Texts from the Buddhist canon : commonly known as Dhammapada

IMPERMANENCY. 33
the life of man. That which is gone knows not
any return,"
Buddha having further expounded this subject, t];ie King
and his attendants dismissed their grief, and, filled with
joy, entered the " Paths." ^
3. On a certain occasion, when Buddha was dwelling in
the Bamboo Garden near ESjagriha, he had been preach-
ing in the city, and was returning homewards with his
followers when he met a man driving a herd of fat and
sleek cattle towards the gates of the town. On this the
Honoured of the world took up the subject, and spake as
follows:
—
" As a man with his staff in his hand^ goes along
tending and pasturing the cattle, so are old age and
death, they also watch over the life that perishes ;
and of aU they watch over, there is not one, of what-
ever class, man or woman, rich or poor, but in the
end shall decay and disappear. Every day and
night takes from the little space given to each one
born ; there is the gradual decay of a few years and
aU is gone, as the waters of a pool are cut off (or
exhausted)."
Buddha having arrived at the grbve, and having washed
his feet and arranged his robes, sat down; on this occasion
Ananda respectfully asked him to explain the verses he
had just repeated, on which the Honoured of the world
related that the master of the oxen he had just seen sent
them forth day by day to pasture and feed, in order that
when fattened and well conditioned they might be kUled
1 The "paths" are the four stages 'This verse seems to agree with
in the progress towards complete No. 135 of the Pali. {Catena, p.
emancipation. (Compare Max Miiller, 27.)
Dharmnapada, ciz., n.)