[49] **The wise have said this life is little (appañhidaṃ jīvitamāhu dhīrā).** "Life" (jīvita) means: the life-span (āyu), persistence, maintenance, keeping going, movement, continuance, sustenance, life, the life-faculty (jīvitindriya). Moreover, for two reasons life is little: life is little because of the limitedness of its persistence, or life is little because of the limitedness of its intrinsic nature (sarasa).
How is life little because of the limitedness of its persistence? In a past mind-moment it lived; it does not live, it will not live. In a future mind-moment it will live; it does not live, it did not live. In a present mind-moment it lives; it did not live, it will not live.
Life, individual existence (attabhāva), and pleasure and pain in their entirety
are conjoined with a single mind (citta); the moment passes swiftly.
Even those gods who persist for eighty-four thousand aeons
do not live endowed with two mind-moments together.
Whatever aggregates (khandha) have ceased — whether of one dying
or of one standing [alive] here —
all alike are gone, never to be re-linked.
Those broken up immediately before, and those breakings-up yet to come —
for the ones ceased in the interval between, there is no disparity in characteristic.
One is not born by [aggregates] not yet arisen; one lives by the present ones;
with the breaking-up of the mind the world is dead —
a designation valid in the ultimate sense.
As [waters] flow to the lowlands, steered by desire (chanda),
so [the aggregates] proceed in unbroken succession, with the six sense bases (āyatana) as condition.
Broken up, they go to no store; there is no heap [of them] in the future;
those that have arisen merely stand, like a mustard seed on the point of an awl.
And for dhammas that have arisen, their breaking-up stands before them;
subject to dissolution they persist, unmingled with the old ones.
From the unseen they come; broken up, to the unseen they go;
like a lightning-flash in the sky, they arise and pass away.
Thus life is little because of the limitedness of its persistence.
How is life little because of the limitedness of its intrinsic nature? Life is bound up with the in-breath; life is bound up with the out-breath; life is bound up with the in-and-out breaths; life is bound up with the great elements (mahābhūta); life is bound up with warmth; life is bound up with material food (kavaḷiṅkārāhāra); life is bound up with consciousness (viññāṇa). The root of these is weak. Their prior causes too are weak. Whatever their conditions, those too are weak. Whatever generates them, those too are weak. Their co-existents too are weak. The things conjoined with them too are weak. Their co-arisen [dhammas] too are weak. That which impels them, that too is weak. These are perpetually weak with regard to one another; these are unstable with regard to one another; these bring one another down; for one is no protector of another, nor do they hold one another in place. That which produced them exists no more; yet nothing is diminished by anything; and these are in every way subject to breaking-up. These are generated by former ones, and those that generated them died before; the former and the latter never at any time saw one another. Thus life is little because of the limitedness of its intrinsic nature.
Moreover, compared with the life of the gods of the realm of the Four Great Kings (Cātummahārājikā), the life of humans is little: a slight life, a brief life, a momentary life, a fleeting life, a transient life, a life not long-lasting, a life not persisting long. Compared with the life of the gods of Tāvatiṃsa … of the Yāma gods … of the Tusita gods … of the Nimmānaratī gods … of the Paranimmitavasavattī gods … of the gods of Brahmā's retinue, the life of humans is little: a slight life, a brief life, a momentary life, a fleeting life, a transient life, a life not long-lasting, a life not persisting long. For this was said by the Blessed One: "Short, bhikkhus, is this life-span of humans; the world beyond must be gone to; [this] must be grasped with wisdom; what is wholesome must be done; the holy life must be lived; for one who is born there is no not-dying. Bhikkhus, one who lives long lives a hundred years, or a little more.
Short is the life-span of humans; a good man should scorn it;
he should live as one whose head is ablaze; there is no such thing as Death's not coming.
Days and nights slip past; life comes to a halt;
the life-span of mortals runs dry, like the water of little streams."
**The wise have said this life is little.** "The wise" (dhīrā): they are wise because possessed of steadfastness (dhiti); they are wise as endowed with steadfastness; they are wise because they have spurned evil. "Dhī" is a term for wisdom (paññā): that wisdom which is understanding, investigation, thorough investigation, investigation of dhammas (dhammavicaya), discernment, discrimination, differentiation, erudition, proficiency, subtlety, clarity, reflection, scrutiny, breadth, sagacity, guidance, insight (vipassanā), clear comprehension (sampajañña), the goad; wisdom, the faculty of wisdom, the power of wisdom, the sword of wisdom, the palace of wisdom, the light of wisdom, the radiance of wisdom, the lamp of wisdom, the jewel of wisdom; non-delusion, investigation of dhammas, right view (sammādiṭṭhi). Through being endowed with that wisdom they are "wise." Moreover, [there are those] wise in the aggregates, wise in the elements (dhātu), wise in the sense bases, wise in dependent origination (paṭiccasamuppāda), wise in the establishments of mindfulness (satipaṭṭhāna), wise in the right strivings (sammappadhāna), wise in the bases of spiritual power (iddhipāda), wise in the faculties (indriya), wise in the powers (bala), wise in the factors of awakening (bojjhaṅga), wise in the path (magga), wise in the fruit, wise in Nibbāna. Those wise ones have spoken thus: "The life of humans is little: a slight life, a brief life, a momentary life, a fleeting life, a transient life, a life not long-lasting, a life not persisting long" — thus they have spoken, thus they talk, thus they say, thus they explain, thus they declare. Hence: "The wise have said this life is little." Therefore the Blessed One said:
Therefore, indeed, let a person train right here:
whatever in the world one might know to be wrong (visama),
not for the sake of that should one practise what is wrong;
for the wise have said this life is little.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.