka_251113.epub. Copyright 2014 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Revised edition 2017 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Unported. To see a copy of this license visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. “Commercial” shall mean any sale, whether for commercial or non-profit purposes or entities. Questions about this book may be addressed to Metta Forest Monastery Valley Center, CA 92082-1409 U.S.A. Additional resources More Dhamma talks, books and translations by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu are available to download in digital audio and various ebook formats at dhammatalks.org. Printed copy A paperback copy of this book is available free of charge. To request one, write to: Book Request, Metta Forest Monastery, PO Box 1409, Valley Center, CA 92082 USA.
Publisher references (not part of the sutta): See also: SN 21:2; AN 4:184; Dhp 21; Sn 5:16
Changes: Presentation only: original HTML markup reflowed into plain text; wording, numbering and source repetitions retained. No repetitions expanded.
Completeness: ABBREVIATED. Every source-unit character is preserved, including introductions, notes and verse structure. Thanissaro's collection-level note explicitly states that repetitions were cut: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/about.html. This is evidence about the translation method, not an assertion that every individual unit contains an omission; no repetitions reconstructed.

4:6 Old Age

How short this life!
You die this side of a century,
but even if you live past,
  you die of old age.

People grieve
for what they see as mine,
for nothing possessed is constant,
  nothing is constantly possessed.1
Seeing this separation
  simply as it is,
one shouldn’t follow the household life.

At death a person abandons
what he supposes as mine.
Realizing this, the wise
shouldn’t incline
to be devoted to mine-ness.

Just as a man doesn’t see
  on awakening
what he met in a dream,
even so he doesn’t see,
when they are dead
  —their time done—
those he held dear.

When they are seen & heard,
people are called by this name or that,
but only the name remains
to be pointed to
  when they are dead.

Grief, lamentation, & selfishness
  are not let go
  by those greedy for mine,
so sages
  letting go of possessions,
go about
  seeing the Secure.

A monk, living withdrawn,
enjoying a dwelling secluded:
  They say it’s congenial for him,
  he who wouldn’t, in any realm,
      display self.

Everywhere
  the sage
      independent
makes nothing dear or undear.

  In him
lamentation & selfishness,
like water on a white lotus,
  do not adhere.

As a water bead on a lotus leaf,
as water on a red lily,
  doesn’t adhere,

  so the sage
  doesn’t adhere
to the seen, the heard, or the sensed;

  for, cleansed,
  he doesn’t suppose
  in connection
with the seen, the heard, or the sensed.

  In no other way
does he wish for purity,
for he neither takes on passion
  nor puts it away.2

vv. 804–813

Notes

1. “Nothing possessed is constant, nothing is constantly possessed”—two readings of the phrase, na hi santi niccā pariggahā.

2. Nd I: An arahant has put passion totally away once and for all, and so has no need to do it ever again.