Old Age is the Dhammapada's memento mori, and it does not flinch. It opens with a question aimed at complacency: what is this laughter, what this joy, when the world is forever burning? Enveloped in darkness, will you not seek a light? (11.1). The body is examined without cosmetics: a painted image, a nest of disease, a city of bones plastered with flesh and blood in which age, death, conceit, and contempt are stored (11.2, 11.5); royal chariots wear out and so does the body — but the Dhamma of the good does not age (11.6).
At the chapter's heart stands what tradition holds to be the Buddha's own enlightenment utterance. Through many births I wandered in samsara, seeking the house-builder — painful is birth again and again (11.8); house-builder, you are seen! You shall build no house again: the rafters are broken, the ridge-pole shattered, the mind has reached the end of craving (11.9). The house is selfhood as construction project; awakening is the end of the building. The closing verses are a caution against a life postponed: those who never lived the holy life pine away like old herons by a fishless pond, spent arrows mourning the past (11.10–11.11).
Key verses
What is this laughter, what this joy, when the world is forever ablaze? Enveloped in darkness, will you not seek a light?
Well-adorned royal chariots wear out, and likewise the body approaches old age. But the Dhamma of the good ones does not age — the peaceful ones declare it to the wise.
House-builder! You are seen! You shall not build the house again. All your rafters are broken; the ridge-pole is shattered. The mind has gone to the Unconstructed; reached the end of craving.
Read Chapter 11 in full
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ਐਪ ਵਿੱਚ ਮੁਫ਼ਤ ਪੜ੍ਹੋਪਰੰਪਰਾਵਾਂ ਤੋਂ ਪੁੱਛੋ
ਇੱਕ ਸਵਾਲ। ਪੰਜ ਪਰੰਪਰਾਵਾਂ ਦੇ ਜਵਾਬ।
ਬਿਨਾਂ ਖਾਤੇ ਦੇ ਹਰ 24 ਘੰਟਿਆਂ ਵਿੱਚ 2 ਸਵਾਲ।