Sunday, May 30, 2021

The Sensual are Surprised by Death (Dhp)

What, huh? I wasn't staring at them! Look, I'm just tanning, and I'm not an "ugly American"!
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Are you serious, you old buzzard?
The Dhammapada (Dhp) is the footprint, imprint, or path of the Dharma (Dhamma in the Pali language the Buddha spoke).

It is an assortment of sayings on many topics divided into chapters by subject matter, first the Pali, then the translation, then the backstory.

4. Pupphani h'eva pacinantam byasattamanasam naram Suttam gamam mahogho'va maccu adaya gacchati.

47. DEATH TAKES THE SENSUAL BY SURPRISE
4. The person who gathers flowers [of sensual pleasure and delight], whose mind is distracted, Death carries off just as a great flood sweeps away a sleeping village.

47. STORY
Hey, that's a nice longboard! - This? - YES!
Provoked by a disparaging remark, King Vidudabha wreaked vengeance on the Sakyas [Scythians, Sakas], the Buddha's extended family, by slaughtering them wholesale.

On his return journey the king camped with his followers on the dry, flat bed of a river. At night an unexpected flood swept them all to the sea.

Hearing of their tragic end, the Buddha remarked that people come to ruin without accomplishing their objectives.

5. Pupphani h'eva pacinantam byasattamanasam naram Atittam yeva kamesu antako kurute vasam.

48. THE SENSUAL DIE WITH DESIRES UNGRATIFIED
I'm not going to let this happen to me.
5. The person who gathers flowers [of sensual pleasure and delight], whose mind is distracted, and who is insatiate in desires, the Destroyer [11] brings under its sway.

48. STORY
A woman offered alms to the monastics in the morning and died in the evening of that same day. When this pathetic incident was reported to the Buddha, he spoke on the fleeting nature of life and added that humans succumb to death with their desires not yet satiated.

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