B

“THE BUDDHA LIVED VERY long – about eighty years, at a time when most people died before thirty. He lived carefully – midday siestas, no evening meals. He bathed frequently in hot springs. But towards the end of his life he developed several diseases. He had back pains and stomach upsets. He had exhorted the bhikshus to meditate on the body, its fragile and repellent quality. He felt his own decay acutely, speaking once of how the body was kept going only by being bandaged up. His contemporaries, including his close disciples, died before him. Bimbisara, the king of Magadha, was murdered by his own son. The successor to Prasenajit, the king of Kosala, massacred the Buddha’s clan, the Shakyas, and razed Kapilavastu to the ground”

“But the monks remained silent. It was late at night when the Buddha spoke to the monks again. ‘All conditioned things,’ he said, ‘are subject to decay – strive on untiringly.’ These were his last words.”