Who Conquers Death?
The Story of the Monk who Contemplates the Body as a Mirage
Chapter 4: Flowers • Verse 3
The Story of the Monk who Contemplates the Body as a Mirage
Chapter 4: Flowers • Verse 3
Realizing that this body is like froth, penetrating its mirage-like nature, and plucking out Mara's flower-tipped arrows of sensuality, go beyond sight of the King of Death!
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse with reference to a certain monk.
A monk obtained a meditation topic from the Buddha and entered the forest to practice meditation. But when, after striving and struggling with all his might, he was unable to attain arahatship, he decided to return to the Buddha and ask for a meditation topic better suited to his needs.
On the way he saw a mirage and thought to himself, "Even as this mirage, seen in the season of heat, appears substantial to those far off but vanishes on nearer approach, so also is this existence unsubstantial by reason of birth and decay." Fixing his mind on the mirage, he meditated on it.
On his return, wearied from the journey, he bathed in the Aciravati River and sat in the shade of a tree near a waterfall. Watching the white water bursting where it struck against the rocks, he thought, "Just as this existence is produced, just so does it burst." He took this for his meditation topic.
The Buddha, seated in his perfumed chamber, saw the elder and said, "Monk, it is even so. Like a bubble of foam or a mirage is this existence. Precisely thus is it produced and precisely thus does it pass away." And so saying, the Buddha pronounced the stanza.
The Story of the Monk who Contemplates the Body as a Mirage
Chapter 4: Flowers • Verse 3
Realizing that this body is like froth, penetrating its mirage-like nature, and plucking out Mara's flower-tipped arrows of sensuality, go beyond sight of the King of Death!
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse with reference to a certain monk.
A monk obtained a meditation topic from the Buddha and entered the forest to practice meditation. But when, after striving and struggling with all his might, he was unable to attain arahatship, he decided to return to the Buddha and ask for a meditation topic better suited to his needs.
On the way he saw a mirage and thought to himself, "Even as this mirage, seen in the season of heat, appears substantial to those far off but vanishes on nearer approach, so also is this existence unsubstantial by reason of birth and decay." Fixing his mind on the mirage, he meditated on it.
On his return, wearied from the journey, he bathed in the Aciravati River and sat in the shade of a tree near a waterfall. Watching the white water bursting where it struck against the rocks, he thought, "Just as this existence is produced, just so does it burst." He took this for his meditation topic.
The Buddha, seated in his perfumed chamber, saw the elder and said, "Monk, it is even so. Like a bubble of foam or a mirage is this existence. Precisely thus is it produced and precisely thus does it pass away." And so saying, the Buddha pronounced the stanza.