Salla Suthraya

It should be understood that this human life is fraught with sorrow and difficulties, and there is no specific guarantee of a life span.

There is no way for the born creature to escape from the death.
Every living being is doomed to die by getting sick or ageing.

Every human being always lives with the fear of death, just as the owner of a fruit-bearing tree goes to bed each night with the fear that the fruit buds or unripe fruits will fall due to wind or rain by the next morning.

The human body, which contains the life of a human, eventually breaks and is destroyed, just as clay pots made by potters break and become unusable.

Everyone, whether they are young or old, educated or uneducated, falls under Mara’s spell and inherits death.

Even if they are oppressed by sorrow-melancholy-affliction, etc., neither the father can save his son nor the son can save his father, nor a known relative can save his relative from this death.

Just as even the young cattle unfit for death are led to death, while relatives wail and cry, people are led to death one by one.

Thus, growing old, getting sick, and dying, the creatures of this world are on a tragic journey.
The wise man who wisely understands the true nature of this world does not have to grieve.

It is a futile act of lamenting and mourning by the creatures who are on that tragic journey without knowing the two ends of that journey, where they started or where or when they will have to end.

This act of lamentation and weeping will definitely result in nothing but destruction. A wise man does not torment his deluded own self anymore.

Crying or mourning does not bring peace to the mind.
‘Oh! Excessive grief weakens his body’.

Crying when a loved one dies does no good to the deceased.
Because of being deluded about the world’s reality, crying, lamenting and torturing himself more and more, his body begins to shrivel up and become discoloured.

A creature who does not eliminate sorrow, succumbs to excessive grief and suffers.
The person who mourns and weeps for the deceased will die one day.
Unaware of this, beings who do not liberate themselves from suffering succumb to excessive grief and live in great misery.

Thus, all living beings should understand wisely, also looking at other people, that they will end in death according to the meritorious evil deeds they have done and the world’s dhamma.

Somehow, from the point where one understands this doctrine, he acts in a different manner when his loved ones die.
He feels that the phenomenon of separation from death is inherent in the nature of beings.

Once one realised that he will have to separate from the group of relatives one day, even if he will live for more than a hundred years, he gives up his attachment to his own life and the lives of others.

Since a person hears and understands this truth from an ‘Arahath’, he realises that those who have died will not be brought back to him and gets rid of the sorrows and lamentations that he has done so far on the death of a loved one.
He is able to receive help along with respect because of the righteous association that provided him with this true understanding.
With that assistance, he can be liberated from the worldly suffering he has endured up to that point, which is complete comfort.
Thus, the sorrow of that wise and clever person who falls to associate with the wise, vanishes like a cotton ball in the wind.

He who is not intoxicated by lust dispels his unhappiness and the desire to cry out his lamentations for the sake of his own good.

The one who has pacified his mind through the elimination of ‘Craving-Obstinacy-Arrogance’ by uprooting the spikes called defilements,
attains the status of ‘Nirwana’ where there is no mourning, lamenting, pain, disappointment, or severe exertion (Soka, Parideva, Dukkha, Domanassa, Upayasa) by banishing sorrow about everything.

---