{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/wov/wov15.htm","path":"bud/wov/wov15.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/wov/wov15.htm","text":"The Buddha's Way of Virtue, by W.D.C Wagiswara and K.J. Saunders, [1920]\n146. Where is the joy, what the pleasure, whilst all is in flames? Benighted, would ye not seek a torch?\n147. Look at this painted image, wounded and swollen, sickly and full of lust, in which there is no permanence;\n148. This wasted form is a nest of disease and very frail: it is full of putrid matter and perishes. Death is the end of life.\n149. What delight is there for him who sees these grey bones scattered like gourds in autumn?\n150. Here is a citadel of bones plastered with flesh and blood, and manned by old age and death, self-will and enmity.\n151. As even the king's bright chariot grows old, so the body of man also comes to old age. But the law of the holy never ages: the holy teach it to the holy.\n152. The simpleton ages like the ox: his weight increases, but not his wisdom.\n153. Many births have I traversed seeking\nthe builder; in vain! Weary is the round of births.\n154. Now art thou seen, O Builder. Nevermore shalt thou build the house! All thy beams are broken; cast down is thy cornerstone. My mind is set upon Nirv\u0101na; it has attained the extinction of desire.\n155. They who have not lived purely nor stored up riches in their youth, these ruefully ponder, as old herons by a lake without fish.\n156. They who have not lived purely nor stored up riches in their youth, are as arrows that are shot in vain: they mourn for the past.","title":"The Buddha's Way of Virtue: \u00a7 XI: Old Age","type":"page"}