Chapter Four Quotations
Ven. Kimbila:
As if sent by a curse,
it drops on us—
aging.
The body seems other,
though it’s still the same one.
I’m still here
& have never been absent from it,
but I remember myself
as if somebody else’s. — Thag 1:118
King Koravya: “Yes, Master Raṭṭhapāla, when I was twenty or twenty-five years old—an expert elephant rider, an expert horseman, an expert charioteer, an expert archer, an expert swordsman—I was strong in arm & strong in thigh, fit, & seasoned in warfare. It was as if I had supernormal power. I can’t imagine anyone who could equal me in strength.”
“And what do you think, great king? Are you even now as strong in arm & strong in thigh, as fit, & as seasoned in warfare?”
“Not at all, Master Raṭṭhapāla. I’m now aged, old, elderly, advanced in years, having come to the last stage of life, eighty years old. Sometimes, thinking, ‘I’ll place my foot here,’ I place it somewhere else.” — MN 82
Ambapāli the courtesan:
Black was my hair
—the color of bees—
& curled at the tips.
With age, it looked like coarse hemp.
The Truth-speaker’s word
doesn’t change.…
Like a delicate peak, my nose
was splendid in the prime of my youth.
With age, it’s like a long pepper.
The Truth-speaker’s word
doesn’t change.…
Adorned with gold & delicate rings,
my hands were once splendid.
With age, they’re like onions & tubers.
The Truth-speaker’s word
doesn’t change.…
As if they were stuffed with soft cotton,
both my feet were once splendid.
With age, they’re shriveled & cracked.
The Truth-speaker’s word
doesn’t change.
Such was this physical heap.
Now: decrepit, the home of pains, many pains,
a house with its plaster all fallen off.
The Truth-speaker’s word
doesn’t change. — Thig 13:1
