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### Sutta Nipata III.8

# Salla Sutta

# The Arrow

Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
For free distribution only.

Read an alternate translation by John D. Ireland

> Without sign,
> unknown
> -- the life here of mortals --
> difficult,
> short,
> tied up with pain.
> For there's no way
> by which those who are born
> will not die.
> Beings are subject
> to death
> even when they attain
> old age.

> Like ripe fruits
> whose downfall, whose danger
> is falling,
> so for mortals, once born,
> the constant danger
> is death.

> As a potter's clay vessels
> large & small
> fired & unfired
> all end up broken,
> so too life
> heads to death.
> Young & old
> wise & foolish
> rich & poor:
> all
> come under the sway of death,
> all
> have death as their end.

> For those overcome by death,
> gone to the other world,
> father cannot shelter son,
> nor relatives a relative.
> See: even while relatives are looking on,
> wailing heavily,
> mortals are
> one
> by
> one
> led away
> like cows to the slaughter.

> In this way is the world afflicted
> with aging & death,
> and so the enlightened don't grieve,
> knowing the way of the world.

> "You don't know the path
> of his coming or going:
> seeing neither end,
> you lament in vain."

> If, by lamenting,
> -- confused,
> harming yourself --
> any use could be gained
> the prudent would do it as well.
> But not by weeping & grief
> do you gain peace of awareness.
> Pain
> arises all the more. Your body
> is harmed.
> You grow thin,
> pale,
> harming yourself
> by yourself.
> Not in that way
> are the dead protected.
> Lamentation's in vain.

> Not abandoning grief, a person
> suffers all the more pain.
> Bewailing one whose time is done,
> you fall under the sway of grief.

> Look at others
> going along,
> people arriving
> in line with their actions:
> falling under the sway of death,
> beings simply
> shivering here.

> For however they imagine it,
> it always turns out
> other than that.
> That's the type of (their) separation.
> See the way of the world.

> Even if a person lives a century
> -- or more --
> he's parted
> from his community of relatives,
> he abandons his life
> right here.

> So, having heard the arahant,
> subduing lamentation,
> seeing the dead one whose time is done,
> [think,] "I can't fetch him back." [1]
> Just as one would put out
> a burning refuge
> with water,
> so does the enlightened one --
> discerning,
> skillful,
> & wise --
> blow away any arisen grief,
> like the wind, a bit of cotton fluff.

> Seeking your own happiness,
> you should pull out your own arrow:
> your own lamentation,
> longing,
> & sorrow. [2]
> With arrow pulled out,
> independent,
> attaining peace of awareness,
> all grief transcended,
> griefless you are
> unbound.

### Notes

1. These lines can also be translated as follows:

> So, having heard the arahant,
> subdue lamentation,
> seeing the dead one whose time is done,
> [and thinking,] "I can't fetch him back."

[Go back]

2. These lines can also be translated as follows:

> Just as one would put out
> a burning refuge
> with water,
> so does the enlightened one --
> discerning,
> skillful,
> & wise --
> blow away any arisen grief,
> his own lamentation, longing, & sorrow,
> like the wind, a bit of cotton fluff.

> Seeking your own happiness,
> you should pull out your own arrow.

[Go back]

Revised: Wed 16 May 2001