Reading guide
A narrative scene, not a doctrinal listing
Confirmed by direct reading, this discourse departs entirely from the form of every discourse this project has translated across Vaggas 1-4 of this saṃyutta: a specific setting, named characters, a physical gesture (Ānanda massaging the Buddha's limbs), and a personal, even tender, observation about the Buddha's own visible aging.
A genuine variant: five sense faculties, not six
Confirmed by direct reading, this discourse names only FIVE sense faculties as showing visible “deterioration” (aññathatta) — eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body — omitting mind (manindriya), unlike the six-fold list this project's own SN 48.25 confirmed earlier in this saṃyutta. This project reports this variant plainly rather than guessing at a reason; a natural reading is that only physically visible decline is being described, but this discourse's own text does not state that explicitly.
Old age's ravages, and death's universal reach
Confirmed by direct reading, the Buddha's own closing verses lament old age directly (“curse this wretched old age, which makes you so ugly”) and close with a stark reminder that no lifespan, however long, escapes death: “even if you live for a hundred years, you'll still end up dying … death spares no-one, but crushes all underfoot.”
Key terms
The text
§1 — the settingSo I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in the stilt longhouse of Migāra’s mother in the Eastern Monastery. Then in the late afternoon, the Buddha came out of retreat and sat warming his back in the last rays of the sun.
§2 — Ānanda's own observationThen Venerable Ānanda went up to the Buddha, bowed, and while massaging the Buddha’s limbs he said: “It’s incredible, sir, it’s amazing, how the complexion of your skin is no longer pure and bright. Your limbs are flaccid and wrinkled, and your body is stooped. And it’s apparent that there has been a deterioration in your faculties of eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body.”
§3 — the Buddha's own confirmation“That’s how it is, Ānanda. When young you’re liable to grow old; when healthy you’re liable to get sick; and when alive you’re liable to die. The complexion of the skin is no longer pure and bright. The limbs are flaccid and wrinkled, and the body is stooped. And it’s apparent that there has been a deterioration in the faculties of eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body.”
§4-6 — the closing versesThat is what the Buddha said. Then the Holy One, the Teacher, went on to say: “Curse this wretched old age, which makes you so ugly. That’s how much this delightful puppet is ground down by old age. Even if you live for a hundred years, you’ll still end up dying. Death spares no-one, but crushes all underfoot.”
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