{"collection":"Anguttara Nikaya","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/suttacentral_an7.74/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/suttacentral_an7.74","id":"suttacentral_an7.74","license":"CC0","rights_basis":"suttacentral_bilara_data_cc0","source":"suttacentral","source_url":"https://suttacentral.net/an7.74/en/sujato","summary":null,"tags":["Anguttara Nikaya","Early Buddhist Texts"],"text":"\u201cOnce upon a time, mendicants, there was a teacher named Araka. He was a religious founder and was free of desire for sensual pleasures. He had many hundreds of disciples, and he taught them like this: \u2018Brahmins, life as a human is short, brief, and fleeting, full of suffering and distress. Be thoughtful and wake up! Do what\u2019s good and lead the spiritual life, for no one born can escape death. It\u2019s like a drop of dew on a grass tip. When the sun comes up it vanishes right away and doesn\u2019t last long. In the same way, life as a human is like a dewdrop. It\u2019s brief and fleeting, full of suffering and distress. Be thoughtful and wake up! Do what\u2019s good and lead the spiritual life, for no one born can escape death. It\u2019s like when the heavens rain heavily. The bubbles vanish right away and don\u2019t last long. In the same way, life as a human is like a bubble. \u2026 It\u2019s like a line drawn in water. It vanishes right away and doesn\u2019t last long. In the same way, life as a human is like a line drawn in water. \u2026 It\u2019s like a mountain river traveling far, flowing fast, carrying all before it. It doesn\u2019t turn back\u2014not for a moment, a second, an hour\u2014but runs, rolls, and flows on. In the same way, life as a human is like a mountain river. \u2026 It\u2019s like a strong man who has formed a glob of spit on the tip of his tongue. He could easily spit it out. In the same way, life as a human is like a glob of spit. \u2026 Suppose there was an iron cauldron that had been heated all day. If you tossed a scrap of meat in, it would vanish right away and not last long. In the same way, life as a human is like a scrap of meat. \u2026 It\u2019s like a cow being led to the slaughterhouse. With every step she comes closer to the slaughter, closer to death. In the same way, life as a human is like a cow being slaughtered. It\u2019s brief and fleeting, full of suffering and distress. Be thoughtful and wake up! Do what\u2019s good and lead the spiritual life, for no one born can escape death.\u2019 Now, mendicants, at that time human beings had a lifespan of 60,000 years. Girls could be married at 500 years of age. And human beings only had six afflictions: cold, heat, hunger, thirst, and the need to defecate and urinate. But even though humans were so long-lived with so few afflictions, Araka still taught in this way: \u2018Life as a human is short, brief, and fleeting, full of suffering and distress. Be thoughtful and wake up! Do what\u2019s good and lead the spiritual life, for no one born can escape death.\u2019 These days it\u2019d be right to say: \u2018Life as a human is short, brief, and fleeting, full of suffering and distress. Be thoughtful and wake up! Do what\u2019s good and lead the spiritual life, for no one born can escape death.\u2019 For these days a long life is a hundred years or a little more. Living for a hundred years, there are just three hundred seasons, a hundred each of the winter, summer, and rains. Living for three hundred seasons, there are just twelve hundred months, four hundred in each of the winter, summer, and rains. Living for twelve hundred months, there are just twenty-four hundred fortnights, eight hundred in each of the winter, summer, and rains. Living for 2,400 fortnights, there are just 36,000 days, 12,000 in each of the summer, winter, and rains. Living for 36,000 days, you just eat 72,000 meals, 24,000 in each of the summer, winter, and rains, including when you\u2019re suckling at the breast, and when you\u2019re prevented from eating. Things that prevent you from eating include anger, pain, sickness, sabbath, or being unable to get food. So mendicants, for a human being with a hundred years lifespan I have counted the lifespan, the limit of the lifespan, the seasons, the years, the months, the fortnights, the nights, the days, the meals, and the things that prevent them from eating. Out of sympathy, I\u2019ve done what a teacher should do who wants what\u2019s best for their disciples. Here are these roots of trees, and here are these empty huts. Practice absorption, mendicants! Don\u2019t be negligent! Don\u2019t regret it later! This is my instruction to you.\u201d","title":"About Araka","tradition":"Anguttara Nikaya","translated_text":null,"word_count":747}