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

2. On this celebrated verse see below the Introduction to Mahâ-Sudassana Sutta. It must be the original of the first verse in the Chinese work, Fa Kheu Pi Hu (Beal, Dhammapada, p. 32), though it is there so changed that every clause has lost its point. 'Whatever exists is without endurance. And hence the terms "flourishing" and "decaying." A man is born, and then he dies. Oh, the happiness of escaping from this condition!' The very meaning which is here the most essential connotation of sankhârâ is lost in the phrase 'whatever exists.' By a misapprehension of the, no doubt, difficult word Dhamma, which, however, never means 'term,' the second clause has lost its point. And by a grammatical blunder the third clause in the Chinese confines the doctrine, erroneously, to man. In a Chinese tale, called {footnote p. 118} Ngan shih niu, translated by Mr. Beal, in the Indian Antiquary for May, 1880, the following verses occur; and they are possibly another reflection of this stanza: 'All things that exist are transitory. They must of necessity perish and disappear; Though joined together, there must be separation; Where there is life there must be death.' ] p. 119 17. When the Blessed One died, the venerable Anuruddha, at the moment of his passing away from existence, uttered these stanzas: 'When he who from all craving want was free, Who to Nirvâna's tranquil state had reached, When the great sage finished his span of life,