Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c8.113

c8.113

“With such wealth was I endowed, my disciples, and in such great magnificence did I live. Then these thoughts arose within me. ‘A weak-minded, everyday man, although he is himself liable to decay and is not free from the power of old age, feels horror, revulsion and disgust, if he sees another person in old age: the horror which he then feels recoils on himself. I also am subject to decay and am not free from the power of old age. Should I also, who am subject to decay and am not free from the power of old age, feel horror, revulsion, and disgust, if I see another in old age? This would not be becoming to me.’ While I thus reflected, my disciples, in my own mind, all that buoyancy of youth, which dwells in the young, sank within me. A weak-minded everyday man, though he be himself liable to sickness, and is not free from the power of disease,” and so on—then the same train of thought, which has been stated regarding old age and youth, follows in reference to disease and health, and then in regard to death and life. “While I, my disciples,” thus ends this passage, “thus reflected in my mind, all that spirit of life which dwells in life, sank within me.”