Udanavarga 3.5

3.5

「何喜何笑？念常熾然，深蔽幽冥，
不如求定。見身形範，倚以為安，
多想致病，豈知不真？老則色衰，
病無光澤，皮緩肌縮，死命近促。
身死神從，如御棄車，肉消骨散，
身何可怙？」

“What (room for) mirth, what (room for) laughter, remembering the everlasting burning (or fire). Surely this dark and dreary (world) is not fit for one to seek security and rest in. Behold this body in its fashioning; what reliance can it afford as a resting-place, filled with crowded thoughts, liable to every disease. Oh! how is it men do not perceive its false appearances? When old, then its beauty fades away; in sickness, what paleness and leanness—the skin wrinkled, the flesh withered, death and life both conjoined. And when the body dies, and the spirit flees, as when a royal personage rejects a (broken) chariot, so do the flesh and bones lie scattered and dispersed. What reliance, then, can one place on the body?”