The three worlds are ablaze with the suffering of old age and sickness;
This world is ablaze with the fire of death and without a protector.
Always deluded in impure existence,
Beings spin like a bee caught in a vase.

The three worlds are unstable, like autumn clouds;
The birth and death of beings is like watching a play.
The life of a being passes quickly,
Like a lightning bolt in the sky or a mountain stream.

By the power of craving for existence and ignorance,
Beings take birth as humans, gods, or in the three lower realms.
In their ignorance they continuously circle among these five existences,
Like the spinning of a potter’s wheel.

Buddha Shakyamuni

Lalita­vistara Sutra, Chapter 13, verse 78-80

translated by Dharmachakra Translation Committee


source: https://read.84000.co/translation/toh95.html#UT22084-046-001-chapter-13


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