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# SN 4.6 · Old Age (Jara Sutta)
- URL: https://www.journal.ninthheaven.co/civilisation/trad-buddhism/sn-4-6/
- Published: 2026-06-20T00:25:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-13T16:57:15.000Z
- Description: Saṁyutta Nikāya · SN 4.6. Translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
- Author: Ninth Heaven Literature & Arts Association (NHLAA)
- Tags: Buddhism, Sutta Piṭaka, Text, Indian, The Buddha, Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Saṁyutta Nikāya, Discourse, English, Early Buddhist, Library, #Import 2026-07-06 06:23

How short this life! You die this side of a century, but even if you live past, you die of old age. People grieve for what they see as *mine,*for nothing possessed is constant, nothing is constantly possessed.\[1\] Seeing this separation simply as it is, one shouldn't follow the household life. At death a person abandons what he construes as *mine.*Realizing this, the wise shouldn't incline to be devoted to *mine.*Just as a man doesn't see, on awakening, what he met in a dream, even so he doesn't see, when they are dead — their time done — those he held dear. When they are seen & heard, people are called by this name or that, but only the name remains to be pointed to when they are dead. Grief, lamentation, & selfishness are not let go by those greedy for *mine,*so sages letting go of possessions, seeing the Secure, go wandering forth. A monk, living withdrawn, enjoying a dwelling secluded: they say it's congenial for him he who wouldn't, in any realm, display self. Everywhere the sage independent holds nothing dear or undear. In him lamentation & selfishness, like water on a white lotus, do not adhere. As a water bead on a lotus leaf, as water on a red lily, does not adhere, so the sage does not adhere to the seen, the heard, or the sensed; for, cleansed, he doesn't construe in connection with the seen, the heard, or the sensed. In no other way does he wish for purity, for he neither takes on passion nor puts it away.\[2\] 

# Notes

1.

"Nothing possessed is constant, nothing is constantly possessed" — two readings of the phrase, *na hi santi nicca pariggaha.*

2.

Nd.I: An arahant has put passion totally away once and for all, and so has no need to do it ever again. An alternative explanation is that, as [Sn 5.6](https://www.journal.ninthheaven.co/civilisation/trad-buddhism/sn-5-6/) points out, the arahant has gone beyond all dhammas, dispassion included.

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*Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.* From [Access to Insight](https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/snp/snp.4.06.than.html?ref=journal.ninthheaven.co) (BCBS Edition). Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) — for free distribution only. Never sold.