SN 3:3 · The King (Rāja Sutta)

Near Sāvatthī. Then King Pasenadi Kosala went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, having bowed down to him, sat to one side. As he was sitting there, he said to the Blessed One, “For one who is born, lord, is there anything other than aging & death?”

“For one who is born, great king, there is nothing other than aging & death.

“Even for those who are affluent noble warriors—rich, with great wealth & property, with vast amounts of gold & silver, vast amounts of valuables & commodities, vast amounts of wealth & grain: Even for them, when born, there is nothing other than aging & death.

“Even for those who are affluent brahmans—rich, with great wealth & property, with vast amounts of gold & silver, vast amounts of valuables & commodities, vast amounts of wealth & grain: Even for them, when born, there is nothing other than aging & death.

“Even for those who are Worthy Ones whose effluents are ended, who have reached fulfillment, done the task, laid down the burden, attained the true goal, laid to waste the fetter of becoming, and who are released through right gnosis: Even for them, this body is subject to breaking up, subject to being cast away.”

That is what the Blessed One said. Having said that, the One Well-Gone, the Teacher, said further:

“Even royal chariots
well-embellished
get run down,
and so does the body
succumb to old age.
But the Dhamma of the good
doesn’t succumb to old age:
The good let the civilized know.”

See also: SN 3:22; AN 5:49; Dhp 21–24; Dhp 151; Ud 8:8

Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu. © 2014 / rev. 2017 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu — released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 licence, for free distribution only. Source: dhammatalks.org (Metta Forest Monastery).