Property:SanskritTranslation
From Bodhicitta
This is a property of type Text.
T
Lover of filth, not only are you not repulsed by your own impurity, you look for other receptacles of filth. +
People think that even things that are otherwise agreeable or savory, such as camphor, rice, and spices, will pollute the ground if they are vomited or spit out.<span class="smw-highlighter pagebreaks" data-type="8" data-state="inline" data-title="Page number from:" title="427" tabindex="0"><span class="smwtticon pagebreak note text-80">[p.427]</span><span class="smwttcontent"><big>[[How to Be a Bodhisattva: Introduction to the Practice of the Bodhisattva Path (The Bodhicaryāvatāra)]]</big> <br> <span class="muted">Gómez, Luis O., trans. "How to Be a Bodhisattva: Introduction to the Practice of the Bodhisattva Path (''The Bodhicaryāvatāra'')." In ''Norton Anthology of World Religions: Buddhism'', edited by Donald S. Lopez Jr., 395–441. New York: Norton, 2017.</span></span></span> +
But if you are still not convinced of the impurity of your own body, evident though it is, contemplate the corpses of others in the charnel ground. +
Since the body deprived of its skin and flesh gives you such horror, how could you, having seen it in this state, take pleasure in it now that it is alive? +
If you sense a pleasant smell on a human body, it must be only sandal,<span class="smw-highlighter" data-type="8" data-state="inline" data-title="Note 5" title="5" tabindex="0"><span class="smwtticon bca-note note">5</span><span class="smwttcontent">That is, sandalwood.</span></span> I not the body’s own odor. Why do you feel passion for one thing because another arouses you? +
Would it not be more reasonable not to feel passion for what is in itself malodorous? Why is it that human beings will smear it with perfume, so fond of something they really do not like? +
Is it in any way changed because sandal is inherently aromatic? Why are you made to feel passion for one thing because you like the perfume of another? +
The body in a natural state would be terrifying: a naked body, covered with mud and dung, with long nails and long hair, the teeth crooked and yellow. +
Why care for it as one would care for the sword one will use to commit suicide? This earth is full of madmen who work at deceiving themselves. +
Because of this insatiable desire of possessing the object of one’s love, one does not perceive things as they are, one loses the uneasiness that would produce world-weariness, and one is consumed by grief. +
If you see skeletons in the charnel ground they will surely frighten you. Yet, you are aroused by bodies in the village, a charnel ground of moving skeletons. +
Though it is so impure the body is not obtained without paying a price. For this body we suffer the anxiety of ambition and the torments of hell. +
As babies we are not capable of earning and accumulating wealth; how could we then secure happiness in our youth? Youth is spent in acquiring wealth. But once old age arrives, what will we do with the pleasures wealth will buy? +
Some men of ambition will wear themselves out in their daily tasks only to return home at nightfall, and collapse in bed like corpses. +
Others set out with military expeditions, suffering the pains and privations of life away from their homes. For years on end they do not see the wife and children for whom they are sacrificing themselves. +
They do not even reach the goal for which they have sold themselves, blinded by passion. Their life is spent in vain serving others. +
Others sell themselves to masters, who impose on them tasks in faraway places; their wives will give birth in the jungle or desert. +
Others make a living by risking their lives on the battlefield. Their own pride drives them to slavery—fools deceived by their passions. +
Moved by passion, they end up mutilated, or impaled on spears; one also sees them burnt to death, or pierced by lances. +
Understand that fortune is nothing but unending misfortune, because of the despair that comes with acquiring, keeping and losing it. Those who cling obsessively to wealth do not allow themselves the opportunity of seeking liberation from the pains of existence. +
