{"collection":"Anguttara Nikaya","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/suttacentral_an3.39/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/suttacentral_an3.39","id":"suttacentral_an3.39","license":"CC0","rights_basis":"suttacentral_bilara_data_cc0","source":"suttacentral","source_url":"https://suttacentral.net/an3.39/en/sujato","summary":null,"tags":["Anguttara Nikaya","Early Buddhist Texts"],"text":"\u201cMy lifestyle was delicate, mendicants, most delicate, extremely delicate. In my father\u2019s home, lotus ponds were made just for me. In some, blue water lilies blossomed, while in others, there were pink or white lotuses, just for my benefit. I only used sandalwood from K\u0101si, and my turbans, jackets, sarongs, and upper robes also came from K\u0101si. And a white parasol was held over me night and day, with the thought: \u2018Don\u2019t let cold, heat, grass, dust, or damp bother him.\u2019 I had three stilt longhouses\u2014one for the winter, one for the summer, and one for the rainy season. I stayed in a stilt longhouse without coming downstairs for the four months of the rainy season, where I was entertained by musicians\u2014none of them men. While the bondservants, workers, and staff in other houses are given sour gruel with false black pepper to eat, in my father\u2019s home they are given fine rice with meat. Amid such prosperity and such a delicate lifestyle, I thought: \u2018When an unlearned ordinary person\u2014who is liable to grow old, not being exempt from old age\u2014sees someone else who is old, they\u2019re horrified, repelled, and disgusted, overlooking the fact that they themselves are in the same situation. But since I, too, am liable to grow old, it would not be appropriate for me to be horrified, embarrassed, and disgusted, when I see someone else who is old.\u2019 Reflecting like this, I entirely gave up the vanity of youth. \u2018When an unlearned ordinary person\u2014who is liable to get sick, not being exempt from sickness\u2014sees someone else who is sick, they\u2019re horrified, repelled, and disgusted, overlooking the fact that they themselves are in the same situation. But since I, too, am liable to get sick, it would not be appropriate for me to be horrified, embarrassed, and disgusted, when I see someone else who is sick.\u2019 Reflecting like this, I entirely gave up the vanity of health. \u2018When an unlearned ordinary person\u2014who is liable to die, not being exempt from death\u2014sees someone else who is dead, they\u2019re horrified, repelled, and disgusted, overlooking the fact that they themselves are in the same situation. But since I, too, am liable to die, it would not be appropriate for me to be horrified, embarrassed, and disgusted, when I see someone else who is dead.\u2019 Reflecting like this, I entirely gave up the vanity of life. There are these three vanities. What three? The vanity of youth, of health, and of life. Intoxicated with the vanity of youth, an unlearned ordinary person does bad things by way of body, speech, and mind. When their body breaks up, after death, they\u2019re reborn in a place of loss, a bad place, the underworld, hell. Intoxicated with the vanity of health \u2026 Intoxicated with the vanity of life, an unlearned ordinary person does bad things by way of body, speech, and mind. When their body breaks up, after death, they\u2019re reborn in a place of loss, a bad place, the underworld, hell. Intoxicated with the vanity of youth, health, or life, a mendicant resigns the training and returns to a lesser life. For others, sickness is natural, and so are old age and death. Though this is how their nature is, ordinary people feel disgusted. If I were to be disgusted with creatures whose nature is such, it would not be appropriate for me, since my life is just the same. Living in such a way, I understood the truth without attachments. I mastered all vanities\u2014 of health, of youth, and even of life\u2014 seeing renunciation as sanctuary. Zeal sprang up in me as I looked to extinguishment. Now I\u2019m unable to indulge in sensual pleasures; there\u2019s no turning back, I\u2019m committed to the spiritual life.\u201d","title":"A Delicate Lifestyle","tradition":"Anguttara Nikaya","translated_text":null,"word_count":622}