法苑珠林 97.10

97.10

"Life is like flowers and fruit ripening, / Ever fearing they will fall. / All that has been born has suffering; / Who can attain immortality? / From the initial delight in lustful desires, / One may be expected to enter into the shadow of the womb. / Receiving form, life is like lightning, / Flowing day and night, hard to halt. / This body is a dead thing; / The conscious spirit is a formless phenomenon. / Creating life, it dies and is born again; / Offenses and blessings do not perish. / The end and beginning are not of one lifetime; / Following ignorance and craving for a long time, / One creates deeds oneself and suffers pain or pleasure; / When the body dies, the spirit is not lost."