The Impermanence of Beauty
RUPANANDA was quite an attractive and graceful woman who was
always
surrounded by admirers. She never ceased to feel very lonely, however, because
all those dear to her—mother, brother, and even husband—had all entered the
Order. Missing her family badly, she went to visit them often and heard them
speak of the Buddha in such a way that she longed to go and pay him homage too.
But when she learned that the Buddha often talked about the impermanence of the
body, she was afraid that he might disparage her for her beauty, and so
hesitated to do so. In the end, however, she decided that no matter what the
Buddha might say to her. she would go and see him anyway.
As soon as
the Buddha saw Rupananda. he realized that she was someone very attached to her
beauty. To teach her a lesson, he caused a vision of a ravishing young lady to
appear before her. When Rupananda saw the young lady, she could not help but
remark how extremely beautiful she was and exclaimed to herself, “My goodness,
next to her I must look like an old crow!”
Then
before Rupananda could realize what was happening, the beautiful young lady
started to age and slowly deteriorate before her very eyes until she finally
lay sick and helpless on the floor, rolling in her own excrement. Then she
died, and Rupananda saw her corpse going through the different
stages of decay, oozing pus and other foul liquids, and finally crawling with
maggots.
Witnessing this rapid succession of images, Rupananda realized that
there was a continuous process of change and decay in the body. “In the same way,” she
thought, “like this young girl who has grown old, died, and decayed before my
very eyes, I, too, will grow old and decay one day” With that realization, the
attachment that Rupananda had for her body diminished and she came to perceive
its true nature. She then became a nun, and under the guidance of the Buddha,
eventually attained arahatship.
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