Salla Sutta (The Shaft of Grief)

The life of mortals in this world, brief and beset by woes, can neither be calculated nor gauged.

There is no device by which one who is born, can escape death. Having attained old age, death is inevitable.

Just as fruits having ripened must fall, even mortals who are born must always have the fear of death.

Just as earthen-ware vessels a potter makes are destined to break, even so the life of mortals is destined to fall apart.

Grown-ups and the young, the wise, and the foolish - all these come under the spectre of death.

No father can save his son, no relative can save his relatives, when they are going to depart from this world.

While relatives stand watching and lamenting, see how beings are led to death, like cattle to a slaughter house.

Since beings are thus assailed by death and old age, the wise, knowing the nature of this world, do not grieve.

It is in vain that you lament over the dead, since you do not know whence they come not whither they go.

If wailing will heal the mourner's shafts of sorrow, only then let the wise wail.

Peace of mind is not attained by wailing. It only brings grief and hurt to the body.

Mourning only makes the mourner emaciated and pale. It does not help the departed. Therefore, mourning is meaningless.

By not forsaking sorrow, he proceeds to greater pain. He only goes deeper into the realm of sorrow.

Observe how others born onto this world according to their Kamma, must tremble under the spectre of death.

In whichever manner people think of things, things turn out to be otherwise. Such is the opposite of nature of things. Observe thus the nature of the world.

Even if a man were to live a hundred years or more, he must still yield his life, at last bereft of friends and relatives.

Therefore, listening to the wise and the holy and seeing a person departed, control your weeping. Reflect on the departure of your beloved ones by thinking that separation is natural.

Just as one would douse a burning house with water, even so let a steadfast and wise remove grief, as quickly as the wind of (a handful of) cotton.

Let a person, desirous of his own welfare, pluck out the shafts of wails and grief, he himself planted.

Having plucked out these shafts and having attained mental peace, he becomes blessed and free from grief, overcoming all sorrows.

-Khuddaka Nikaya, Sutta Nipata

Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu