Mahâ-Parinibbâna-Suttanta: The Book of the Great Decease

------------------------ 66. And the Blessed One exhorted the brethren, and said: 'Behold now, O brethren, I exhort you, saying, "All component things must grow old. Work out your salvation with diligence. The final extinction of the Tathâgata will take place before long. At the end of three months from this time the Tathâgata will die!" 'My age is now full ripe, my life draws to its close: I leave you, I depart, relying on myself alone! Be earnest then, O brethren! holy, full of thought! p. 62 Be steadfast in resolve! Keep watch o'er your own hearts! Who wearies not, but holds fast to this truth and law[1], Shall cross this sea of life, shall make an end of grief.' ------------------------ End of the Third Portion for Recitation [1. Dhamma and vinaya. The Buddhist religion, as just summarised, and the regulations of the order. 2 It is of great interest to notice what are the points upon which Gotama, in this last address to his disciples, and at the solemn time when death was so near at hand, is reported to have lain such emphatic stress. Unfortunately we have only a fragment of the address, and, as it would seem from its commencement, only the closing fragment. This, however, is in the form of a summary, consisting of an enumeration of certain aggregates, the details of which must have been as familiar to the early Buddhists as the details of similar numerical terms--such as the ten commandments, the twelve tribes, the seven deadly sins, the four gospels, and so on--afterwards were to the Christians. This summary of the Buddha's last address may fairly be taken as a summary of Buddhism, which thus appears to be simply a system of earnest self-culture and self-control.