Deep Commentary

This verse was taught by the Buddha at Bamboo Grove Monastery, in connection with the story of Queen Khema, the wife of King Bimbisara. Khema was extraordinarily beautiful, and because of this she was very proud of her appearance. Her beauty was said to be the result of her past cultivation of patience and of a vow she had made before the Buddha Padumuttara. Because of her pride, she did not want to meet the Buddha, for she had often heard people say that the Buddha criticized attachment to physical beauty. Wanting to awaken her, the king had a song composed in praise of Bamboo Grove and ordered musicians to sing it everywhere. When Khema heard the song, she became curious and wanted to know about Bamboo Grove. She asked the musicians where it was, and then went there. When she arrived, the Buddha was teaching. Knowing her state of mind, he used his spiritual power to create the vision of an exquisitely beautiful young woman standing beside him and fanning him. Seeing this, Khema was astonished. She thought, “How can there be such a beautiful woman? Compared with her beauty, mine is nothing. People say the Buddha disapproves of beauty, yet today he allows such a beautiful woman to stand near him. Perhaps what people say about him is not entirely true.” She fixed her gaze on the young woman and paid no attention to the Buddha’s teaching. Knowing this, the Buddha caused the beautiful young woman to age before Khema’s eyes, becoming an old and frail woman, and finally only a body of skin and bones. Seeing this, Khema was immediately awakened to the swift fading and decay of beauty. She realized that this body is not truly substantial at all. Knowing her thought, the Buddha said, “Khema, you are mistaken in thinking that physical beauty is real. Look carefully at its unreality.” He then spoke a verse to her: “Khema, do you see this heap of conditions? It is full of sickness, decay, impurity, and ugliness. It leaks and breaks down moment by moment. Only the foolish become infatuated with it.” Hearing this, Queen Khema attained the fruit of stream-entry. The Buddha then said to her, “Khema, beings in this world are intoxicated by sensual desire, ruined by anger, and deceived by ignorance. Therefore they remain stuck in the river of craving and cannot cross beyond it.” When the discourse ended, she attained arahantship, and the whole assembly benefited. Later, she entered the monastic life and became one of the foremost elder nuns in the Buddha’s community. A Buddhist scripture compares one who is intoxicated by sensual desire to someone carrying a torch against the wind: sooner or later, the flame will burn the hand. Many people fall into this painful situation. Even knowing the danger, people still like to play with the torch of desire. Only after they are burned and harmed do they become startled and regretful, but by then regret is often too late. Better not to take up the torch and walk against the wind in the first place; then there will be no painful result of being burned. The burning does not end only in this present life; it may continue through many lives of suffering. Such is the consequence of being intoxicated by sensual attraction. In truth, such people have not yet awakened or turned back. They are like a spider trapped in the very web it has spun. The spider produces the web, yet it becomes caught in it and has no chance to struggle free. In the same way, sensual desire is created by human craving, and then that very craving destroys one’s life. No one else creates our suffering; we create it ourselves and bring harm upon ourselves. It is like rust arising from iron and then consuming the iron itself. The story of Queen Khema is worthy of reflection. Seeing the rapid change and impermanence of beauty, she awakened at once. Her pride and confidence in her appearance vanished in a moment. However beautiful one may be, there is always someone more beautiful. This is the nature of relative existence. What is there to be proud of? Moreover, the beauty of appearance cannot compare with the beauty of the heart. A person may be physically beautiful, but if the heart is cruel and harmful, no one truly cherishes that beauty. Character outshines appearance. Yet in ordinary life, people often value external beauty and rarely recognize inner beauty. No matter how beautiful the body may be, one day it must wither and fade. Here we see that Queen Khema truly turned her mind around and awakened. In the end, she renounced worldly life and became an exemplary elder nun. This is a warning for all who place too much importance on physical beauty. Because people overvalue appearance, they create much suffering for themselves and others. We should remember that outward beauty is glittering, deceptive, impure, and unstable. It cannot deceive the wise. The Buddha said that only the foolish are deluded by it and made to suffer. Indeed, the more one is infatuated with beauty, the more one throws oneself into the prison of suffering, like a moth rushing into a flame and destroying itself.