3:8  The Arrow

Like ripe fruits

whose downfall, whose danger

is falling,

so for mortals, once born,

the constant danger

is death.

As clay vessels made by a potter

all end up broken,

so too life

heads to death.1

Young & old

wise & foolish:

All

come under the sway of death;

all

have death as their end.

For those overcome by death,

gone to the other world,

father cannot shelter son,

nor relatives a relative.

See: Even while relatives are looking on,

wailing heavily,

mortals are

one

by

one

led away

like cows to the slaughter.

In this way is the world afflicted

with aging & death,

and so the enlightened don’t grieve,

knowing the way of the world.

“You don’t know the path

of his coming or going:

seeing neither end,

you lament in vain.”2

If, by lamenting,

—confused,

harming yourself—

any use could be gained

the prudent would do it as well.

But not by weeping & grief

do you gain peace of awareness.

Pain

arises all the more. Your body

is harmed.

You grow thin,

pale,

harming yourself

by yourself.

Not in that way

are the dead protected.

Lamentation’s in vain.

Not abandoning grief, a person

suffers all the more pain.

Bewailing one whose time is done,

you fall under the sway of grief.

Look at others

going along,

people arriving

in line with their actions:

falling under the sway of death,

beings simply

shivering here.

For however they imagine it,

it always turns out

other than that.

That’s the type of (their) separation.

See the way of the world.

Even if a person lives a century

—or more—

he’s parted

from his community of relatives,

he abandons his life

right here.

So, having heard the arahant,

subduing lamentation,

seeing the dead one whose time is done,

[think,] “I can’t fetch him back.”3

Just as one would put out

a burning refuge

with water,

so does the enlightened one—

discerning,

skillful,

& wise—

blow away any arisen grief,

like the wind, a bit of cotton fluff.

Seeking your own happiness,

you should pull out your own arrow:

your own

lamentation,

longing,

& sorrow.4

With arrow pulled out,

independent,

attaining peace of awareness,

all grief transcended,

griefless you are

unbound.