འཕགས་པ་ཆས་དང་དན་རྣམ་པར་འབྱད་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 5

5

Great King, the aggregates look awful; they smell terrible; they ooze pus and blood; they are like wood, clods of dirt, or roads; and they are insubstantial, inert, and interlinked with joy and sorrow. They are linked to each other by chains of craving, are full of affliction, and are vile. Still, ordinary beings think that such insubstantial things are substantial; they think that impermanent things are permanent, repulsive things are beautiful, unclean things are clean, and unreal things are real. Great King, the five aggregates are “painted” by one’s own karma. As an analogy, O Great King, there is no painter who paints the peacock’s five-colored tail, and neither is there any paint involved. Rather, it is painted by the peacock’s own karma. Great King, in the same way, childish ordinary beings arise from reciprocal conditions, painted by their own karma.’

“At this point the bodhisattva great being Invincible Lord¹¹ stood up among the assembly, circumambulated the Blessed One, draped his shawl over one shoulder, knelt down on his right knee, and bowed with joined palms.

“He said to the Blessed One, ‘Blessed One, these aggregates do look awful and smell terrible; they ooze blood and pus; they are like wood, clods of dirt, walls, or roads; they are insubstantial and inert. Childish ordinary beings think that these things have substance, but these beings are like the mistaken, the blind, and the confused. They have fallen into bewilderment. They are completely enveloped in darkness, obscurity, and veils. They are lost in the dense thicket of all their wrong views. Blessed One, these four collections of the Dharma are all profound; they are like space.