Will I be beautiful and ageless? (sutra)

Some Kind of Heaven; Monty Python "Hell's Grannies"; Dhr. Seven, Ellie Askew (eds.), "Great Mass of Suffering Sutra" (Maha Dukkhakandha Sutta, MN 13), Ven. Thanissaro (trans.), Wisdom Quarterly

You like my beauty, meditators?

"Meditators, what now is the allure of physical form?

"Suppose there were a female -- high, middle, or working class -- 15 or 16 years old, not too short or too tall, not too fat or too thin, not too pasty or too dark. Is her beauty and charm at its height at that time?"

"Yes, venerable sir" [the celibate wandering ascetic meditators, leaning forward, erect in posture, eager and wide-eyed, answered the Buddha].

"Whatever pleasure and joy arise dependent on such beauty and charm, that is the allure of form."

Don't judge me. Back in my day I was hot.

"And what is the drawback of form? One might see that very same female at a later time, when she's 80, 90, one 100 years old -- aged, crooked as the rafters of a roof, bent forward, supporting herself with a cane, palsied, miserable, broken toothed, gray haired, with little hair remaining, bald, wrinkled, body all blotchy.

Black don't crack because it's beautiful

"What do you think, Has her earlier beauty and charm vanished, and has the drawback appeared?"

"Yes, venerable sir."

"This, meditators, is the drawback of form.

"And one might see that very same female sick, in pain, seriously ill, lying soiled by her own urine and excrement, lifted up by others, laid down by others. What do you think, Has her earlier beauty and charm vanished, and has the drawback appeared?"

It's more than beautiful, Sonny. It's wise.

"Yes, venerable sir."

"This too, meditators, is the drawback of form.

"And one might see that very same female now a corpse cast away in a charnel ground — one day, two days, three days dead, bloated, livid, and oozing liquids. What do you think, Has her earlier beauty and charm vanished, and has the drawback appeared?"

"Yes, venerable sir."

"This too, meditators, is the drawback of form.

"And one might see that very same female now a corpse cast away in a charnel ground

• picked at by crows, vultures, and hawks, chewed on by dogs, hyenas, and other creatures...
• a skeleton smeared with blood and remaining flesh, held together with tendons...
• a skeleton with no more flesh, blood smeared, held together with tendons...
• a skeleton with no more flesh or blood, held together with tendons...
• scattered bones detached from their tendons, strewn in all directions — here a hand bone, there a foot bone, here a shin bone, there a thigh bone, here a hip bone, there a back bone, here a rib, there a breast bone, here a shoulder bone, there a neck bone, here a jaw bone, there a tooth, here a skull...
• whitened bones, like the color of shells...
• piled up bones, a year or more old...
• bones decomposed into powder.

Yuck! I only like young hot chicks.

"What do you think, Has her earlier beauty and charm vanished, and has the drawback appeared?"

"Yes, venerable sir."

"This too, meditators, is the drawback of form.

"And what, meditators, is the escape from form? The subduing of passionate craving for form, the abandoning of passionate craving for form, that is the escape from form.

No, don't stare at me with lust and craving.

"That any wandering ascetics or Brahmin priests who do not know-and-see as it actually is

• the allure of form as an allurement,
• the drawback of form as a drawback,
• the escape from form as an escape,

"would themselves comprehend form or would rouse others with the truth so that, in line with what one has practiced, one would comprehend form -- that is impossible.

"But that any wandering ascetic or Brahmin who discerns as it actually is

• the allure of form as an allurement,
• the drawback of form as a drawback,
• the escape from form as an escape,

"would themselves comprehend form or would rouse others with the truth so that, in line with what one has practiced, one would comprehend form -- that is possible. More