MEDITATIONS: THE DHAMMAPADA, CHAPTER ELEVEN

Old Age

It is a Dead-Horse of mine, being bewildered by the opioid joys of those who are rotting. I do not necessarily mean those who suffer the pains and deterioration of age; more so, I refer to those who are happy to indulge in decadent sensory pleasures which only serve to hasten the degenerative process. I find myself asking the same question as does The Dhammapada:

Why the laughter, why the joy,
When flames are ever burning?
Surrounded by darkness,
Shouldn’t you search for the light? (Buddha 36)

The flames are simultaneously the fires of Hell as they are the burning wicks of candles. In a life partly defined by inescapable suffering, there are those who survive by biding their time, waiting for distractions. Like everyone born into the human condition, they too are surrounded by darkness: unfulfilled desires, anxious uncertainties, and certain, inevitable causes for despair. And so surrounded, they choose fire, hell, a temporary relief follow by an increase in intractable suffering. To one who does not choose that path, it seems a strangely self-destructive decision. Why not ascend to toward that which is higher rather than slide ever further into a bottomless, fiery pit?

And the pit is bottomless, make no mistake. Just as each distraction is depreciative and finite, so is the spiral of suffering expansive. Eventually, all façades will crack, and when they do, the rot underneath will show through. Then, even the slightest wind will collapse the largest house.

Look at this beautified body:
A mass of sores propped up,
Full of illness, the object of many plans,
With nothing stable or lasting.

This body is worn out—
So fragile, a nesting ground for disease.
When life ends in death,
This putrid body dissolves. (36)

Age and degeneration are inevitabilities. Death is a certainty. One cannot blame himself or others for suffering the consequences of existence as a biological, embodied being. However, the initial question remains: “Why the laughter? Why the joy?” What is it which lures man to exacerbate his curse, indulge in distraction, and to eschew with learning? In other words, one might ask, what are the means of self-deception by which one takes refuge in simultaneous senility and arrogance?

The person of little learning
Grows old like an ox:
The flesh increases,
But insight does not. (37)

And what ultimately becomes of such individuals who live to a ripe old age mired in dark despite the fires burning about them?

Those who have neither lived the chaste life
Nor gained wealth in their youth
Lie around like arrows misfired from a bow,
Lamenting the past. (38)

Or, put another way by Zen Buddhist samurai, Tsunetomo Yamamoto:

At first it is an oppressive thing to run until one is breathless. But it is an extraordinarily good feeling when one is standing around after the running. More than that, it is even better to sit down. More than that, it is even better to lie down. And more than that, to put down a pillow and sleep soundly is even better. A man’s whole life should be like this. To exert oneself to a great extent when one is young and then to sleep when he is old or at the point of death is the way it should be. But to first sleep and then exert oneself . . . To exert oneself to the end, and to end one’s whole life in toil is regrettable. (Yamamoto)

The “chaste life” is the contemplative existence of a monk. To gain wealth in one’s youth is to work toward some goal or calling in life. The former is for the ascetic, the latter for the layperson. In either case, there is a meaningful way to spend one’s time—and spend it one must, for time stops for no one. Old age, rot and decay, are coming for us all. How each days is spent determines whether we merely grow weak, fat, useless, and ugly or whether we gain in wisdom, experience and insight.

Those who seek the light, who direct their energies toward a greater purpose, are those who realize that one day this body will fade—that life is finite and thereby precious, and that each day is invaluable. Such a person understands the wisdom in the maxims:

One should every day think over and make an effort to implant in his mind the saying, “At that time is right now.”

But . . .

If one has no earnest daily intention, does not consider what it is to be a warrior even in his dreams, and lives through the day idly, he can be said to be worthy of punishment. (Yamamoto)

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama. The Dhammapada; Teachings of the Buddha, translated by Gil Fronsdal, Shambala Publications Inc, 2008.

Yamamoto, Tsunetomo. Hagakure.