Thursday 14 October 2010

Buddha on Old Age



Ingredients:
Sayings of Buddha on "Old Age".
Rendered in haiku form.

This is eleventh in the series.

The image is of Saturn.

 




Directions:
What brings this laughter?
Why revel in dark passions?
Why not seek for light?

Beauty’s cheeks decay,
Once blooming with virgin life,
Now life has left them.

Look at her foul corpse,
Once inspiring such desire,
Now no-one wants her.

How frail this body,
Prey to sickness and decline,
All to end in death.

See these whitened bones,
Dry husks of a dead summer,
All joy departed.

Citadel of bone,
Mere flesh and blood, beset by
Death, pride and loathing.

The jewelled chariots
Of the forefathers wear out,
So too the body.

Only Truth will last,
Handed down by the virtuous.
So they teach themselves.

One who is stupid
Is like an ox who grows old,
But gets no wiser.

Those who sought not wealth
Nor wisdom in youth stand sad,
Like cranes in a lake.

Those who sought nothing,
Like weak arrows that fall short,
Will sigh for the past.

Lifetimes have I sought
Who built this earthly abode?
I could not find him!

Ha! Now I’ve seen you!
You shan’t build for me again,
Your screens now shattered.

No more do I cling,
The wheel of sorrow broken,
And my mind is free.

Dive in search for truth,
Draw the bow and let it sing,
Just make the effort!

4 comments:

  1. Only Truth will last,
    Handed down by the virtuous.
    So they teach themselves.

    One who is stupid
    Is like an ox who grows old,
    But gets no wiser.

    :-)))))))

    ReplyDelete
  2. as so eloquently poised below ...

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Woah !

    So interesting that you show us a Photo of the Planet Saturn here.

    Saturn is the Ruler of Capricorn.

    And Saturn is the Lord of TIME !

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Nancy, Tamara & Catherine...

    I knew that Saturn represented "Old Age" from Holst's setting of music to the planets (or Time as you say Catherine, and as explained in the link).

    The planets are so beautiful aren't they? I read when I was posting that image that the thickness of Saturn's rings is less than the length of a football pitch!

    ReplyDelete