Chapter 34: Impermanence of All Things

Verse 338
A chick breaks out of a shell, leaving it behind as he discovers the world. Nearby a woman meditates on her own attachment to the physical body, a shell which she realizes she will one day leave.

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Weaver’s Wisdom

Verse 331

There is no baser folly than the infatuation
that looks upon the ephemeral as if it were everlasting.

Verse 332

Amassing great wealth is gradual, like the gathering of a theater
crowd. Its dispersal is sudden, like that same crowd departing.

Verse 333

Wealth’s nature is to be unenduring.
Upon acquiring it, quickly do that which is enduring.

Verse 334

Though it seems a harmless gauge of time, to those who fathom it,
a day is a saw steadily cutting down the tree of life.

Verse 335

Do good deeds with a sense of urgency,
before death’s approaching rattle strangles the tongue.

Verse 336

What wondrous greatness this world possesses–
that yesterday a man was, and today he is not.

Verse 337

Men do not know if they will live another moment,
yet their thoughts are ten million and more.

Verse 338

The soul’s attachment to the body is like that of a fledgling,
which forsakes its empty shell and flies away.

Verse 339

Death is like falling asleep,
and birth is like waking from that sleep.

Verse 340

Not yet settled in a permanent home,
the soul takes temporary shelter in a body.