Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c7.s2.13

c7.s2.13

Voices are raised full of bitter lamentations over the degeneracy of the age, the insatiable greed of men, which knows no limit, until death comes and makes rich and poor alike: "I behold the rich in this world," says a Buddhist Sutra;* "of the goods which they have acquired, in their folly they give nothing to others; they eagerly heap riches together and farther and still farther they go in their pursuit of enjoyment. The king, although he may have conquered the kingdoms of the earth, although he may be ruler of all land this side the sea, up to the ocean's shore, would, still insatiate, covet that which is beyond the sea. The king and many other men, with desires unsatisfied, fall a prey to death; . . . neither relatives nor friends, nor acquaintances, save the dying man; the heirs take his property; but he receives the reward of his deeds; no treasures accompany him who dies, nor wife nor child, nor property nor kingdom." And in another Sutra it is said:† "the princes, who rule kingdoms, rich in treasures and wealth, turn their greed against one another, pandering insatiably to their desires. If these act thus restlessly, swimming in the stream of impermanence, carried along by greed and carnal desire, who then can walk on the earth in peace?"