So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Rājagaha, in the Bamboo Grove, the squirrels’ feeding ground. There the Buddha addressed the mendicants, “Mendicants!”
“Venerable sir,” they replied. The Buddha said this:
“Mendicants, the life span of humans is short. You must go to the next life. So you should do what is skillful, you should practice the spiritual life. No-one born is immortal. A long life is a hundred years or a little more.”
Then Māra the Wicked went up to the Buddha and addressed him in verse:
“The life of humans is long!
A true person wouldn’t scorn it.
Live like a suckling babe,
for Death has not come for you.”
The Buddha:
“The life of humans is short,
and a true person scorns it.
They should live as though their head was on fire,
for Death comes for everyone.”
Then Māra … vanished right there.
Read this translation of Saṁyutta Nikāya 4.9 Paṭhamaāyusutta: Life Span (1st) by Bhikkhu Sujato on SuttaCentral.net. Or read a different translation on SuttaCentral.net. Or listen on PaliAudio.com or SC-Voice.net. Or explore the Pali on DigitalPaliReader.online.
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