諸經要集 9.61

9.61

Furthermore, the Amitāyus-sūtra says: 'Alone one is born and alone one dies; alone one comes and alone one goes. To places of suffering or pleasure, the body undergoes it by itself without any substitute. In deep darkness, separation is long; their paths are different and there is no appointed time for meeting. It is very difficult, very difficult ever to encounter one another again. In life there is joy: relatives happily gather, expressing their utmost love and affection. In death, passing away in the morning and encoffined in the evening, there is the appearance of fearful parting. Singing and weeping, they see the dead off, yet the departed one knows nothing. Returning to an empty hall, silent and with nothing to behold; existence and non-existence, living and dying, transform in a fleeting moment.' Therefore, in the Udānavarga, the Buddha spoke again a verse on the suffering of death, saying: