[202] "And what, bhikkhus, is the drawback of forms (rūpa)? Here, bhikkhus, one might see that same sister at a later time — eighty, or ninety, or a hundred years of age from birth — aged, crooked as a rafter, bent double, leaning on a staff, walking along trembling, ailing, her youth gone, her teeth broken, her hair grey, her hair fallen out, her head bald, her skin wrinkled, her limbs blotchy with spots. What do you think, bhikkhus? Has not that former beauty and radiance of complexion vanished, and the drawback become apparent?"
"So it is, venerable sir."
"This, bhikkhus, is the drawback of forms.
"Furthermore, bhikkhus, one might see that same sister ailing, in pain, gravely ill, lying fouled in her own urine and excrement, being lifted up by some and laid down by others. What do you think, bhikkhus? Has not that former beauty and radiance of complexion vanished, and the drawback become apparent?"
"So it is, venerable sir."
"This too, bhikkhus, is a drawback of forms.
"Furthermore, bhikkhus, one might see that same sister as a corpse discarded in a charnel ground — one day dead, or two days dead, or three days dead — bloated, livid, festering. What do you think, bhikkhus? Has not that former beauty and radiance of complexion vanished, and the drawback become apparent?"
"So it is, venerable sir."
"This too, bhikkhus, is a drawback of forms.
"Furthermore, bhikkhus, one might see that same sister as a corpse discarded in a charnel ground — being devoured by crows, or being devoured by vultures, or being devoured by hawks, or being devoured by dogs, or being devoured by jackals, or being devoured by various kinds of small creatures. What do you think, bhikkhus? Has not that former beauty and radiance of complexion vanished, and the drawback become apparent?"
"So it is, venerable sir."
"This too, bhikkhus, is a drawback of forms.
"Furthermore, bhikkhus, one might see that same sister as a corpse discarded in a charnel ground — a skeleton with flesh and blood, held together by sinews … a skeleton without flesh, smeared with blood, held together by sinews … a skeleton with flesh and blood gone, held together by sinews … bones with sinew-connections gone, scattered in every direction: here a hand-bone, there a foot-bone, here a shin-bone, there a thigh-bone, here a hip-bone, there a backbone, here a rib-bone, there a breast-bone, here an arm-bone, there a shoulder-bone, here a neck-bone, there a jaw-bone, here a tooth, there the skull. What do you think, bhikkhus? Has not that former beauty and radiance of complexion vanished, and the drawback become apparent?"
"So it is, venerable sir."
"This too, bhikkhus, is a drawback of forms.
"Furthermore, bhikkhus, one might see that same sister as a corpse discarded in a charnel ground — bones white, resembling the color of a conch shell … bones heaped in a pile, more than a year old … bones rotted, crumbled to powder. What do you think, bhikkhus? Has not that former beauty and radiance of complexion vanished, and the drawback become apparent?"
"So it is, venerable sir."
"This too, bhikkhus, is a drawback of forms."
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.