A Sketch of the Buddha's Life

Readings from the Pali Canon

13,055 words

This modest selection of excerpts from the Pali Canon provides a rough sketch of the life of the Buddha. I hope you will find enough in this rather sparse selection to gain at least an inkling both of the range of the Buddhas teachings and of the sweeping trajectory of his extraordinary life....

Lessons On The Drawbacks Of All Sensual Pleasures

Even Heavenly Ones

"There is the case where a person, being subject himself to aging, realizing the drawbacks of what is subject to aging, seeks the un aging, unsurpassed rest from the yoke: Unbinding. Being subject himself to illness, realizing the drawbacks of what is subject to illness, he seeks the un ailing, unsurpassed rest from the yoke: Unbinding. Being subject himself to death, realizing the drawbacks of what is subject to death, he seeks the undying, unsurpassed rest from the yoke: Unbinding. Being subject himself to defilement, realizing the drawbacks of what is subject to defilement, he seeks the undefiled, unsurpassed rest from the yoke: Unbinding."

[AN IV.252]

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